High school football: Region 8 will be rich in rivalries

Few sports fans in south Utah County thought they'd ever see the day when Nebo School District basically has its own high school region.

With the new alignment of Region 8, however, that's pretty much where things stand. The Uintah Utes, of course, plan to do their best to remind Spanish Fork, Springville, Payson, Maple Mountain and Salem Hills that it is a six-team league. Still, the rivalries that have now been created for the five Nebo high schools have the potential to become as good as any in Utah.

"When you have that rivalry feel at games, that really does a lot to bring communities together," Spanish Fork coach Matt Christensen said.

With the opening of Salem Hills last year and Maple Mountain this year, in most cases the middle of a street is now all that separates the schools' boundaries. Many friends, neighbors, and junior-high classmates who have cheered together in the past will now play for and cheer for opposing teams.

"When the kids talk about games that matter to them, they don't talk about teams outside our new region. They talk about the games where they'll be playing against other kids that they grew up with," Christensen said.

Even though Spanish Fork has suffered a double-whammy in enrollment numbers with the changes the past two years, the new region still renews some historic rivalries for the Dons — rivalries that were missing the past few years when the Dons were cast into a 5A region with teams from north Utah County.

"When we were in that league we kind of felt like the outcast, and we never really had a rivalry game," Christensen said. "And those are fun. When I played those were the games I always remembered, were those rivalry games. So it's going to be nice to have them back."

The closeness of the schools, however, presents a challenge for Nebo in enrollment issues, and managing transferring and preventing recruiting. The hope is that eventually all five Nebo schools will have comparable enrollment numbers and equally competitive athletic teams.

That might not be the case this season with Salem Hills moving up a notch from 3A, and Maple Mountain beginning its first-ever season.

"Jumping to 4A will be a huge increase," Skyhawks coach Monte Morgan said. "I think we have a very competitive region."

Maple Mountain with mostly sophomores and juniors, won't have the benefit that Salem Hills had in starting in a smaller classification.