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Deseret News
High school football: Reigning champion San Juan is the unanimous preseason No. 1 in 2A South
By Micheal Henson,
10 hours ago
San Juan High School’s Jaiten Knight celebrates after an interception by San Juan during the 2A football state championship game against South Summit at Southern Utah University in Cedar City on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News
This fall will be year four of the San Juan Broncos being back in the 2A classification after a brief, two-year stint in 3A after the UHSAA disbanded 1A football. And San Juan has been the favorite to win the 2A South in every season since.
As they should be. The Broncos won all 12 games last year with an average margin of victory of 46 points, scoring 57.5 points per game and allowing only 11.5 points per game. The 57.5 points scored per game was good for third all time in UHSAA history.
But replicating that success will be tough for the Broncos, who are only returning three starters on offense — two wide receivers and one offensive lineman.
“That’s the big question. It was a question for me going into our team camp. These kids have waited their time,” said San Juan coach Barkley Christensen. “They have been a part of three championship teams and most of them have contributed somewhere before this season. But they’ve picked up where the last team left off. They are going to do it their own way and I have been pleased very well this summer with how they’ve been practicing.”
San Juan is returning Jake Ivins and Javin Montella at wide receiver. They should be able to make the transition for the starting QB Jaiten Knight easier, especially since Ivins returns 889 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Broncos. The team is also bringing back multiyear starter Cooper Palmer to the O-line to bring some guidance to a senior heavy but untested group.
“Everything is going to be the same. We might even throw the ball more than in the past. We have some good receivers in this group. We have a good running game as well. We have good talent just not a lot of experience. But luckily, it’s a 10-game season and they’ll be able to improve on that experience as every game goes by,” Christensen said.
Defensively, San Juan returns five starters from last season. They should help shoulder the load if the offense ever starts to struggle.
“This is the first year in my eight years of coaching that I can say that I am more confident with our defense than our offense,” Christensen said. “I’m still very confident in our offense. But our defense is loaded this year. I believe it will be one of the best defenses we’ve had in a long time. I feel like if we need to, we can definitely lean on our defense this year.”
The Broncos return J.D. Palmer and Jaiten Knight on the defensive line. Knight, who recorded 55 tackles and 5.5 sacks last season, will be splitting time between the defense and quarterbacking the Broncos.
J.D. Palmer returns this season after recording 75 tackles for the Broncos. Jake Ivins will also be playing both offense and defense for San Juan. Last year he was able to record an astounding 103 tackles for the Broncos at linebacker. Branten Bethea, who had four interceptions for the Broncos last year, also returns on what will be a stacked and ready San Juan defense.
San Juan is hoping to extend its school record 37-game winning streak. It scheduled a tough non-region schedule to prepare for playoff season, which includes games against Grantsville, Juan Diego, Kanab and 4A team Hurricane, which is now coached by Jerry Cowan who was at Duchesne previously.
Meanwhile, the Emery Spartans, who are projected to finish in second place in the region, believe they can build on the success of last season. But with only seven returning starters, they know they have an uphill battle if they want to be able to dethrone San Juan in the region standings.
Emery returns four offensive lineman, which should help the offense get to where they would like to be this season running their spread offense.
Delta has a new head coach at the helm. Denton Peterson is a graduate of Delta and is hoping to shock the region and bring the Rabbits back to having successful football by improving on the team’s 5-6 record from the 2023 season.
South Sevier and Grand combined for only three wins last season.
South Sevier is able to return 12 starters from last season’s group and is hoping the experience of last season will be able to lead to more success this year. Coaches are excited to be able to return injuries to the group.
The Grand Red Devils are returning 15 starters from last season’s two-win campaign after losing only six seniors to graduation. They believe they have an amazing core of players coming back and will be able to be competitive in region play.
Christensen is entering his eighth season as head coach at his alma mater, where his teams have posted a 63-19 record over the past five seasons, including state titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023. He’s a graduate of Dixie State.
Coach Barkley Christensen’s general outlook
“After graduating a group of more than 20 seniors, we are looking to reload, not rebuild. We bring back 20-plus seniors this season and although they do not have a lot of varsity experience, they are very talented. We return three players on offense and five on defense. Despite losing many offensive starters from last year’s championship team, we have the potential to upgrade at a lot of positions. The greatest benefit from having an inexperienced team is they are extremely hungry for it to be their turn to compete in the blue and gold under the lights. New quarterback Jaiten Knight knows he has big shoes to fill, but has been putting in the work all summer long and is ready for his shot after being behind Parker Snyder for the last two seasons. We have four new faces on the offensive line but the ceiling is as high as it gets. We have tons of weapons all over the field with our skill guys, and we are looking to spread the ball to all of them and let them play in space. This is the first year since I have been the head coach at San Juan where I feel our defense is our greatest strength. We feel like we have lots of depth at certain key positions on the defensive side of the ball and look to shut teams down like we did at the end of last season. Overall, we are really excited about this year’s team. With all of our depth, we are as athletic a team as I have seen at San Juan. To be successful this season, we will have to put the inexperience aside and execute at a high level. The kids have been working really hard this summer and are ready for it to be August.”
Faimalo is entering his ninth season as head coach at Emery, with a 31-53 record his first eight seasons. He’s a graduate of Emery High School and Snow College.
Coach Jon Faimalo’s general outlook
“We lost a lot of guys last year but have an eager group to step in a prove themselves.”
Twitchell heads into his second season as head coach at his alma mater after a 1-9 record in 2023. He’s a graduate of Southern Utah University.
Coach Bryce Twitchell’s general outlook
“We have a lot of experience coming back this year. We have the majority of our starters back on both sides of the ball. We have also added some players who have come back from injury or didn’t play last year. When you combine that with some of our younger players from last year taking a step forward, it has made for some good competition at several positions and gives us depth in a lot of positions as well. We’re excited to put it all together.”
In his 21 years as head coach at Grand, his teams have posted a combined 102-124 record, including a state title in 2005. He’s a graduate of Southern Utah University.
Coach Dennis Wells’ general outlook
“We look to be improved over last year. We only lost 6 seniors from last years team and have a good core of players coming back.”
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