From a soggy spring to national rankings, here are 10 of the most interesting prep sports stories of 2023
Each year, thousands and thousands of high school athletes in Utah compete in the 24 different sports in pursuit of the over 120 state championships handed out by the UHSAA. Throughout the 2023 high school sports calendar, those athletes passionately competed and practiced every day in pursuit of individual and team excellence.
Each athlete has an individual story to tell of excellence and perseverance.
Here’s a look at 10 of the top storylines from the high school sports landscape in 2023.
Weather wreaks havoc with spring sports
The greatest winter on record did wonders for Utah’s snowpack, but caused a ton of headaches for high school sports teams this past spring.
Spring is the busiest season for high school sports, and coaches in baseball, softball, soccer, track, lacrosse, golf and tennis spent much of the first four to six weeks rescheduling games and juggling schedules to get as many games and practices in as possible.
“The coaches that I have worked with are all fighting to get their games in at all levels. The seniors lost their freshman years because of COVID and now their senior seasons are taking a big hit,” said Ridgeline baseball coach Justin Jensen. “I do wish the state would look at extending the season two weeks to allow for the games to be played and alleviate some of the pressure. Unprecedented weather call for unprecedented response.”
The wet weather ultimately tapered off and teams crammed in as many events as possible before the UHSAA state tournaments and meets continued as scheduled in May. It made for a wild final month of the season, though.
For the thousands of spring sports athletes, it’s a season they likely won’t forget anytime soon as they spent many practices shoveling snow and getting their playing surfaces ready to play on instead of actually practicing.
Lone Peak, Corner Canyon basketball among nation’s elite
Even though their respective programs are in the midst of differing circumstances at the moment, early in 2023, Lone Peak’s girls basketball team and Corner Canyon’s boys team could realistically do no wrong en route to 6A state championships and impressive national recognition.
Lone Peak’s girls finished the season with a 24-4 record and a No. 16 ranking nationally according to MaxPreps. Its four losses all came against schools ranked in the top 13 nationally, and led by Deseret News Ms. Basketball recipient Kailey Woolston, Lone Peak’s average margin of defeat in those four games was just six points.
Lone Peak’s girls and Corner Canyon’s boys were both invited to participate in the State Champions Invitational in Washington, D.C., in April. They both ended up being eliminated by nationally ranked Sidwell Friends, D.C.
Corner Canyon’s boys team finished its season ranked No. 33 nationally according to MaxPreps after a 25-3 season. The Chargers went 7-3 against out-of-state teams, and their average margin of victory during an 18-0 march against Utah teams was 18.7 ppg. Sixteen of those 18 wins were double-digit wins.
New UHSAA alignment for fall sports
The beginning of the 2023-2024 school year kicked off competition in the latest UHSAA realignment, which meant significant changes to the number of teams participating in the top three classifications in the state.
The number of teams in 6A dipped from 26 to 18, the number of teams in 5A dropped from 32 to 27 while the number of teams in 4A more than doubled from 13 to 27.
In the majority of the fall sports beginning in August, the change created more competitive balance in region play and in state tournaments, particularly in 4A as the playoff field doubled. The changes opened the door for new teams to experience more postseason success, while at the same time making things for difficult for 4A teams from northern and southern Utah, who over the past two years only had to worry about beating each other to claim a state title.
That change was particularly noticeable in cross-country, as Mountain View swept the 4A boys and girls cross-country state championships in its first year dropping down from 5A. Mountain View’s boys won the 5A state championship the year before as well.
Corner Canyon football earns national recognition
Back on Aug. 18, for three quarters Corner Canyon’s football program went toe to toe with Bishop Gorman High School, the team that ultimately finished the season ranked No. 1 nationally, according to MaxPreps.
Corner Canyon led 28-21 at the half, and only trailed 42-35 heading into the fourth quarter. It ultimately fell 63-42, but it was a statement game nationally for the Chargers, who proved they could hang with one of the nation’s best.
It was one of only two close games Bishop Gorman played all season en route to the national title.
For Corner Canyon, it followed up that loss with 12 straight victories, including a 41-27 win over Skyridge in the 6A state championship to claim its first state title since 2020. It ultimately finished the season ranked No. 13 nationally, according to MaxPreps.
Quarterback Isaac Wilson, who was named the Deseret News Mr. Football winner, was also named a MaxPreps national player of the year finalist.
Three coaching legends quietly hang it up in 2023
Bountiful boys basketball coach Mike Maxwell, Farmington girls basketball coach Van Price and Bear River softball coach Calvin Bingham are three of the most successful high school coaches in state history, and all three coaches sauntered off into retirement in 2023.
Bingham went out with a bang, guiding Bear River to one last state championship in his storied career as the Bears upset Ridgeline to claim the 4A title in May. It was his state record 11th state championship at Bear River. Bingham (2000-2023) also finished with 506 career victories, second all-time behind Spanish Fork’s Don Andrews (1998-2019).
Price rode off into the sunset as the winningest girls basketball coach in state history with 550 wins. Most of those wins (474) came at Layton, where he coached from 1987 to 2018, but he spent the final four years at Farmington, where he tacked on 76 more wins. He coached Layton to state titles in 2005 and 2016.
