In a room under the bleachers, the players dressed in front of old, metal lockers. This environment, far removed from the excesses and entitlement of major college football, has produced one of the country's strongest junior college programs in a refreshing, overachieving style.
And now Kevin White is trying to ruin everything.
That's not exactly true. As the school's new athletic director, the quarterback of the Badgers' 1985 national championship team is working to improve Snow's facilities and increase financial help to players. White figures he can enhance the program without spoiling the athletes or reducing the desire just to play that brings them to this central Utah town of 5,000 residents.
"I can only imagine what would happen to us if we do have the upgrades," White said. "I can't wait."
As encouraging as the future may be, with White having secured some $5 million in pledges for an end-zone complex, lights, additional bleachers at 2,200-seat Badger Stadium and athletic scholarships, Snow's past and present are already impressive. Saturday, the Badgers will meet Butler County CC of Kansas in the NJCAA title game at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy.
"With Kevin coming in, he's trying to build the things around the program to match the level of what we have built in football," said Steve Coburn, a former assistant who's 33-2 in three years as Snow's head coach.
Coburn never talks about what the Badgers lack, compared with four-year schools. The program certainly has advanced since the days when Bronco Mendenhall, a co-captain of that '85 team, remembers scrounging for equipment in a pile. Defensive lineman Mike Laloni said Snow "can be put up there with BYU and Utah, just the way it's run."
Yet Coburn and his offensive and defensive coordinators also teach classes or work for the school in other positions, while other coaches hold off-campus jobs. "A lot of people, from the staff through the players, sacrifice a lot to be here," Coburn said.
That's Snow's secret: Everybody's in it for the sake of football, not the accompanying benefits. The proof is in the annual walk-on tryouts, where more than 100 invited prospects - "If we opened it up, we'd have 400," Coburn said - compete for 10 spots.
So the state's only JC football program continually produces its own brand of player. Among the current stars is Tyson Church, a running back from nearby North Sanpete High. Originally a fourth-stringer, the 5-foot-8, 175-pound Church has totaled more than 1,100 yards of rushing and receiving as a freshman for the 11-0 Badgers, welcoming the opportunity to "show people it doesn't matter how big you are, it matters how you play on the field," he said.
The other pleasant surprise was quarterback Quinn Mecham, a freshman from Timpview High. When returning starter Jon Eastman broke his foot in preseason practice, Mecham responded by passing for 1,851 yards and 25 touchdowns with only five interceptions. And then he graciously stepped aside for the last two regular-season games when Eastman became healthy. "It's hard to play in front of someone that good," Mecham said, "so it was an easy transition."
James Aiono believes his two seasons at Snow will enable him to move easily into Utah's program. Having needed to improve academically, he has thrived as a defensive lineman and intends to join the Utes next season.
At Utah, Aiono will have all his college costs covered, eat training-table meals and travel luxuriously, compared with the all-night bus rides from Ephraim to Arizona. That will be his payoff in football. Or maybe he's already experiencing it, in a setting where Aiono and his teammates have come just for the chance to keep playing.
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com
SNOW vs. BUTLER
Today, noon, Rio Tinto Stadium
* Snow has produced current NFL players Derek Smith, Kevin Curtis, Deuce Lutui and Brett Keisel. Among active college players are Utah's Matt Asiata, BYU's Coleby Clawson and Andrew Rich and Oklahoma State's Andrew Mitchell.
* Snow's first-team all-conference players and their high schools: Tyson Church, RB, North Sanpete; Peter Tuitupou, TE, Mountain View; Devin Tavana, OL, Kanai (Hawaii); James Aiono, DL, Murray; Preston Erickson, OL, Alta; Isi Filimoeatu, LB, Hunter; Jordan Brown, DB, Box Elder; Regan Buck, RS, Madison (Idaho).
* Of the 115 players in Snow's program, 86 are Utahns.
