Olympus (7-3) at Timpview (7-2)

4A state tournament first round

Friday, 3 p.m.

Parry's Power Guide: Timpview 34.5

All-time series: Series tied 1-1

Coach vs. Coach: Olympus' Mike Smith and Timpview's Louis Wong, first meeting

Last meeting: 4A semifinal, Nov. 13, 1998 — Olympus 33, Timpview 20

It isn't always the star players that make a championship team.

In fact, according to Timpview coach Louis Wong, a big part of the Thunderbirds success in winning the last three state titles, and four of the last five, are contributions from players that don't even see the field when it comes game time.

"Our twos (JV players) do a great job of getting the ones (varsity) ready to go," said Wong. "They try to run our opponents stuff and get the guys ready for what they are going to see on the field. Our philosophy is that the more prepared you are, the less you will hesitate, and if you don't hesitate, you have a huge advantage.

"Our twos work very hard all year, but they do an especially good job when the playoffs roll around and in practice we go almost all ones versus twos where during the regular season we do a lot of ones against ones. Our JV team is good. I think in the regular season if you put them up against a lot of the other team's varsity teams, they would be competitive."

There is no secret that until someone knocks them off the T-birds are the team to beat. Although its state record 36-game winning streak came to a close, and the team lost another game to 5A power Alta, in the preseason, Timpview has been gaining momentum ever since and has run off a six-game winning streak where it has averaged a 53-8 margin in doing so.

"I would like to think we are playing our best football right now," said Wong. "We had a lot of young guys playing at the beginning of the year, and we had to replace Bronson (Kaufusi an all-state defensive end that was lost to a torn ACL), but since then, we have had some guys come back and guys stepping up and growing as players. I would have to say that we are peaking at the right time."

One of the players that have grown as the season has gone on is quarterback Trevor Brown.