Kent Adair named Utah 2024 Coach of the Year

Former Monticello High School Head Wrestling Coach Kent Adair has been named 2024 Coach of the Year by the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) in conjunction with National High School Activities Week.
The honor came as part of the UHSAA’s announcement of its Distinguished Service Award class of 2024. It honors outstanding contributors to Utah high school activities and brings together Utah’s finest educators, officials, and contributors at the high school level.
After 49 years in the corner of the mat, Coach Kent Adair decided to hang up his wrestling shoes at the end of the 2024 season. He spent the entirety of his coaching career at the same rural high school in Utah where he himself wrestled in his younger years.
Adair leaves behind a long legacy of young men whose lives were strengthened by his example and teaching. He coached 90 of the 111 state champions whose names are listed on the MHS wrestling room wall.
As Head Coach of the Buckaroos for the past 25 years he led 110 young men to state championship matches. Sixty of them reached the top of the podium as individual state champions. He coached 203 wrestlers to individual state tournament medals.
Adair was awarded the Utah USA Wrestling Coach of the Year for all classifications in 2018. He was the 1A Coach of the Year in 2009, 2014, and 2019; the 2A Coach of the Year in 2005; and the Region/Division Coach of the Year six times.
Adair coached three wrestlers who were four-time individual state champions and 19 wrestlers who received Region or State Outstanding Wrestler awards.
He coached four State Championship teams, four State Runners-Up teams, and 14 Region Championship teams.
Additionally, Coach Adair started a youth wrestling program in Monticello for K-8th grade athletes that has been running as a successful, independent program for 28 years.
Coach Adair has had a profound impact on an immeasurable number of young people over the years. In 2014, Buckaroo Austin Wilcox, after winning his third state championship, perfectly stated what so many others have echoed about Adair’s influence in their life.
“Coach Adair has been one of the most influential men in my life. What’s amazing about Coach is that he can see the true potential of each young man who walks into that wrestling room.
“If you listen to him and do exactly what he tells you, he can help you reach heights you never would have imagined. It’s all about trust. It might seem like he is being hard on you but he is just trying to get you to become the best you can be.
“I am so grateful for him and the countless hours he has sacrificed. He is a great man and he deserves to be recognized even though he doesn’t think so.”
Coach Kent Adair’s dedication to wrestling at Monticello High School and to the young men who made their way through his wrestling room will not be forgotten. He changed countless lives and will forever be a Buckaroo legend.
Adair has been married to his high school sweetheart, Chris, for 51 years and they continue to make their home in Monticello as lifelong Buckaroos.