Juan Diego football claims second straight state title

Friday, Nov. 25, 2016

DRAPER – On Nov. 12, the Juan Diego Catholic High School football team triumphed in the 3A 2016 UHSAA State Football Championship, defeating Delta High School 35-21 in the final game. The Soaring Eagle team’s season was filled with victories and successes, but the coaches and players told a different side to the story: of being knocked down and having to learn to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and keep fighting in order to become champions.

The progress of the Soaring Eagle football team through the state championship bracket and, even before that, through much of the regular season, belies the difficulties that the players found waiting for them from the outset. 

The road to the championship was not an easy one, said John Colosimo, vice principal of JDCHS and head coach of the Soaring Eagle football team.

Colosimo found that this season was very different from last year’s, when his team entered the 3A 2015 UHSAA State Football Championship after a 12-1 regular season and won handily. However, because many members of the 2015 team were graduating seniors, this year’s team ended up with a lot of new blood. 

“I didn’t know what to expect coming in,” Colosimo said. “We were coming this year with a bit of inexperience.”

The players quickly felt this experience gap as well. According to Ryan Baker, a senior and one of the team captains, the team was very confident after last year’s victory, and before the first few games, “there was a sense of entitlement on the team.” 

That feeling changed quickly, said Baker, when the Soaring Eagle suffered three losses to just one win at the start of the season. At that point, the players realized something had to change, said Stone Azarcon, another team captain and senior at JDCHS. In particular, the 49-20 loss to Morgan High School “was the real eye opener for us,” Azarcon said.

Colosimo noticed the change in the players and said that as they slowly found their identities, they “grew up from boys to young men. They always played with a lot of heart and determination.” And, according to their coach, this was just what they needed to overcome early stumbling blocks.

The team slowly found its footing, winning game after game, moving toward the state championships, but there were still games where the team got off on the wrong foot, Baker said. For example, in the semifinal game against Juab High School, “it was only 14 minutes in and we were down 14 to nothing,” Baker said. “It was like, ‘holy cow, this isn’t good.’”

Despite that start, the Soaring Eagle defeated Juab 61-36, and went on to seize the championship in the game against Delta. “It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish,” Baker said.