High school football: 21 Utah schools have new head coaches

The football-coaching fraternity just isn't the same this year.

Following 34 years as a head football coach at Bingham and Cyprus, coach Sonny Sudbury gracefully exited the coaching ranks this offseason by announcing his retirement.

"I've been at it for a lot of years," said Sudbury, who added last November that the main reason for stepping down is to be around his wife, three kids and six grandkids more often. "It will be nice to get closer to them. And I can go out and be a (crappy) golfer."

Sudbury, who finished with a 182-156 career coaching record, is passing the stress of coaching onto another generation of coaches, and there are plenty of them.

Of the 99 high-school football programs in Utah, 21 are under the direction of new coaches, whereas 14 are first-time head coaches.

Many of those first-time coaches are taking over prominent winning programs, highlighted by Wyoming native Eric Kjar at Jordan. Others include East coach Sean Knox and Viewmont with coach Brad Lloyd.

A few other familiar faces are in new spots, with Robbie Gunter moving from Viewmont to Box Elder, Jay Graft making a return to Snow Canyon, Clint Christiansen resurfacing at first-year school Stansbury and Mike Smith taking over at Olympus.

For the three established schools, the new coaches are bringing entirely new offenses.

"It's quite a change," Gunter said about bringing the spread offense to Box Elder. "In some ways, it's good, and in some ways, it's hard."

While numerous young guns are trying to earn their stripes in the coaching ranks, there are still plenty of veterans showing them the way.

Skyline coach Roger DuPaix is the new elder statesman of Utah high-school football as he enters his 33rd year. Just a few years behind him is American Fork's Davis Knight.

Seven other coaches have 20-plus years of tenure, Bountiful's Larry Wall (25 years), Cedar's Todd Peacock (23 years), Emery's Jim Jones (22 years), Juan Diego's John Colosimo (22 years), North Summit's Jerre Holmes (21 years), Tooele's Ray Groth (21 years) and Dixie's Blaine Monkres (20 years).

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com