High school football: Two of three games in Beehive Classic cancelled

The Beehive Classic was supposed to prove that Utah's high school football teams can compete with any program in the country.

The explosive weekend of prep football fizzled when two of the three games scheduled by promoter Tony Fa were cancelled Thursday.

Representatives from the two California teams that were scheduled to take on 5A's second-ranked Jordan and 4A's top-ranked East, called the football coaches from those programs Thursday night and told them they would not be able to travel to Utah for the games.

The third game between No. 1-ranked Bingham and Highland Valor Christian, a Colorado team, will go on as planned Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7:30 p.m. Both teams are nationally ranked, with Bingham No. 23 in the USA Today prep rankings.

The cancellations left two of the state's best teams scrambling for a game next week. Administrators from Jordan and East met Friday and agreed to play each other next week.

"We lost a coin toss," said Jordan athletic director Marc Hunter. "East wanted to play Friday, and we wanted to play Saturday."

The deal is a two-year agreement between the two powerhouse programs, which will begin next Friday at 7 p.m. when they square off at East High in Salt Lake City. Next year the Beetdiggers will host the Leopards, Hunter said.

Hunter said the only explanation for the cancelled games that was given to his head coach, Eric Kjar, was that the travel arrangements either hadn't been made or had fallen through.

Peck said coaches from Highland Valor Christian called him Tuesday to tell him that rather than flying, as was promised by promoters, the team would be traveling to Utah by bus. That expense, he believes, was paid for by the promoters, as travel was to be covered by the organizers in the contracts each team signed.

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