High school football games ready to begin

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 19, 2004 by James Edward Deseret Morning News

Class 3A champion Bear River and Class 4A runner-up Logan will kick off the high school football season in just over a day when they meet at Utah State's Romney Stadium Friday.

Unlike most years, there's a twist involved with this week's season openers, one fans will likely be craving year after year.

In addition to the 35 games to be played at high school football fields across the state, another six will be played in collegiate football stadiums at Utah State, Weber State and Utah.

Highlighting the trio is Saturday's doubleheader at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The night begins with a 5 p.m. kickoff between 5A's Clearfield and 4A's Bonneville.

Following is the much-anticipated showdown between Hawaii's Kahuku High School -- ranked eighth in the West by Street and Smith's magazine-- and Skyline High School. The game is the third meeting between the schools, with Skyline winning on its home turf in 2000, and Kahuku returning the favor on the Islands the following year.

Kahuku High is located on the Northeast corner of Oahu near the campus of BYU-Hawaii and the LDS Church-owned Polynesian Culture Center. Because of the strong family ties in the Pacific Islands, generally if a player has potential at earning a college football scholarship he often moves to Oahu to live with a relative so he can attend Kahuku. The student body is a unique collection of athletes ranging from islands like Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, New Zealand and Guam.

Skyline should feel right at home playing at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the site of many of their nine straight 5A state championship game appearances.

Weber State's Friday night doubleheader is laced with intrigue. In the 5 p.m. opener, first-year Riverton coach Mike Miller tests his Wing-T offense on Fremont, a team loaded with returning starters and talented enough to contend in 5A. Davis and Box Elder follow at 8 p.m.

Friday's two Utah State games aren't being billed as a doubleheader, as the first game was only officially announced earlier this week. Defending 3A champion Bear River faces 4A runner-up Logan at Romney Stadium at 1 p.m. in a game originally slated for Logan's brand new field turf. Contractors didn't meet their deadline, and coach Mike Favero was forced into a Plan B. Later in the day, Sky View and Layton square off at 7 p.m.

PREPS ON TV: Park City television recently announced its plans for covering of high school football along the Wasatch. PCTV has been broadcasting Park City games for eight years, but is expanding their boundaries this year.

The station -- which can be found on Comcast Cable channel 3 -- will broadcast one tape-delayed game each week. The Friday night game of the week will be aired Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. The opening week game played Saturday between Skyline and Kahuku will air Sunday and Monday at 7 p.m.

The broadcast will be complete with instant replays, slow motion, pregame and post game interviews, a halftime report, player profiles and professional commentary.

The following the station's game of the week schedule:

Aug. 21 -- Kahuku vs. Skyline; Aug. 27 -- Bonneville at Weber; Sept. 3 -- Lone Peak at Timpview; Sept. 10 -- Brighton at Alta; Sept. 17 -- Box Elder at Kearns; Sept. 24 -- Bountiful at Highland; Oct. 1 - - Bingham at Hillcrest; Oct. 7 -- Fremont at Viewmont; Oct. 15 -- Hunter at Skyline; Oct. 22 -- Clearfield at Northridge.

PCTV will continue to broadcast Park City's game on Sunday and Monday at 7 p.m.

STREAKING: Hunter enters the season on a state-high 14 game winning streak thanks to its perfect 2003 season. Enterprise and Bear River are on 10-game winning streaks, followed by Bountiful (5) and Manti (4). Granite, meanwhile, is on a 38-game losing streak, second only to Uintah's 47 from 1967-1973. The Farmers have a good chace at ending the streak, however, Friday night when they host first-year 1A school Layton Christian. The Eagles are the first school to add football since Juan Diego opened in 2000.

PICKS ON THE WEB: Want to win $50? Try your hand at picking the winners of 12 prep football games each week in the Deseret Morning News Grid Picks. If you're feeling lucky this week, submit your predictions through the Prep Sports page at www.deseretnews.com/ preps.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com