Copyright Salt Lake Tribune
Andy Hadfield is as much of a Lehi Pioneer as they come. The grandson of a 1930s Pioneer football phenom and son of a former Lehi quarterback, Hadfield was a three-sport star in his high school career, playing on the football team, competing in track and guiding the Pioneer boys’ basketball team to a three-peat of state championships from 1996-98. During Hadfield’s days of wearing a purple ox on his helmet, the Lehi High School boundaries encompassed all of Lehi, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort and parts of Highland. With all that area, Lehi was still only a Class 3A school. Now, Hadfield is the head coach of a 6A Lehi football team that competes with the best programs Utah has to offer — and it’s not even the only high school in the city, much less the only high school for four. In the past 30 years, the area has seen the addition of Lone Peak, West Lake, Cedar Valley and cross-town foes, the Skyridge Falcons. With this recent population boom just south of Salt Lake and the ever-changing demographics in the Beehive State, Utah County has become a hotbed for high school football. Take a look at the 2026 Utah player rankings on 247 Sports. Outside of Corner Canyon — which is the only Salt Lake County team in its region and sits just five minutes north of the Utah County line — there is not a single name from Salt Lake County in the top 15. Utah County dominates the list. Hadfield’s squad has six players in the top 25, highlighted by the No. 10-ranked player in the state, Mataalii Benjamin, a three-star offensive tackle who is committed to Minnesota. You have to go all the way down to No. 19 before you find a non-Corner Canyon, Salt Lake County high school player on the list. That player is Olympus’ Adam Bywater, who is committed to BYU. Ten years ago, things couldn’t have been more different. Salt Lake County dominated the list of Utah’s top recruits. In 2016, the top eight players were all from Salt Lake County. Schools like Murray, Bingham, Brighton, and Cottonwood were frequently found on these lists, but are now seldom seen. Jeff Hansen, BYU recruiting insider for 247 Sports, has been covering high school football recruiting for over a decade and has seen Utah County become a power, while Salt Lake County football has diminished. “Within Salt Lake, there are not a ton of dominant 6A schools like there used to be,” Hansen Said. “Because of that, with open enrollment, kids are kind of moving around all over the place. It seems like guys are starting to make their way south more than they used to. Ten years ago, Bingham was a powerhouse, so everybody was trying to find their way to get into Bingham. As the winds have changed, there are more guys that find their way to Utah County schools.” Winning ways Hansen believes that the reasoning for Utah County’s football success this decade is quite simple. “I think it just comes down to winning,” Hansen said. “Utah County schools are winning and that’s what players are making their way to … schools that win, that’s where guys end up going to play. Generally, what happens is if you have talent, then other talent is going to want to play for you.” But just how much are these Utah County schools winning compared to Salt Lake? A lot. Since 2018, every single Utah 6A state championship has been played between either two Utah County schools or a Utah County school and Corner Canyon. The last Salt Lake County school not named Corner Canyon to play in a 6A or 5A state championship game was in 2017, when Bingham beat East for the 6A championship. The majority of these championship games have been played against Utah’s notorious Region 3, which is comprised of “point of the mountain” schools Corner Canyon, Lone Peak, American Fork, Skyridge and Lehi. The last seven 6A championship games have solely been played between two of these five teams. Lone Peak, which has won two state championships in that time frame, has three players ranked inside Utah’s top 10. Bott Mulitalo (No. 3) is an offensive lineman committed to BYU and Jaron and Kennan Pula (No. 5 and No. 9, respectively) are two wide receiver twin brothers who are committed to Utah. The Pula brothers were two of the top prizes in the class of 2026 and are emblematic of modern-day high school football and recruiting. The two brothers who have 15 touchdowns between them in 2025 decided to transfer to Lone Peak for their senior seasons after playing three years at Timpview. Over the summer, the two decommitted from UCLA before committing to Utah. In today’s age of high school football, transferring is not a foreign concept, and the point of the mountain schools have benefited more than anyone. “The most transfers we’ve ever had was this year, and we’ve also had the most kids we’ve ever had transfer out,” said Bart Brockbank, head coach of the Lone Peak Knights. Hadfield, who has been on the Lehi coaching staff for over a decade, also