The energy the Park City football team displayed at Dozier Field during Monday’s practice didn’t feel like that of an 0-3 team.
Heads were held high instead of being down, every snap was being fought for and there was just an on-to-the-next-one mindset for the Miners.
“That’s how you practice!” one player yelled.
Park City traveled to St. George to face Pine View on Friday and fell just short again of claiming its first win of the season. The Miners trailed 28-14 at halftime and narrowed the lead to seven heading into the fourth quarter but couldn’t complete the comeback in the 49-35 loss. Park City hasn’t started a season 0-3 since 2013, when it finished 3-8 in Class 3AA, which doesn’t exist anymore.
“This weekend was a long weekend, a lot of soul searching by everybody,” Miners coach Josh Montzingo said. “Just because we feel like we’ve been so close but so far, far away, and we have high expectations here. The standards have been set high here, so we feel like we want to uphold those standards. So we knew that things were fixable, but we wanted to make sure we addressed them correctly.”
It’s not as if the Miners are getting blown out or losing to poor opponents, either. Park City has lost its three games by a combined 22 points to three teams that are a combined 8-1, which just adds to the Miners’ frustrations.
“I think if every game was a blowout, I would have a different mindset right now,” Montzingo said. “While I’m still upset and I don’t like being in this spot — I’m not used to it because we haven’t been here for a while — it gives me great hope that we’re just looking over the top and we just need to make that another couple of steps to the top of that mountain. It could be a lot of fun on the other side.”
When they welcome East into town on Friday, they’ll face another winless team looking to blow off some steam. The Leopards are 0-2 after opening the season against a murderers’ row of defending state champions Orem (Class 5A) and Corner Canyon (Class 6A). East lost to Orem 27-14 before getting clobbered 42-7 against the Chargers.
Longtime Park City locals will also see a familiar face on the opposing sideline. East coach Brandon Matich served as Park City’s coach for five years and was the state’s high school coach of the year in 2009 with the Miners.
“Coach Matich coming back to Park City, he had a lot of success up here and did a lot of great things here,” Montzingo said. “He doesn’t want to come back here and not give his best effort with his team, so I know they’re going to be fully prepared.”
East is back in Class 5A after four years in Class 6A, which included a loss in the state championship game in 2017. Both teams know that they’re better than their record says they are.
“They’re really well-coached, they have guys all over the field that are really good, so we’re going to have our hands full,” he said. “But I think like every other week, if we do our job and trust in each other and play as one heart, we’ll give it a great battle all the way to the end.”