On Wednesday, Park City High School announced it had hired longtime Juan Diego Catholic head basketball coach Drew Trost to the same position at the school.
Trost arrives in Park City after 14 seasons at the Draper high school, where he went 242-84, won nine region championships and made three state title game appearances. Before arriving in Draper, Trost went 129-57, with one state title game appearance at Hammond, Indiana’s Bishop Noll Institute.
The former Utah Best of State High School Coach of the Year will also be teaching math at Park City. He holds a master’s degree from Indiana University.
Trost believes he can awaken what he called a “sleeping giant” in the Miners program. He took the job because of that opportunity, he said. Plus, his wife is from Park City, the schools are good and they just love the town.
“It was always going to have to be a special opportunity, one that made a lot of sense for our family,” Trost said about departing Juan Diego. “And for me, specific to basketball, something that I thought had promise, even if there wasn’t a lot of immediate history of them being good. … I think Park City definitely checked all those boxes.”
Trost believes that, with administrative support and the buy-in of players and parents, the Miners can start winning right away. Park City High School Principal Caleb Fine and Athletic Director Jamie Sheetz were in attendance Monday as Trost addressed returning players and parents. Team activities for the Miners start Tuesday afternoon and continue through the summer.
“My wife, being an alumni, knows firsthand what an awesome community this is,” Trost said. “We’re super excited to be involved in the community. … I do think it’s a sleeping giant that we can wake up and turn into a basketball powerhouse.”
The team’s offseason work will focus heavily on player development. Trost knows in this public school system he has to help start developing players from the elementary school ranks if he wants to have a perennially successful high school program. He has sent seven players in his coaching career to the D1 level on scholarships.
“A beautiful part of a public school is that you have the benefit of really helping or starting to work with kids young and building a great feeder system,” Trost said. “When you’re at a private school, your freshmen will come from all kinds of different middle schools, so then you’re up against it a little bit trying to get them to mesh together and learn a system. … I want to be out there with fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade coaches, trying to build it from the ground up.”
Trost believes the players that his system will develop will outweigh the players he was able to bring into Juan Diego, which dominated the Miners in two games this past season. Trost is hopeful he will get some additional multisport players out to the team in coming seasons, players who perhaps became disillusioned with the program in recent years; he loves the grit that multisport players often bring to teams.
“It’s really about developing championship habits first, before you really start seeing those results on the court,” Trost said. “I think that there’s some talent coming back, and so I’m hopeful that we could be pretty competitive right off the bat. We’re going to play hard, be aggressive and get after people, and when you play that way, you always have a chance. … Let’s build a championship program here, I would love to cut down a net.”
Trost reiterated his belief that if his players put in the work on and off the court, the results will take care of themselves. Principal Fine agreed.
“I promise if you bring it everyday for him, you’re going to change Park City basketball,” Fine said.
The principal has coached the team previously on numerous occasions.
Fine also addressed concerns about Trost and Juan Diego’s 2025 settlement with the UHSAA, which KSL News reported on in late-September 2025, surrounding undue influence over the admittance of an international student and basketball player. A member of UHSAA’s Executive Committee, Fine feels as he understands what transpired at Juan Diego fully and believes Trost has “great integrity.”
“I’ve spoken with coach and the principal,” Fine said. “I have full confidence in coach. He’s a man of great integrity. … If anyone has any concerns about that, I encourage them to talk to me or coach about them. He is an open book.”
The Miners 2026-27 season will likely begin in mid-November. Park City will be chasing their first winning season since 2014-15. A key piece to the team’s success next season will likely be returning point guard Penn Larkin, who averaged 14.3 points a game this past season.