High school football: Alta-Bingham — Not the average rivalry

Editor's note: Trevor Phibbs is a 2008 graduate of Alta High School, an aspiring journalist and a part-time scoreboard employee at the Deseret News.

With the Utah-BYU game lurking in the shadows, the question "what makes a rivalry?" has arisen. Although it's not at the same magnitude as the Utes and Cougars, the Alta-Bingham match-up may be considered one of biggest rivalries in Utah high school sports.

However, it's not the typical rivalry that is built around dislike and differences between the schools. This rivalry gets its lust from the respect that has bonded these teams together.

"When we play each other, there's no penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct," said Alta quarterback Ammon Olsen. "It's all respect. Both teams come to play and put it on the line, without the trash."

Both teams follow a strict guideline the coaches put in front of them. They are taught to be respectful, model citizens and to do well in school. This type of mind set leads to clean play on the field.

"Both coaching staffs do a really good job at making sure kids are making good decisions on and off the field," said Alta coach Les Hamilton. "To be honest with you, I think most of our success here at Alta is not because we have the best athletes but it's because our kids make good decisions on and off the field and because of that they have more confidence and when you have a confident player he'll usually outperform a more talented athlete. It goes hand and hand, good decisions off the field reflect on the field"

For fans attending Friday's 5A championship at Rice-Eccles Stadium at 6:30 p.m., one won't see opposing players in the faces of each other or excessive taunting. In fact one will see players helping each other off the turf and patting each other on the back. The teams let the scoreboard do the talking.

"We're all friends. We have two-hand touch football competitions and the friendship just builds from there," said Alta wide receiver Parker Webster. "We see each other on the field and it makes it that much more fun."

However, the appreciation for each other doesn't take away from the play of the game. The two teams could arguably be classified as the top two programs in the state.

"The best part of the rivalry is the quality of play, both teams are going to play good offense, defense and special teams, so anybody who's going to go watch the game is going to see two teams that are very well coached, play hard, good athletes, good execution and generally your going to see a close, exciting game" said Hamilton.