San Juan football team looks to extend win streak, embark on a journey to capture a fourth straight title in 2024 season opener

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The wait is over. The 2024 Utah high school football season begins this Friday, August 16 for the San Juan Broncos. The two questions on everyone’s mind as the season kicks off in Grantsville: Can they stay undefeated for a 38th straight game, and can they win a fourth straight 2A state championship?
The 2A coaches think so. For the second-straight year the team is ranked #1 in the classification in the annual Deseret News coaches’ poll. They’re also the unanimous choice to win the 2A South.
The challenge the Broncos will face this season is what Head Coach Barkley Christensen calls a “reload.” More than 20 seniors graduated from the 2023 team that captured a third-straight 2A state championship for their school.
That team was the 20th in the more than 120-year history of Utah high school football to win three straight football state championships. Of those 20 only seven went on to win at least a fourth-straight title.
San Juan hopes to become the eighth this fall and the expectations for that are very high. But they only return three offensive starters this season – Jake Ivins and Javin Montella at wide receiver and Cooper Palmer on the line.
Still, the 2024 team will sport more than 20 seniors who are eager for their shot at greatness. Though they lack varsity experience, they’re very talented according to Christensen.
Defensively San Juan’s in better shape to start the season with five returning starters – JD Palmer, Jaiten Knight (who is also taking over at quarterback), Jake Ivins, Branten Bethea, and Brody Bilbao.
The team begins the 2024 season riding a 37-game winning streak – the eighth-longest active streak in the nation. It will immediately be put to a strong test in the season opener in Grantsville on Friday.
The Cowboys are predicted to finish third in the 3A classification and second in the 3A North. They’re returning six offensive starters and seven on defense.
Grantsville’s offense will feature a lot of youth this season, including sophomore quarterback Dallan Van Vliet. Though he struggled to find consistency in the starting role last season the team is hopeful Van Vliet will find his stride this season.
Additionally, the Cowboys have a new head coach this season, with longtime assistant and Grantsville alum David Millward taking the reigns.
Millward says injuries in 2023 forced some of his young players to step up and play key roles for the team. As a result they gained valuable varsity experience that could pay dividends this season.
The Broncos and Cowboys last squared off on September 11, 2020, with Grantsville winning 39-14. In fact, San Juan Head Coach Barkley Christensen has never beaten Grantsville as a coach.
Christensen, who is beginning the eighth year of his already exceptionally successful career as head coach of the Broncos, has been preparing for the start of the 2024 season since the day after they won their third straight title in November 2023.
I posed a few questions to him in a recent email. Always a student of the game and an easy conversationalist, he responded with flair and passion. It’s clear he’s excited to get the season underway.
Rhett Sifford: First off, I know you like to call it a “reload” for this team. Tell me about what you’ve seen so far from your new guys and how you plan to replace what you lost from last year’s team.
Barkley Christensen: I do call it a reload this year because usually when you lose 20+ seniors off a team that has just won back to back to back state championships you have to go into a rebuild mode. Fortunately for us, we have another talented senior class right behind the last one with 20+ guys.
It’s very similar to the 2022 season after we had just taken state in 2021 and a lot of people thought we were going to have a down year replacing all of those seniors. This group of varsity players has patiently waited for their turn and are very excited to show what they can do this season.
I have watched them follow the formula the classes before them have laid out and go to work all summer long. The weight room and practice field routinely had 70+ guys consistently every day preparing for this season.
We have had great 7-on-7 passing camps and we performed exceptionally well against Richfield and Snow Canyon at our team camp back in July. You can’t try to replicate the team we had last year. These kids wouldn’t want to do that even if we could. This team wants to carve their own path and win with their own style.
RS: What has impressed you the most so far in preseason practice and preparation?
BC: The hunger and willingness to learn that they bring every single practice. This senior class has only been a part of one varsity loss since they have been in high school. Our junior and sophomore classes have not experienced a loss and our freshmen this year hadn’t started sixth grade yet the last time we tasted defeat.
I have seen teams have that kind of success and I have watched as the players and coaches started to feel content and satisfied. Our seniors coined the 2024 motto for this team: “Never Satisfied”. They have shown me exactly that. I have been very impressed with their discipline, sacrifice, and hard work all summer long.
They love the weight room, film study, and just the game of football overall. We may not have a ton of varsity experience with our new starters, but they have waited for their moment and they have impressed me greatly in picking up right where the last three seasons left off.
