Letter to the Editor: Coach should be thanked

By ERIC MORTENSEN
NEAL PEACOCK

Editor,
This letter concerns the recent resignation of Emery High football coach Kevin Reynolds. Kevin came to Emery High in 1990 to teach and coach. He served faithfully as an assistant football coach for 13 seasons, and took over as head coach in 2003. He has been the head football coach for the past three seasons. Kevin has also coached wrestling and track at Emery High. Kevin never got into coaching for himself. It has always been about his players. Kevin would do almost anything to help out one of his players. Most who have played for Kevin would agree that he is a kind, good, and decent person.
The past several seasons have been very difficult for Emery High football. Emery has not advanced far into the state playoffs since 1999. There are many different reasons for this, but Kevin has received most of the blame from many in the community. Anonymous complaints made their way to the school and to the school district office this season about Kevin and his coaching style. It seems that when times get tough, anyone who ever played high school football, watches football on Saturdays and Sundays, or plays Madden football on Play Station, thinks they could coach the team better. The complaints about Kevin and his staff were unfounded and flimsy, but Kevin was asked to resign his position mid-season. This obviously did not take place, but these events put a dark cloud over the coaching staff for the rest of the season. Despite this, Kevin and his team persevered and put together three very good games in a row to close out the regular season. They held 3A’s best running back to zero touchdowns in a close loss to North Sanpete, completely annihilated Granite in an emotional homecoming game, and beat rival Carbon convincingly to qualify for the state playoffs. After the playoff loss in Morgan, Kevin reluctantly announced his decision to resign to his players.
The events surrounding Emery football this season were very unfortunate. Kevin deserved better treatment. All he did was create a safe and positive environment for his players where they could learn how to play football and have fun doing it, regardless of wins and losses. He provided opportunities for all kids. He was available all summer for weights and passing camps, even though little support was shown for these programs. He made sure his players had all the equipment they needed including brand new helmets and shoulder pads for most players. He and his staff dedicated many hours apart from the practice time with the players watching film; developing game plans; and discussing ways to improve. He provided a competitive schedule of games for varsity, junior varsity, and sophomore teams. For this he should be thanked and congratulated, not asked to resign. High school football is for the kids. It is not for parents, coaches, or school administration. Somewhere along the line this fact has been forgotten.