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Prep football: West showing signs of turnaround after lengthy drought

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) After back-to-back winless seasons, the West Panthers are slowly starting to get back on track under second-year coach Justin Thompson (left), Wednesday September 20, 2017.

When Justin Thompson took over the West High football program last year, his Panthers viewed the coach from east-side Skyline as an outsider.

Especially when he started playing music at practice.

“Just horrendous,” senior Viliami Makoni said.

“He listens to a lot of music that my parents listen to,” wide receiver Cole Dunkley added.

“Give us something that we know at least,” senior Brydon Johnson pleaded.

They may not appreciate Jon Bon Jovi, but after years of struggling on the football field, including back-to-back winless seasons, Thompson does have the Panthers singing a different tune this year. West opened the season with wins in its first two games to snap a streak of 19 straight losses. And while the Panthers have gone on to drop their last three games, including a 45-42 shootout with Olympus on Friday night, there’s a different feeling around West these days.

“We hold ourselves to a higher standard now,” Dunkley said, “because we know that we’re capable of it.”

WEST’S LAST 10 YEARS <br>Year • Coach • Record <br>2017 • Justin Thompson • 2-3 <br>2016 • Justin Thompson • 0-9 <br>2015 • Keith Lopati • 0-9 <br>2014 • Keith Lopati • 4-5 <br>2013 • Keith Lopati • 4-6 <br>2012 • Keith Lopati • 2-8 <br>2011 • Justin Spencer • 6-6 <br>2010 • Justin Spencer • 7-4 <br>2009 • Justin Spencer • 5-6 <br>2008 • Randy Schreiter • 5-6

When Thompson left Skyline, his alma mater, he saw both problems and promise in a new opportunity at West. The Panthers had struggled, but the school’s boundaries are filled with talented players, even if many of the top athletes had chosen to attend different schools.

Upon arriving at West, however, he found a tougher situation than he might have expected. Players were disinterested after years of losing. The school couldn’t field three teams, as even smaller schools around the state typically do. Senior John Abercrombie estimated that only half of the Panthers attended practice regularly last year, and players quit on each other as the losses piled up.

But even as they suffered nine straight defeats in Thompson’s first year, the underclassmen at West started to make strides.

The Panthers surprised themselves by winning a 7-on-7 tournament over the summer.

“I was getting tired,” recalled Johnson, who missed nearly all of his junior year after lacerating his liver making a tackle. “My legs were hurting. My feet had blisters for sure. But watching all my teammates keep working on and on, I was like, I can’t give up now because none of my guys are going to give up.”

That confidence carried over into the fall when the Panthers opened the year with wins over Hillcrest and Cyprus.

“We’re still a work in progress,” Thompson said. “We think our team should have more than two wins, and we’re not satisfied with two wins. But at the same time, we’ve accomplished some things already this year that we’re proud of. It’s exciting for the school to get back in the win column.”

Abercrombie and his teammates know the other feeling too well. Too often, they said, they were mocked at school after their defeats.

“Our school is giving us respect again,” he said.

“People are actually excited to come to games,” Dunkley added. “You’ll see kids from last year who were roasting you.”

And the Panthers are making things entertaining for them.

They already have put up more points and gained more yards this season than they did all of last season. A year after throwing just four touchdowns and 16 interceptions, quarterback Romeo Johnston has 16 touchdowns and six picks. Makoni has hauled in six touchdowns. Abercrombie, the do-everything weapon in West’s attack, has four rushing touchdowns and one receiving score.

The Panthers give a lot of credit to their second-year coach.

“Because we’ve had another year with him, we trust him a lot more and we believe in the process more,” Makoni said. “He’s developed a bond with all of us that’s really strong and he’s making a big difference in our lives outside of football, too.”

But as West looks to get back on track with a win Friday night at Murray, Thompson reminds his players that this is a good start in rebuilding their program, but nothing more than that.

“There’s progress there. Tremendous progress,” the coach said. “But I tell the kids all the time, we didn’t set out to win one or two games. That would sort of be even more sad than losing all of them. If that’s your definition of good, then we’ve already lost.”