UHSAA gives funds to Emery

Like many in the state, the staff of the Utah High School Activities Association watched helplessly as those in Emery and Carbon counties struggled to deal with heartbreaking events surrounding the collapse of the Crandall Canyon Mine.

And while it may seem high school sports can't offer much comfort to the families who've lost loved ones in that tragedy, the UHSAA offered help in one of the few ways it could.

Since 1999, the UHSAA has allowed football and basketball teams to play an extra game — an endowment game. The gate receipts from those games are split between the host school and the UHSAA, with the association's portion going to an account funding a scholarship foundation.

Instead of taking the $1,376 due to the UHSAA from the Duchesne/Emery game, the staff opted to leave that money in Emery County.

"We told Emery County to take our half of that money and give it to the miners' families," said executive director Evan Excell. "We thought that would be a good thing to do."

Excell read a card from Emery county officials thanking the UHSAA.

He also reported that the fund will be fully funded after this year's endowment games, and that the foundation should be established by the end of the calendar year.

The plan, when the fund was created, was to save $1 million in 10 years so the UHSAA could create a perpetual scholarship account. The state reached that goal nearly three years earlier than planned and retained an attorney last year to create the foundation.

SPORTSMANSHIP HEARINGS: The UHSAA held three sportsmanship hearings on Aug. 30. Each dealt with punishments to boys soccer programs at Bonneville, Jordan and Park City.

Park City administrators attended the hearing to appeal the UHSAA Executive Committee's decision to put the program on probation for the 2008 season, fine the school $500 and take two games from the team, excluding postseason play.

Park City High administrators appealed the decision, pointing out that the school had already been punished by the region for the incident. Additionally, the player was removed from the team and did not receive a varsity letter, and the head coach is no longer coaching the team.

Park City had implemented a number of changes voluntarily, but the UHSAA hearing panel chose to uphold the sanctions imposed by the executive committee.