The Time Has Come

It has been several weeks since I posted a blog, and I apologize for that. The MatchupUT.com website has been taking a lot of my time, as well as designing, writing and publishing programs for 24 Salt Lake-area schools.

Football season has started. Tonight marks the third week of the schedule. Besiding doing all that I mentioned above, I also cover games for the Deseret News. Tonight, I will be at West Jordan at Olympus. That should be a fun game to watch. I'm anxious to see West Jordan because the Jags are 2-0 and both of their wins have been close, entertaining games.

The last time I covered a game at Olympus was many years ago, when I worked as a sportswriter for the Salt Lake Tribune. Oly must have been playing at team from Weber County because Dennis Larsen, a reporter from the Ogden Standard-Examiner was there, too. It was pouring down rain. One of the worst rainstorms I can remember. That year, it rained at a lot of the games I attended and it forced me to buy really good rain gear.

I can't find that rain gear now, but the forecast looks good. I haven't seen Dennis for a long time. He was a good guy, and always fun to talk to. I always look forward to seeing other newspaper reporters when I cover a game.

It has been a busy year so far. My schedule goes like this: On Saturday, I'm working on my computer, updating my website (http://www.matchupUT.com) and the upcoming week's programs. This week, for example, I'm handling game programs for 13 schools.

I do that on Sunday, too, so I can get as much information as possible to my printer - Steve Wells at Action Printing in Murray. I'm usually finishing things up Monday, but then I have to spend a lot of time at the printer's office, editing the programs. This week, because of the Labor Day holiday, we did everything a date later than usual.

On Tuesday, we finish printing and I deliver game programs on Wednesday. That usually takes all day. I end up driving all over the valley, from Lehi through Grantsville. Fortunately, my car gets good gas mileage.

The latter part of the week is now spent improving the program, talking to coaches and athletic directors, fixing any errors, etc... I can adjust my time, so I can do things with my kids, but I really don't have a weekend.

The first week we handled 17 programs, and we had some screwups. We (myself and the guys at Action Printing) found ways to improve our editing. We did not have any problems the second week. This week, I almost forgot the Hunter at Brighton game.

I could never do this without Action Printing. I've known the guys there for several years, and their customer service is fantastic. They go above and beyond the call of duty and, unfortunately, I take advantage of that.

We're getting a lot of compliments. I think the advertisers in the program - Comcast, The Deseret News, Rocky Mountain Power, SLCC and LDS Business College - are happy. In addition, I got a call from Paul Pugmire, who is running for Salt Lake County Council, and he asked to advertise in the programs involving West Valley teams.

One woman, a realtor who saw the program at a Judge Memorial game, asked to advertise but I haven't heard from her recently. There is ad space available, although it's minimal. I'm still learning what we can do.

But enough of this. I'm slowly becoming more of an expert on local high school football. Here are some questions I can answer:

* - What teams have surprised you so far? Copper Hills, Riverton, Kearns, West Jordan and Bingham. Those first four teams are unbeaten, while Bingham is 0-2. And I'm surprised for those reasons. What's also noteworthy is all of those schools are from the west side. Alta seems to be the dominant east-side school and that will probably always happen until a new high school is built in Draper.

* - You deal with a lot of people. Who are your favorites? People who will help me. That is, people who will return phone calls, etc... The biggest problem with putting together these game programs is getting a calendar of upcoming events from the schools. A lot of schools have not updated their websites since last May. Also, I'll never understand why school personnel cannot email. A lot of them don't know how. The excuses I received were "I never learned," or "I'm too old." Just think what would happen if some student gave something close to that excuse. Learn people. Learn.

* - What are the biggest games this week? I'm happy covering West Jordan at Olympus, but I'd also like to see Alta at Kearns. I don't see Alta losing this year, but this one has possibilities. I also want Kearns coach Bill Cosper to be successful. I met him last year, and instantly liked him. There's a great article that the Magna newspaper did on him that tells his story. Basically, his son got a football scholarship to Weber State and Bill picked up the rest of his family to follow, so they could watch him play. Bill was a football coach in Texas, and he is bring his knowledge and experience to Kearns.

* - Since Bingham has lost its first two games, are they done? No. All Bingham has to do is fare well in Region 3 and it will make the 5-A playoffs. Playing Skyline and Alta might have been a good move because the Miners will know how much they will have to improve in the playoffs. Plus, they have a new stadium field, scoreboard and more. I wouldn't write them off.

* - Lastly, the Deseret News asks me every week to put together a list of my Top 25 Utah high school teams. It's a lot of guesswork. I basically followed Parry's Power Guide, which is published each week on my website and in the game programs. Alta is No. 1 and Bingham No. 2. Next week, I'll change that vote because you can't put an 0-2 team at No. 2. I'll probably move Skyline up the list because I've learned you can never count out those guys.

That's it for this post. I will post more often now - maybe even daily. Thanks for your interest in Utah high school football and Matchup.