杰伊·德鲁• 盐湖城论坛报
Spend any amount of time in Sanpete County, and you will learn that the rural communities in central Utah treasure the now defunct Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, lieutenant governor Spencer Cox of Fairview, Wasatch Academy’s nationally prominent high school 芒特普莱森特的篮球项目，以及以法莲的PG电子官方免费下载足球项目.
后者，沿着US-89的人们会迅速而自豪地指出，不会走 沿着这条路走七英里就到了.
“雪的大学 football is far too important to this community and this school to let die,” says Snow athletic director Robert Nielson, who also doubles as the school’s 男子篮球总教练.
It could also be said that the state’s only junior college football program is also too important to Utah’s five four-year college football programs — Utah, BYU, Utah State, Weber State and Southern Utah — to see go away because all five use it as a 人才输送渠道.
“That’s something we pride ourselves on — being a place where the local Division I schools can look for immediate help,” said new Snow football coach Andrew Mitchell, a tall, energetic and gregarious former Badgers offensive lineman who took the head job last December despite plenty of offers to go elsewhere when two-year Snow coach 保罗·彼得森去了圣路易斯市的迪克西州立大学. 乔治.
So many former Badgers have made it to the NFL that school officials have lost count, but the list of notable alumni who made it to the NFL includes former Utah linemen garrett Bolles和Star Lotulelei，犹他大学前跑卫Matt Asiata和杨百翰大学前 防守截锋布雷特·凯泽尔.
“I wouldn’t have taken the job if I didn’t think this program would be here for a 很长很长一段时间，”米切尔说.
Some prominent college coaches have also passed through Ephraim, including Virginia’s Bronco Mendenhall和佛罗里达中部的Josh Heupel.
To outsiders, however, Snow’s football demise appeared to be a distinct possibility last December when its conference, the Western States Football League, announced it 因为6个成员——都在亚利桑那州——放弃了橄榄球而破产了吗. 不久之后，又有两所亚利桑那学校，东亚利桑那学院和亚利桑那 西部，宣布他们也将放弃足球.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sltrib.s3.amazonaws.com/public/UNMNMTLSF5C3HKS3KLOE6Q6L54.jpg)
That left Snow a college football independent — just like BYU up the road — and sent 米切尔忙着找球队打球. 他每天至少花一个小时工作 on the schedule, while also teaching four classes per semester and doing everything 其他与橄榄球总教练有关的.
“Over the past six months, I feel like I’ve contacted every junior college football program in the country, so the challenge was there, certainly,” 米切尔说 last 周.
截至6月底，米切尔已经参加了8场比赛，其中4场是在他2岁的孩子身上 人造草皮球场在獾球场和四个道路上，包括一个比赛在 佛罗里达对阵迈阿密ASA学院，獾队以71比27大胜 去年在家里.
“We would like to get into a conference — that would be our preference,” Nielson said. “日程安排一直很困难. 但是PG电子官方免费下载不存在放弃橄榄球的危险.”
As proof, Mitchell and Nielson point from their offices in the building that houses the swimming pool and the basketball gymnasium on Center Street in the direction of 足球场的票价为5美元.800万美元的建筑目前正在建设中 埃里克和钱德拉伯格森体育中心. 建成后，该设施将包括 a new weight room, football offices, a study hall, a fitness center for the campus 社区等等.
Eric Bergeson is a former 雪的大学 and BYU defensive back who played briefly in the NFL, then got his MBA at Stanford and has made it big in the financial advising 和许多前獾队成员一样，他希望确保这个项目能够维持下去， 米切尔说.
“One of my big things, aside from winning games, is a more structured financial support 獾队的田径运动，特别是足球，”米切尔说. “我们还没来 还没想好名字. 也许是獾俱乐部，或者獾助推器. 我们会看到的.”
Of more immediate concern for the former NFL player — after his All-America career 在斯诺大学，米切尔在俄克拉何马州立大学待了两年，然后在 the pros with the Bengals, Seahawks and Jaguars — is continuing the tradition of winning 由史蒂夫·科伯恩、布里特·莫恩和彼得森等前辈创立 compiled an 18-4 record before taking on the task of guiding Dixie State into Division 大学橄榄球.
米切尔说:“我们绝对、百分之百地致力于此。. “你的皮肤更厚了 在比赛中当你是这个地方的产物，很明显. 它对我来说很特别. 我们已经组建了一支优秀的团队. 我们对未来感到兴奋.”
Former BYU standout Jan Jorgensen is the new defensive coordinator and Matt Mitchell joins the staff as offensive coordinator after spending the last two years at Western 肯塔基州. 前杨百翰大学球员和天际线高中教练扎克·埃里克森是副校长 主教练兼防守后卫教练，而前乌特雷·塔拉马伊沃则是防守教练 行教练. 尼尔森·菲什巴克是特别小组协调员兼接球手教练 哈里·赖特是跑卫教练和招募协调员.
“这真是一场精彩的足球，”尼尔森说. “这是伟大的足球. 它会。 对这个国家两年制大学橄榄球的未来有好处，因为我们是 我要和每个人玩. 我们将成为衡量的标尺 across the country in a lot of ways to help [people] figure out the rankings, decide 谁好，谁不好.”
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sltrib.s3.amazonaws.com/public/OABCFYNHSNBZPFD6ZMNTW2LRKY.jpg)
When Mitchell was named head coach, 雪的大学 president Gary Carlston addressed 他说，提供更多的机会至关重要 for young men to continue their education and to enhance campus life and involvement 和社区一起.
“要想在足球大会上获得会员资格，还有很多工作要做 the program, and we are hoping to make progress in the near future,” Carlston told KSL.com.
Mitchell and Nielson said they have reached out to many schools in California, but those schools don’t belong to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and are hesitant about playing Snow, let alone allowing the Badgers into one of their 因为他们不像斯诺那样提供奖学金.
They’ve also reached out to the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC), which includes 俄勒冈州、华盛顿州、爱达荷州和加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省的社区学院. 会谈 在赛程中加入一些NWAC球队的计划正在进行中.
但就目前而言，他们看好作为独立公司继续前进.
Travel will increase “just a little bit,” Nielson says, but “we committed to the school that it really wasn’t going to be too much of an increase in our budget to keep football. 让它消失对我们来说太重要了.”
就像街上的其他社区宝藏一样.
