Boys Basketball Takes State!

As the clock wound to zero on Saturday, the Juab fan section erupted in cheers and the bench ran onto the court. With a four-point lead at the end of regulation, Juab boys basketball won the state title game for the first time in sixty-one years.

With a fantastic regular-season record, Juab went into the tournament as the second seed overall. We faced Richfield, who we lost to earlier in the season, and Judge Memorial in the quarter- and semi-finals respectively. The championship game was against the San Juan broncos, a fifth-seed who had upset #1 Granstville. Both Juab and San Juan brought hundreds of people to the game; the entire half of the stadium behind the benches was packed with spectators from the two communities. The student sections on the other side of the gym were deafening. The game went down to the wire, but Juab hit key free throws in the fourth quarter to keep them just out of reach. The final score was 54-50.

If you enter the school through the gym doors and immediately look to your left, you see relics of Juab classes from time gone by. There is a cheer-leading jersey from 1941, a school sweater from ’55 and the first ever Juab football helmet. At the top of the case you will also find the last Juab basketball state championship trophy, an ancient artifact from 1960. Man hadn’t landed on the moon, the South was still segregated, and John F. Kennedy had just announced his presidential campaign when the Juab basketball team hoisted that trophy up. On Saturday night, 61 years later, Juab again cut down the nets as the best team in 3A.

The seniors on the team were Brendan Allred, Ty Allred, Jake Bailey, Luke Bailey, Dawson Olsen, and Louk Stevens. The team was coached by Cody Shepherd, Jay Yuan, Spencer Allred, David Settle, and head coach Kamron Wright.