High school football: Park City has big shoes to fill

PARK CITY — Gone are superstars Dylan Chynoweth and Erik Walker to college football.

Gone is a significant portion of Chynoweth's and Walker's supporting cast.

Gone too is coach Brandon Matich, who left to take his dream job down Parleys canyon at East High.

And in his place is a new head coach and an entirely new and different offensive philosophy.

However, while Park City's 2010 football team is going to look entirely different than Park City's 2009 football team, don't think for one second that the Miners don't plan on being just as successful.

Indeed, while there are many new faces on the field, the new face on the sideline, first-year coach Kai Smalley, believes his guys will go from strength to strength.

With a talented senior class ready to implement Smalley's expansive spread offense, Smalley believes Park City can build on back-to-back Region 10 championships and back-to-back 3A semifinal appearances.

"The biggest thing (these seniors) have got to understand is this is their time now," said Smalley. "Dylan and Erik were great players, and they are going to continue to be great players (at the collegiate level) and it's great that we get to continue to see 'em play. But this is their time.

"For me, it's big shoes to fill. For them, it's big shoes to fill. All of us, we've got to step in and work together and do our part to make this thing work. I have no doubt it my mind it's gonna."

Visit with Smalley, who coached down the road at Wasatch High for two years as an assistant, for only a few moments, and it becomes obvious that the word "rebuild" is no where in his vocabulary — not with the guys he believes will step up on the field this fall.

"I told them when I came in, 'This is not a rebuilding year,' and I've told them, 'I don't want to hear anybody say we're in a rebuilding year because we're not,'" said Smalley. "Coach Matich built something that we're gonna continue to build off of.

"These seniors are gonna lay the groundwork for that. They're the base we need to build off. There's no rebuilding going on. Brandon took this program to another level, and I hope to continue to do that and take it to another level from there."

Smalley hasn't wasted any time in making his imprint on Park City football.

The Miners enjoyed tremendous offensive success with Matich's Wing-T offense over the past five years, but Smalley has decided to depart from that offense and install a spread attack.