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Show : :- - ' -. . -.- .... ,:.'.' . -,. . i . -- - -. " "J ..r' ." ' r- ' . v " ,. e .. . F" . , ' - if .."ft-.', -4 J - , X ' j ; They made history this season as the first-ever Bryce Valley football team: pictured are (top row, left to right) .' Steve Orton, Bryant Foster, Brent McCormick, Pace ; Clarke, J.J. Dunham, Kelton Neilson, Clinton Adkins, Zac . Holm; (middle row) Ryan Alvey, Callen Barton, Ryan Page, ; Bryce Valley Football Team Has Its iFirst-Ever History Making Season ; By Max Eagar ; Back in August I began toy- ing with the idea of starting a flag football program here in i Bryce Valley. I had heard all the '. different reasons why there ! would never be football in ; Bryce. Valley., but having a great ' love for the sport (developed ; while playing as a child and ; through high school), I decided to give it a shot and see if there was any interest. I was sur-' sur-' prised, to say the least, about the ! turnout. ! The most common reason I ; had been given as to why foot-; foot-; ball wouldn't work here was ; that there just weren't enough kids to support a football team. Twenty-four kids grades 7 to 10 showed up to play, and an equal number of kids grades 4 to 6. For those that don't know much about football, that's enough for two full 11 -man teams in both the high school and elementary. My intention all along was eventually to get enough interest that we could create a tackle football team. I knew that if I didn't do something it definitely wouldn't happen. 1 started small. From the very beginning, I could tell the kids wanted to play tackle rather than flag but equipment was just too costly. About two weeks into flag football, I happened to be driving driv-ing through Panguitch when I noticed that there were kids playing tackle football, pads and Joseph Harmon, Daniel Harmon, Anthony Senary, John Word, Parker Clarke; (bottom row) Sam Eddy, Dusty Ahlstrom, Cache Mortensen, Wyatt Mecham, Kaden Chynoweth, Lyndin Sudweeks, Curtis Mortensen, and Dustin Leslie. all, on the field inside the track at the high school. I immediately immediate-ly pulled over and jumped out, leaving my wife in the car. I talked to Eric Sevy whose team had just joined a 7th and 8th grade league that involved Valley, Fredonia, and Kanab. Eric gave me the name of Valley's coach, Randy Beckstrand. After talking with Randy, I decided that if there were any possible way of bringing bring-ing tackle football to Bryce Valley, I was going to do it. I then went home and ordered the $4000 worth of equipment that it would take to make it happen, promising my wife that I would raise the money to pay our debt. My wife, the good woman that she is, agreed to help me. So there we were with our backs against the wall, knowing that we either had to make it happen or risk our financial ruin. My wife and I went to work. I would go to practice Tuesday through Thursday and we had games on Fridays and Saturdays. While I was at practice, prac-tice, my wife was out canvassing canvass-ing the community, going from business to business asking for donations. At times we felt as though we were introducing a new religion to the valley, but most of the time we received gratitude from people who said they thought "it was about time". I am happy to report that it was an incredible success. We received overwhelming over-whelming support from the community, including many generous contributions from local businesses. We will start next season with all our equipment equip-ment completely paid for. The real success, however, belongs to the players. They wanted to do it, and committed their time and their own money to make it happen. They made it happen even though many of them knew they would never get to play anyone but each other this season. They made it happen hap-pen even though they spent most of their time practicing skills they would hardly get to use. They made it happen even though they knew they had only a few weeks before basketball would start and then we would all be swept away. The weeks were few, but they were glorious. They learned that if they wanted something bad enough, they could make it happen. And this is just the beginning; next year will be even more successful, and the years after that. They made history his-tory in Bryce Valley. I salute, and you should join me, the members of the first-ever first-ever history making Bryce Valley football team: Clinton Adkins, Dusty Ahlstrom, Ryan Alvey, Callen Barton, Kaden Chynoweth, Pace Clarke, Parker Clarke, J.J. Dunham, Sam Eddy, Bryant Foster, Daniel Harmon, Joseph Harmon, Zac Holm, Dustin Leslie, Brent McCormick, Wyatt Mecham, Cache Mortensen, Curtis Mortensen, Kelton Neilson, Steve Orton, Ryan Page, Anthony Senary, Lyndin Sudweeks, and John Word. |
