ST. GEORGE — The two teams that played for the 3AA State football title last November will battling for supremacy again, according to media members and coaches who attended the 2014 3AA South Football Media Friday on the campus of Dixie State University.
The four-hour event, put together by St George News and SportsRadio ESPN 106.1 FM and broadcast by the Southern Utah LIVE Television Network in partnership with St George News and KCSG Television, featured the head coaches of all seven 3AA South football teams and select players from each of the teams. Each school — Cedar, Desert Hills, Dixie, Hurricane, Payson, Pine View and Snow Canyon — took turns on the podium, speaking on the upcoming season and fielding questions from local media members.
In separate polls, the head coaches and media members also picked the expected finish of the teams in the 2014 season. The media picked Pine View as the top finisher. The Panthers finished second in state a year ago and finished with a record of 9-3. Desert Hills was second in the media poll, with Dixie picked third, Snow Canyon fourth, Cedar fifth, Hurricane sixth and Payson seventh.
In the coaches poll, Desert Hills was touted to win the league. The defending state-champion Thunder was 11-2 last season and won the title by scoring on the last play of the game against the Panthers. The coaches predicted Pine View to finish second, Hurricane third, Dixie fourth, Snow Canyon fifth, Cedar sixth and Payson seventh.
Pine View quarterback Kody Wilstead was a near-unanimous selection to win the region’s Most Valuable Player award. The senior signal-caller passed for 4,390 yards and 35 touchdowns last year for the Panthers. He received 7 of 8 first-place votes by the media. Gabe Sewell, the do-it-all stud for Desert Hills, received the other first-place vote, but finished fourth in the balloting. Dixie quarterback Ammon Takau was second in the preseason MVP balloting with Thunder running back Bridger Cowdin finishing third. Others receiving votes on the MVP ballot, which had three slots, were Hurricane linebacker/fullback Jeremiah Ieremia, Cedar QB Brecken Lewis and Snow Canyon quarterback Jacob Frei.
The media event, which was held in the CEC studios at Dixie State, was emceed by Devin Dixon and featured a panel of ESPN SportsRadio commentators that included Mike McGary, Patrick Amico and Andy Griffin, plus a gallery for other local media. The third annual media day was a hit among coaches and fans.
“This is awesome,” DH coach Carl Franke said. “I’ve been in the region now for 15 years and I never thought that we would get to this point. I think it says a lot to the talent level down here and the coaches and you guys, the media down here, for putting this stuff on.”
The high school football season starts Aug. 22 with a full slate of non-region games as teams prep for the region season. Desert Hills opens the year up with a game at Orem. Pine View opens with a home game vs. Judge Memorial. Panthers coach Ray Hosner announced Friday that Pine View has filled its Week 2 bye with a game at Agassi Prep in Las Vegas.
Dixie starts the year with its traditional game vs. Springville. This is the ninth straight year the two teams will open the season against each other. Dixie is 5-3 in the previous eight against Springville. Snow Canyon also opens at home in a battle with 5A Copper Hills. Hurricane faces off with Skyline at HHS to start the year, while Cedar is home for Grantsville and Payson hosts Provo.
Look for full previews of all seven Region 9 teams in the next two weeks as STGNews gets fans ready for the 2014 football season.
Fans can watch the entire archived version of the 3AA Football Media Day by clicking HERE.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.
Yawn……another season of the media overating Pine View. Must suck to play for Hosner and all the big talk about “this is the year”, while watching all your region rivals actually win the state championship
Listening to Hosner talk about his game with Agassi Prep was comical at best. He’s been coaching for 14 years and playing Vegas schools for all those years and acts like he knows nothing of the tiny prep school? Let me help you Ray, they’re a Div III school. As for a reference, this would be like playing Parowan or Enterprise. Stat game for the mighty Panthers because they’re not going to get the stats when they play Dixie, DH, Hurricane or SC.
Pine View plays Agassi Prep? What an incredibly tough game! Not. Agassi is ranked as the 53rd best team in Nevada. Desert Hills plays two vegas teams (Foothill and Legacy) that are 31st and 9th in the state
So? Pine View plays a 5A team in pre season too. None of those games means much unless someone gets hurt like Wilstead did 2 years ago at East.
Nevada HS Divisions are as follows:
Div I (Foothill, Legacy)
Div IA (Moapa Valley, Virgin Valley)
Div III (Agassi Prep, Lincoln County)
Div IV (8 man football)
Hurricane plays Moapa Valley this year
DH, SC and PV Frosh teams could beat Agassi Prep, I guarantee that.
I like how Snow Canyon Warrior pipes in like they’ve been so competitive? Keep to the down low! As for the pre-season schedule, I have heard that it has been very difficult to find games for the likes of PV , Dixie and Desert Hills. Dixie played River Valley, AZ for 2 years to get a game and destroyed that team over those 2 years 108-10, they play Canyon View again this year! PV plays Agassi Prep but its a game so they play a full pre-season schedule. Desert Hills plays two well coached teams out of the state of Nevada and an Orem team that wouldn’t play down in St George because the only reason they lost to PV last year was because of the heat???? Really?! I know for a fact that PV and Desert Hills both tried to get teams like Stansbury, Jordan, East and Juan Diego on their schedules but because of those teams trying to take bigger games or not accepting because of scheduling conflicts they had to go out and find competition elsewhere.
VAASA, I don’t doubt your facts (I’ve heard the same thing about schedules for the preseason) but the PV coach acting like he knows nothing of Agassi Prep is the typical line of b s we’ve all come to expect from him. I’m just calling his bluff. As for the game? Complete laugher as is he.