RS: Have you had any pleasant surprises?
BC: With only three returning starters on offense and five on defense, almost everyone has been a pleasant surprise. I have learned over the last seven years of coaching to never assume a player will be good or bad. At the end of the day, they have to go out and prove it every single day.
I have been happy with how our offensive line has shaped up. Cooper Palmer is our only returning starter on that unit. He has improved from last season and the other four starters have looked very strong. At receiver, we return Javin Montella and Jake Ivins, but Owen Adams, Branten Bethea, Tripp Palmer, Brody Bilbao, and Corbin Middleton have looked really good.
Replacing Trace Bennett, our tight end from last season, is JD Palmer. He has had a strong willingness to learn a position that’s a key piece to our offense but doesn’t get a ton of credit. Jagger Nieves has looked really strong at running back and I think he is poised for a huge year.
Lastly, Jaiten Knight has looked really good at quarterback. He has a ton of raw talent and one of the biggest arms I’ve ever seen. He is a great runner and has been great at running our offense all summer.
I think Jaiten is looking forward to going out and showing what he can do. I’ve tried to make practice as hard and stressful on him as I could these last two weeks. He has handled it well. I think all he’s missing at this point is the game reps which he will get over the next 13 weeks.
Jaiten can light you up and throw for 300+ yards, then turn around the next week and run for over 200. He fits our offense well and he’s surrounded by great players. I’m really excited to see what he does this season.
Defensively is where I have been the most satisfied. All summer and during camp they just flew around to the ball. They are scary too. I wouldn’t want to line up against those guys. They are fast, physical, and love to hit.
Even our secondary guys, who are just known for wanting to cover guys and get interceptions, want to come down and make a hit. In my seven years coaching, offense has always been our bright spot. I really think this is the year where people fear our defense more than our offense.
On the D-line George McNaughton has been unstoppable. George moved here last year from New York and every football fan in Blanding will know his name this season. He is a fast, physical defensive end who has a nose for the football.
At linebacker we return Jake Ivins but we’ve moved safety Branten Bethea to outside linebacker and former defensive lineman JD Palmer to the middle. We also moved Jagger Nieves from outside to middle linebacker. All of them have learned these new positions quickly and we believe they will all have a big year.
In the secondary Brody Bilbao, Derrick White, Javin Montella, and Tripp Palmer have looked amazing. They make it easy to man-up and send the house when we need to because they are all such great cover guys. Overall, I have been pleased with all of these guys and the guys behind them pushing them.
RS: Have you had to change up any of your coaching technique to fit this team better?
BC: I thought going into this season I would have to scale down the playbook to be very simple and not have as many run, pass, and screen plays. We were able to get really creative with the team last year because they were almost all two-year starters. This group wants to get creative on offense and defense and we have almost everything in that we had at the end of last year.
I am hoping the creativity doesn’t slow us down. I’ve found myself going back to the basics and fundamentals on things a little bit more just because this is a new, young team. I don’t think that’s a bad thing though. We’ve had to teach every play from the ground up again on both sides of the ball. Other than that, not much has changed.
RS: Can we expect a different style of offense, or will it be what we’ve come to expect from you?
BC: We’ve added some wrinkles with this year’s team. A lot of it will be the same. It’s hard to change something that allowed you to average a state-high 57.8 points per game last season.
The fun thing with this year’s team is we can condense a team down and power-run-game the ball and on the next play, with tempo, go empty and spread you out and throw the ball down the field, all without having to sub personnel.
I think depending on the week you could see us run the ball 30-40 times a game and then the very next week throw the ball 40 times a game. It’s fun having that kind of talent and ability on your team.
RS: How have you prepared for Grantsville and what do you expect from them?
BC: The Grantsville preparation has been fun. They run a new defense that has taken the college football world by storm over the last couple of years that has been a blast to study and prepare for. My coaching staff and I have been breaking down film from their games last year and some of their summer stuff.
They are a top-three 3A football team and we can expect a dogfight. I have never beaten Grantsville in my time as a coach and look forward to changing that this season. They are always physical and athletic and tough to beat at home. They return a lot of their talent from last season, so our guys are going to have to grow up quick.
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The Broncos kick off the 2024 season against the Cowboys at 7 p.m. this Friday, August 16 in Grantsville. Join us live on streamutah.live and Redrock 92 for the first Friday Night Lights broadcast of the season. Pregame begins at 6:30 p.m.