San Juan football team sweeps 7-on-7 tournaments in Arizona, Manti

by Barkley Christensen
San Juan High School Football Head Coach
It feels good to say the football season is right around the corner. Summer has been a success so far for the San Juan Broncos.
The team currently has 76 players on the roster and averaged over 80% attendance at summer workouts.
We recently wrapped up two 7-on-7 tournaments and lineman challenges and head to padded camp in Richfield next week.
Our players have had an impressive work ethic in the weight room, and this is the hardest we’ve pushed a team to this point in the offseason. That work has paid off so far.
Our varsity team won both June 7-on-7 tournaments, while varsity and junior varsity linemen won both lineman challenge competitions.
It has been exciting to see new faces step into bigger roles, and we look forward to finally putting the pads on.
Over the past month, we have taken more than 70 players to passing tournaments and lineman challenges. On June 20 we traveled to Arizona to compete against teams from Arizona and New Mexico.
Our varsity ended up winning the championship by defeating Bradshaw Mountain High School from Prescott Valley, AZ in an exciting overtime game.
Junior quarterback Beau Yeomans connected with senior receiver Miken Keith for the game-tying touchdown, then found Keith again for the game-winning two-point conversion.
It was a great example of our program mindset of never quitting and playing to win instead of playing not to lose, meaning we will always go for two in situations because we want to attack and win or go down swinging.
Our varsity linemen dominated the competition to win the division, while our freshman sevens team and JV linemen also brought home championships.
The following week we traveled to Manti for another 7-on-7 tournament featuring teams from Utah’s 1A-4A classifications.
After opening with losses to 3A North Sanpete and 3A Manti, our players responded with wins over 2A Providence Hall and 2A South Summit.
The South Summit game was fun because it was a rematch of last year’s 2A state championship and they were 3-0 headed into that final pool play game.
Some have predicted it could be us and South Summit again to battle for a championship in the fall so our boys were fired up for that game.
Our team played almost mistake-free football. We competed hard and beat them 27-14 to close pool play, earning the #6 seed in the championship bracket.
The team kept momentum rolling in tournament play, defeating #3 North Sanpete in a quarterfinal rematch. We then beat #2 South Summit to earn a rematch with host Manti in the championship.
In another hard-fought game, the offense and defense made timely plays, including a late touchdown to Brigg Palmer on a beautiful route to seal a 30-20 victory and our second championship in as many weekends.
Our linemen continued their impressive summer by winning the Manti Lineman Challenge for just the second time in the event’s history, defeating teams from every classification.
The JV linemen also repeated as champions, while the JV sevens team finished third in their bracket and the freshman sevens team placed second after a hard-fought championship game.
While state championships are not won in June, these competitions provide valuable opportunities to develop players, evaluate personnel, build chemistry, and compete against quality opponents.
The focus now shifts to padded camp and preparing for our season opener against a talented Grantsville team at Snow College on August 14.
Our players have put in the work and we’re excited to see where this team can go as they chase a legacy of their own.