Utah prep football players shine at tourney

Most Utah coaches believe local players can compete with their counterparts from around the country, and this weekend two teams of prep football players proved that the case.

A team of local high school football players finished second in the 7-on-7 Scout.com National Football Tournament at UNLV. The team of 18 players from various high schools lost in the championship game of the single elimination tournament on Sunday.

"Our kids really played well," said Bingham head coach Dave Peck, who helped select and then coached the team along with Timpview assistant Chad Van Orden. "There was some great talent down here."

Two 18-man teams traveled to Las Vegas from Utah to compete in the weekend camp and single elimination tournament. Team 1's quarterbacks, junior Alex Hart of Jordan, and junior Dallas Floyd of Pleasant Grove, split time and both played very well. Floyd received a scholarship offer from Stanford while at the camp.

Team 1's safety, Chris Badger, Timpview, committed to Stanford over BYU, Utah, Oregon and LSU on Monday.

Bingham running back Harvey Langi was the only sophomore on Team 1, which lost two games in both the round robin and tournament, both to the same team from California.

"Both games came down to the final play," said Peck. The second team from Utah went 2-and-3 in the tournament and was eliminated by a squad from Texas. There were 14 teams total in the tournament, including a team from Washington quarterbacked by Jake Heaps, which won the tournament last year.

NEW COACH: Timpanogos High School is pleased to announce the hiring of Lisa Magalei as head volleyball coach. Coach Magalei and her husband recently moved to Utah from Southern California where she was the head girls and boys volleyball coach at Bell High School for 10 years. Lisa Magalel's girls teams were California Eastern League champions in 2005, 2007 and 2008 and her boys teams were league champions in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008. Lisa Magalel played volleyball at Cal State University, Dominguez Hill from 1993 to 1996.

"We are thrilled to welcome Lisa to our THS coaching staff," said assistant principal Debbie Zirbes. "She brings a great deal of coaching experience and enthusiasm. Her knowledge of and love for the game of volleyball will really add a positive influence to our program. Lisa is excited to meet the girls and will shortly be announcing plans for open gym times and summer camp information."