High school football: Providence Hall Patriots 2020 preview

Note: Providence Hall finished with a 1-9 record in 2019 playing an independent schedule in its first year

SANDY — Last year was Providence Hall’s first year playing high school football, and as expected, there were some growing pains. The Patriots went 1-9 to kick off their inaugural year.

“It wasn’t ideal. We were a brand new program and we went 1-9. The school announced the February right before the season, they were going to have a football team and we had all these kids come out. We had a really large roster, but 90% of the kids never played football before,” Providence Hall head coach Cal Williams said. “So there was lot of excitement and then kids that just didn’t really understand the game, so there wasn’t much leadership, there wasn’t much of a football culture at that school. We had a bunch of kids that haven’t played since fifth or sixth grade. So we took our lumps, but our culture got there as the year progressed.”

Year 2 should be much better for the Patriots. Williams has trimmed the roster, established a culture and has seen better results in summer attendance and talent level. Seven starters return on the offensive side of the ball and four return on the defensive side.

“This year, we have a little bit of a smaller roster, but we have football kids, kids that have been playing, kids are being recruited, kids that have a higher football IQ. Do I think that we’re gonna win state? No, will we better than a 1-9 program? Certainly. The expectation is that we should be right at, or just under .500 with the talent that we have, Williams said.

Providence Hall at a glance

Coach Williams’ thoughts on how his players dealt with the COVID-19 adversity in the spring and summer:

“Certainly as a program that just came off its first year, we’re trying to build something and all of a sudden all the progress we did make in December, January and February, we kind of had to restart again, once we were able to come back. Thank God for technology, we were able to stay in contact with all the boys via Zoom. What’s funny is we built a brand new weight room over Christmas break and we made tons of progress in the weight room and teaching boys how to lift and get our strength up. Then all of a sudden it just went away real quick. So it was tough. It was certainly not what you want going into your second year. I think that we, we survived it pretty well though. The boys have been great this summer. We’ve had about 90% attendance all summer long. I think a lot of that is the fact that they missed football. They missed being around their teammates, they missed being around our culture. It started off crappy, but it’s kinda been a blessing in disguise.”

2020 Schedule

Aug. 14 — at Ben Lomond, 7 p.m.

Aug. 21 — at Ogden, 7 p.m.

Aug. 28 — UINTAH, 7 p.m.

Sept. 4 — WHITEHORSE, 7 p.m.

Sept. 11 — at Layton Christian, 4:00 p.m.

Sept. 18 — at Judge Memorial, 7 p.m.

Sept. 25 — at Parowan, 7 p.m.

Oct. 2 — at Gunnison Valley, 7 p.m.

Oct. 8 — at Cottonwood, 7 p.m.

Oct. 16 — at Juan Diego, 7 p.m.

Provicence Hall offensive snapshot

Offensive coordinator: Jake Hardcastle

• 7 returning starters
• Flexbone offense

Returning offensive starters

• Vaela’a Apisala (RB)
• Wyatt Barlow (TE)
• Leo Juarez (WR)
• Amaran Sauiluma (OT)
• Michael Scott (QB)
• Conner Tanner (WR)
• Stafford Torgesen (OG)

Coach Williams’ keys for offensive success in 2020:

“We’ve got to control the clock, we’ve got to control the ball. We didn’t have a high football IQ last year. We were maybe progressing too fast for the kids, so this year, we took a step back, kind of went back to the basics and we installed more of a run heavy, control the clock, play some power ball.”

Providence Hall defensive snapshot

Defensive coordinator: Brian Jacketta

• 4 returning starters
• 3-4 defense

Returning defensive starters

• Job Barlow (OLB)
• Harvey Sauiluma (NG)
• Cooper Starks (MLB)
• Carson Thygerson (DT)

Defensive newcomers to watch

• Brian Campbell (CB)
• Aaron Barlow (S)

Coach Williams’ keys for defensive success in 2020:

“We just have to play as a unit. This year, we’ve emphasized takeaways, we’ve got a really good core. Three of our defensive linemen are returning starters who had all had college interest. We also return all of our linebackers so our front seven will be key for us in getting pressure. We’re young on the back end, but our front seven will be fantastic this year.”

Deseret News outlook for 2020

After a one-win inaugural season, Providence Hall should be much improved in Williams’ second year as head coach. Now with more talent and players used to high school football, the culture and the system, Providence Hall should be on an upward trajectory.

Providence Hall coaching history


• 2019-current — Cal Williams (1-9)