As the sun rose over the Park City mountains and onto Dozier Field Friday morning, the Miners football team was already hard at work.
The team underwent a speed, agility and conditioning session with head track and field coach Dave Yocum, then a weightlifting one with strength and conditioning coach Matt Herhal in the Park City High School gym.
The Miners are vigorously preparing for the 2025 season, when they’d like to build on recent success and win the first state title in program history. In a new region and playing two 5A opponents, they know the schedule will be grueling, but they’re confident in the work they’re putting in and the guys in the locker room.
The Miners have been training on Dozier and in the gym five days a week since classes wrapped up in the spring. The team also attended a pads-on camp in Colorado in June for a couple days. Come July 28, the Miners will put their pads back on and start locking in for the season-opener against Wasatch Aug. 15.
“Great start to the summer,” said head coach Josh Montzingo. “We’re putting a lot of time in the weight room and out here on the field. … It’s been a great turnout.”
Montzingo knows some of his players are going to take summer vacations, and that’s OK. The Miners have also utilized Tuesday and Thursday evenings to run through plays on Dozier. Montzingo said the pads-on action is the most telling for who will succeed during the season.
The Miners have key contributors like Eli Warner, Charlie Cusimano and Wyatt Knapp returning for their senior seasons. They will, however, need to replace Bash Bodily as quarterback and most of their offensive line. Montzingo said a starting quarterback won’t be named until the pads are back on leading up to the Wasatch Game.
“We lost our starter from last year, and we have a couple guys battling for that right now. That’s been a fun, fun battle so far,” Montzingo said. “We’ve got to replace most of our line, so that is definitely something we are looking at, and I think we found some good pieces there at camp, we’re excited about them.”
Montzingo referred to his defense as “star-studded.” He also said they have great speed, in part thanks to Yocum’s work. The Miners will need to use those strengths to begin the season, with back-to-back September road showdowns against 5A teams Bountiful and Olympus.
Montzingo schedules as tough as possible because he believes the challenge will only help his team come playoff time. He doesn’t schedule any 6A opponents because he also needs a healthy team that time of year. Montzingo said he had a few players banged up when the team fell in the playoff quarterfinals last season.
“They could definitely go undefeated. But, when you look at our schedule, there’s going to probably be one or two games where it’s going to come down to a play and it could go our way or it could not go our way,” Montzingo said. “We told our guys it doesn’t really matter because we’re going to be battle tested when we get to the playoffs, and that’s the key.”
The Miners new Region 8 opponents this year are Mountain View, Salem Hills, Provo, Timpanogos and Uintah. They’ll also play reigning 3A champ Morgan.
“We’ve got to go against the best if we want to be the best,” Montzingo said.
Montzingo likes to use each game or challenge as a measuring point for his team. Another bonus with scheduling tougher opponents is having more eyes on his players, many of whom seek to play at the next level. Win, lose or draw, the team will have fun along the way as they all love the sport.
“We’ve been getting a lot better from all the extra work that we’ve been putting in,” said Cusimano, a wide receiver. “As an offense, we’ve put in so many plays already, so we’re already ahead of schedule. When we start camp, we already will have our base offense in and can start working on our timing and what we need to be tuning up for a game.”
Cusimano is confident in his teammates’ ability to fill the shoes of last year’s seniors. He said his fellow seniors have been dreaming of winning that first state title since they were in sixth grade. With 18 grabs for 240 yards last year as a tight end, Cusimano is hoping his new position will allow him to become a bigger fixture in the offense.
“I would say last year our schedule wasn’t nearly hard enough,” Cusimano said. “So, when we got to the tougher games in the playoffs, we really didn’t know how to react. The tougher games in the season are going to help tune us up for the playoffs.”
Knapp agreed that everyone’s been working extremely hard on the field, in the weight room and watching film. He said keep an eye out for inside linebacker Alex Branigan for a breakout season, who’s been at nearly every day of training. Knapp was a star outside linebacker for the Miners last season and is excited to get a little bit more involved as a tight end this year.
“I think everybody should be looking forward to see what Park City’s really got,” Knapp said. “I think we have one of the best teams we’ve had in a couple years. We’re ready to catch touchdowns and get tackles and sacks. It only helps to have fans here so that roar in the stands will be exciting to hear.”