Looking forward to the first week of prep football

The start of Utah's high school football season is just a little over three weeks away. The Utah High School Activities Association's Jeff Cluff, who assigns officials to games, was kind enough to share the first week's schedule and there are some interesting matchups that include all six defending state champions.

The season kicks off on August 21 when Class 1A power Duchesne, which has won four straight state titles and owns a 47-game winning streak, travels to Class 2A Layton Christian for a 3 p.m. Thursday game. This is a great venue to open the season. Layton Christian's field is located in a natural bowl and is one of the state's prettiest stadiums.

The rest of the state opens play the next day.

Defending 5A champion Bingham will get a stiff test when it opens the season at Davis, which has one of the biggest fan bases in prep football. Former Bonneville coach Tyler Gladwell takes over the Dart program from Ryan Bishop, who took a job with the Utah High School Activities Association.

Timpview, the returning 4A champ, also faces a tough test at Sky View, which is difficult to beat in Smithfield. Class 3AA champion Desert Hills travels to Orem, while Class 3A champ Judge will host Pine View and star quarterback Kody Wilstead. Park City will travel to 2A winner South Summit.

There are also some interesting rivalry battles in the first week.

Corner Canyon, expected to be one of the top teams in Class 4A, hosts always tough Juan Diego in a game between two Draper teams. Juan Diego won the first game a year ago.

Cottonwood travels to Olympus in a game between two schools in close proximity to each other. Herriman at West Jordan should be a good contest as well.

Finally, Les Hamilton takes his Pleasant Grove team to Alta. Hamilton had great success as a head coach at Alta, including a state title team in 2008.

– Tom Wharton