Monticello Buckaroo Football preview 2025

by David Boyle
News Director
The San Juan Record sat down with Monticello High School Football Head Coach Reed Anderson for a preview of the upcoming Buckaroo season.
A partial interview appears below. The full interview will air on the Redrock 92 Morning Show and during the pregame this Friday, August 22, on Red Rock Radio and StreamUtah.Live.
Monticello opens the season against the St. Joseph Jayhawks in Ogden. Kickoff is at 5:30 with the pregame beginning at 5 p.m.
David Boyle: What’s the theme this year for the team?
Reed Anderson: Our theme this year is actions speak louder. We're in an interesting position where we have quite a few kids that are a little older.
Our sophomore class is small, but you know, at the varsity level, we have a couple kids that could play at each position if we really needed to, which is not something we normally have.
So the idea that, hey, your actions are going to matter. that's how we're going to be judging you. In the past, there were a few positions where it's like, you know, no matter how bad you are or how you practice, you're probably still going to be better than the guy chasing you because they're a freshman or something; but this year's changed.
So trying to get the kids in the habit of hey if we're going to be good, we're going to be better. Talk is cheap. We need to see some action out of you or of what you're willing to do to be better, what you're willing to do as teammates to become more of a team.
The actions are going to be the thing that is a much louder concept which I think translates well to all these kids that are getting older and graduating that what you do matters more than what you say. So let your actions speak for themselves and let them be the loud voice that that carries.
It may not always start out that way because usually someone who's louder themselves just speaking is going to drown out a lot of things. to start with, but in the long run, your actions are going to be the telltale of who you are, what kind of person, what kind of employee, what kind of husband or father or brother or friend you are going to be. So, kind of incorporating all that in together.
DB: We talk about those actions, and a lot of it is that offseason work, who amongst the team would you highlight, they've they've either, led the way or they've stepped up in a big way this year?
RA: Yeah I mean, we got obviously our returning quarterback, Jackson Keyes. He's just a gym rat. He's in the weight room every day. I mean, I saw him there this morning when I was doing mine. He's been big, we've had some kids that have been hitting the weight room a little bit.
We have our freshman class. I tell you what, those freshmen have been fantastic so far they have everything you ask them to do. They're at everything we've put a couple of them in the two deep on special teams behind seniors or juniors and said, “This is your spot to take. Go get it from them.”
And it's really caused some of those seniors to be a little nervous. These kids are relentless in that regard. We've got some kids like Arturo Gutierrez, he's just been in the gym. He works three or four jobs, I mean, the kid just has a motor and he never stops anything that he does. He's very good at keeping his body loose. He stretches very well, you know, things like that.
We’ve got Tommy Morrison. Same thing out at the Rock, He’s been pretty good about keeping himself in shape. So we're looking at those kids to kind of be our leaders and you have some kids that have come back. Landon Shumway who at practice he goes 110 percent.
Looking at old days when he was a freshman, Javlin Robison used to just beat him up and he's kind of doing the same thing to those freshmen, and the freshmen are learning and starting to fight back.
So he's setting a good tone there and so those are the things that have really been good actions that we've seen and we hope that it just kind of continues to grow throughout the season.
DB: You guys have played in the title game three years in a row and how do you keep that motivation up? You know, you don’t avoid getting complacent. It sounds like internal competition is really driving your program this year.
RA: Yeah, that's been huge. I mean, we've been very fortunate to make the state championship three years in a row. This year it's going to be a little more difficult, but that competition is one that we can use and every year I talk about it like, did we do enough to get over that hump? Like, should we have won that game? Did we do enough? Was the team together enough? Did you guys work hard enough in the offseason? And have them kind of internalize that.
And some kids have kind of picked up like, I think we have. And some have said, no, I think we could have done more to make that jump. And it’s the ones that thought, I think we could have done more are the ones that are really the ones pushing the competition and the leadership and hey, we got to be better. We got to do better.
That's starting to trickle down into the ones that thought we were okay. They're starting to be like, okay, there are other things we could do and we can do to get us to that point again.
DB: We were talking a little bit before and you know about seeing the level of competition rise up. Of course, you got Milford coming down. What do you anticipate from the 8-player league this year?
RA: I think it's going to be the best year yet. You got St. Joe’s beat Altamont this last Friday for the first time. They're getting better each year. Coach Butler up there is a fantastic guy. He is doing a great job. Altamont is big and they’re starting with the new coach but are going to figure that out. Both of the Military Academies have gotten better.
Water Canyon’s got a young team, but for a young team they're going to be playing well. You look at teams like Panguitch and Escalante who are starting new for the first time, and I think they're already doing pretty well for where they're starting out.
Milford obviously coming down is going to be a really good team to beat. Between them and the defending champ of Rich that had a lot of depth last year and is going to have a lot of depth again, they're going to have a lot of good players that can do a lot of good things.
Milford – ever since Thayn Marshall’s been in charge of that program they’ve kind of turned things around and not been the bottom dwellers anymore like they were for years.
So, you add all those in together, I think we're going to start to see the parity and the difference get smaller and smaller as the years grow on, which is exactly what we wanted when this league started.
We’re hoping more teams start to see that and jump in earlier rather than later to try and catch up with that parity. I think we're going to see a lot more competitive games in our eight-player league than we've seen, which I think is great.
You look at the 1A and 2A and there’s a big range of teams. There’s not a lot of close games and that’s not something you want as a league. You want everything to be as competitive as you can. And I think the eight-player is growing quick enough and rapid enough that we’re starting to see those teams that have started out get better and better with each other.
They're starting to catch some of the teams that have had historic football programs, which I think is a fantastic thing for the 8-player league.
DB: Any final thoughts before we let you run?
RA: We loved the support we had from the community last Friday for our inner-squad scrimmage. We hope that everyone keeps coming out. We’ve had great fan support over the years and it’s one of the reasons we love living in Monticello.
The community support and the community togetherness, unity, and we hope to continue that and and and hope to make the community proud.
DB: Thanks, Coach.
The Buckaroos finished the 2024 season with an 8-4 record, falling to Rich in the 8-player championship game.
They open the 2025 season at St. Joseph Catholic School in Ogden this Friday, August 22.