Remaining 5A teams have been best of decade

Ask your mom. Ask your dad. Interrogate your grandma, your grandpa, your aunts and uncles. Question your neighbors, or fellow fans. Ask them – who do you think is currently the best Utah high school football team?

Although a few will wander off the chosen path, the majority will mutter the same teams until your ears bleed and your eyes pop out.

Bingham and Alta.

Considering these two programs to be the cream of the crop is justifiable. However, do any other teams deserve to be mentioned amongst the Goliaths?

Heading into the semifinals at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Friday, the 5A bracket features the familiar two, along with Davis and Hunter. To the naked eye, the latter teams don't seem to compare. Nonetheless, this is a common misconception.

It could be argued that these are the four best programs in 5A dating back to 2003. The four teams have combined for five out of the last six state championships since that year. Other than Davis in 2005, the programs have made appearances in the postseason every year. In that time span, they've combined for a 240-95 record, which computes to a 71.6 winning percentage and each of the teams individually is above 59 percent. As the old saying goes, stats don't lie. Which begs the question – are these the top four most successful 5A programs of this decade?

"Obviously you can't argue with numbers. (The teams) have done well in the playoffs, there's quite a few championships to go around between the four teams," said Alta coach Les Hamilton, "The numbers are solid in terms of championships, and you'd probably have to look at conference championships also. (Alta, Bingham, Davis and Hunter are) four real good football programs."

When informed of the stat, Hunter coach Dustin Pearce said, "That is incredible. I've never heard (that stat) before. That's pretty impressive."

Of course, there have been other programs that have enjoyed success throughout this decade in 5A – most notably Northridge and Skyline. The Knights won three straight titles through the 2000-2002 seasons. Skyline, is the only anomaly in the past six seasons – capturing the title in 2005, albeit the fact that they were severe underdogs. The success of these programs is something that both Hamilton and Pearce we're fully aware of.

"I made a comment a while ago that Skyline is — without a doubt — the premier program in (the state), in my opinion," said Pearce.

"(Northridge) did some great things in the early part of this decade," added Hamilton.