acknowledged how much transfers impact his program, and subsequently, other programs in the state. “Especially at the top-level programs, there’s a lot of kids who are wanting to come into those schools. We don’t feel like we lose players out of here, but there are a lot of players that come in here,” Hadfield said. Every coach will share their concerns with transfer culture affecting team chemistry, but most of the high-level prospects already know each other, and have played together at offseason camps. “A lot of these guys are friends. I think that’s the difference from 10 or 15 years ago,” Hansen said. “With 7-on-7, travel ball and things like that, everybody kind of gets to know everybody in the state of Utah. When I grew up, you knew who was in your area. The guy that lived 20 minutes to the south? Well that was your rival. Now you play on showcases with them.” For Mulitalo, the Lone Peak offensive lineman who is ranked No. 12 nationally at his position, adding the Pula brothers didn’t affect his team’s offensive chemistry. He’s known the Pula brothers his whole life. He knows most of the best players in the state. “I’m close with a bunch of the boys from the other schools,” Mulitalo said. “At Lehi, I know PJ (Takitaki) and Lii (Mataalii Benjamin). I know a couple kids from Skyridge, like Harvie (Moeai) and Kaneal (Sweetwyne) and all of them.” “I met those guys through the camps, like the Under Armour camps and everything. I feel like they’re great people and I like my relationship with them,” Mulitalo added. Shifting demographics As more players decide to team up with each other in Utah County, there are two more factors in play for the decline in the sheer amount of high school athletes in Salt Lake County: Declining age demographics and the booming housing market. From 2010-20, the age group with the biggest decline in population in Salt Lake City was children under 10 years old, with a decrease of 4,933 in that age range, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Those kids are now in high school. Overall, Salt Lake County has seen a rise in residents over 65, and a decrease in total youth population. Additionally, the median house pricing has nearly doubled in Salt Lake County in the last 10 years, according to the Wasatch Front Regional Listing Service, leaving young families to look elsewhere to buy a home. Between these two factors, a plethora of schools have classified down when it comes to athletics, due to a declining student body population and open enrollment that allows students to attend schools outside of their boundaries. The once dominant 6A force East has since reclassified to 4A, less than a decade after it played in the 6A state championship game and had future NFL running back Jaylen Warren on its team. Jordan, Cottonwood, Highland, and Murray have all gone from 5A to 4A. In 2018, Jordan and Cottonwood were not only in the same classification as state power Corner Canyon, but were in the same region. There are only six schools from Salt Lake County in 6A, with Corner Canyon being the only eastern Salt Lake County school in the state’s highest classification. While moving down from 6A to 5A or 5A to 4A might be viewed as a way to make your program competitive, Hadfield expressed a different sentiment about his Lehi Pioneers, who made the jump to 6A after back-to-back 5A championships in 2021 and 2022. “When we were 5A, we didn’t get a whole lot of kids that moved over to Lehi,” Hadfield said. “Now we’re on the same level as Corner Canyon, Skyridge, Lone Peak and American Fork. Now we get a lot more players that want to come to Lehi to check it out.” For the schools that reclassified a level below, it could mean losing players to a Lehi or a Corner Canyon. Not only will the player get to compete for a state championship, he will have more eyes from colleges on his program, and a more proven path to play at the next level. As long as these demographic changes in Salt Lake County keep happening, and as long as the best coaches are building up programs across county lines, Utah County’s dominance in football will likely stay at this level for years to come. This isn’t to say that there will not be the occasional Salt Lake — once again, excluding Corner Canyon — team that could compete for the state championship. This season, West High, which sits in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, is the favorite to win the 5A title. The Panthers’ one loss on the season was a narrow 6-point defeat to Region 3’s American Fork. However, the Utah County schools have built up their programs to the point of no foreseeable return and college scouts realize that. Gone are the days of seeing a Highland High player in the top 15 of the state’s best recruits year in and year out. The Rams, and other programs like them, might have a player like that once every five years now. But for Hadfield’s Pioneers, the recruits will keep coming.