Mike Maxwell won 500 games at Bountiful from 1989 to 2023, currently the ninth most wins in state history. Ironically enough, he came up just short of passing his dad, Larry Maxwell, who won 503 career games in his remarkable 34-year coaching career at North Summit and Highland.
Skyridge football ineligible player drama
Skyridge football unintentionally played an ineligible player for its first two playoff games of the 6A state tournament in 2023, and the resulting punishment from the UHSAA, which many believe was too “soft,” was arguably the most talked about moment in 2023 for high school sports.
In the 10 years prior, East and Lone Peak football each dealt with their own ineligible player scenario that forced them to forfeit a slew of regular season games. Their independent situations forced the UHSAA to update how forfeitures were handled in the future, a scenario that ultimately benefited Skyridge.
Deep in the fine print of the UHSAA bylaws, Skyridge was not forced to forfeit either game because two playoff games had already occurred. Had it only been one game, a forfeiture could’ve been handed down, but because it was two games, there was no fair way to determine which losing team could take its place — Farmington in the first round or Pleasant Grove in the second round. Both could make a valid claim at deserving the semifinal appearance.
The UHSAA handbook reads, “The vacation of a contest, championship/place or award shall only be applied when a forfeit cannot practically be applied, such as in a case where an offending team or individual has completed at least the second round of tournament and an opponent could not be advanced without additional competition.”
Skyridge coach Justin Hemm took the brunt of the punishment as he was suspended for two games, and wasn’t on the sideline for Skyridge’s semifinal win over American Fork or championship game appearance.
Distance runners shine on national level
Utah is a distance runner state, and has been for decades. That fact was on display again in 2023 with some of the nation’s most elite high school distance runners hailing from Utah. That recognition began early in 2023, when American Fork’s Daniel Simmons was named the Gatorade National Cross Country athlete of the year for the 2022 season.
Fast forward to the fall season, and Simmons was again one of the marquee runners in Utah as he ran away with the 6A individual title in leading American Fork to a repeat state title. Olympus’ JoJo Jourdon dominated the 5A meet as well, which was a sign of great things to come for the Wake Forest signee.
A month after winning his first individual state title, Jourdon became the fourth Utah runner to win the prestigious Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon, as he finished first in a field of over 200 runners. Previous winners were American Fork’s Casey Clinger in 2015 and 2016 and then Timpview’s Aidan Troutner in 2017. Simmons finished 13th in the race.
Herriman’s boys team won the team title at the prestigious event, becoming the first Utah team to win the team title at the Nike Cross Nationals. American Fork has finished second on four different occasions over the past 11 years.
It’s been a minute
State championships often follow the population growth of the state, with new schools winning a good chunk of the state championships each season, especially in the state’s larger classifications. That reality makes it more and more difficult for some schools that have been around for decades to reclaim championship hardware.
Five teams in particular broke the mold and halted state title droughts of 25-plus years, including two that extended back to the Reagan era.
Orem’s volleyball team captured the 4A state title this fall, its first volleyball state championship since 1981, a drought of 42 years. Richfield’s football state championship drought extended back nearly as long, but it halted that 39-year drought by winning the 3A state title, its first since 1984.
Timpview’s girls cross-country team won its first state title since 1996 this fall. In the spring, Timpview’s girls track team won its first-ever state championship, the longest drought of them all when you consider the school opened in 1977.
The only other drought that extended back earlier than the 2000s was Juab’s baseball team winning its first state championship since 1998.
Quentin Meza eclipses 2,000 scoring plateau
The baller from Magna put on a helluva show in the final year of his remarkable four-year high school career.
Cyprus point guard Quentin Meza became just the eighth boys basketball player in state history to reach the 2,000 career-point plateau, ultimately finishing with 2,123 career points, the fourth most in state history.
He became the first player since Lone Peak’s Frank Jackson to reach the 2,000-point plateau, with Jackson reaching that peak in 2016.
“It’s nothing I ever dreamed of coming into high school, but now that I’m done it will be something I can always look back on. I was the fourth leading scorer in Utah basketball ever, so I think that’s pretty cool,” said Meza, who is currently playing basketball at Wofford College.
In the four years prior to Meza’s arrival at Cyprus, the Pirates went 32-63. With Meza, Cyprus went 72-29 with four playoff appearances and two region titles, and a 6A semifinal appearance in his final season.
Utah’s fastest females go out with a bang
The fastest sprinter on the track and in the pool put an emphatic exclamation point on their remarkable careers at the end of the 2022-23 school year.
In the pool, Olympus’ Maddy Parker — who’s currently swimming at Washington State — put on a show at the 5A state meet last February as she set new state records in both the 50 freestyle (23.14) and 100 freestyle (29.96). Her 50 free time broke a record that had been around for over two decades, while in the 100 free she broke her own record that she set the year before while swimming for Spanish Fork.
On the track, Fremont’s Amare Harlan was the feature attraction whenever she lined up in the starting blocks, something she’s now doing for the University of Michigan.
Harlan set new state records in both the 100 meters (11.43) and 200 meters (23.30) this season as she frequently broke her own records throughout the season. She owns the six fastest 100-meter times in state history and six of the seven fastest 200-meter times.
