Brighton football was king of the Region 6 hill for three straight years until a disastrous fourth quarter in the last region game of 2023 against region rival West High. 

Third-year coach Casey Sutera has a roadmap to regain the high ground and extend it into the foreseeable future.  

That plan in a word is “preparation” or more precisely “persistent preparation.” Sutera constantly extols the value of hard work and offseason training. “The biggest thing I learned from our first two wins is that the preparation work that we have done in the offseason is definitely showing up in our play. The players have done such a great job with our offseason program as well as participation in other sports. That has contributed so much to our physicality, resilience and mental toughness that we have shown so far in the early season,” he said. 

A captain and 2024 state champion hurdler, Beau LeFleur is an example of the multi-year, multisport preparation that Sutera has emphasized since coming to guide Brighton’s football program. Noted LaFleur,  “I believe track has made me an all-around much better athlete. It takes hard working individuals to genuinely take it serious as it’s a very challenging sport physically and mentally. Your conditioning gets leaps and bounds better, while also taking your core and leg strength to another level.” Lafleur made the transition from offense to defense this year to capitalize on his super power of “pick and return.” He said he prefers “hitting rather than being hit.”

Fellow captain and state heavyweight wrestler, OL Marshall Huber adds “the offensive mindset this year is that we will win by being the more physical team every week. Our hope for the season is to win the state championship.” Huber is a tri-sport athlete also going to state in shot put and discus. “Wrestling has given me faster feet in football and helped me understand leverage. While track has made me much stronger and explosive which helps me in football,” he said.

A jubilant victory for Brighton over 6A Syracuse. (Photo David Mayfield @fortodayphotography)

Brighton’s first three games are nonregion contests against Provo and two rising 6A teams—Syracuse and Riverton. Per Sutera, “Riverton will be a tough opponent. Coach Freeland does a really good job and I expected that they would be much improved from last year. I have emphasized to our players to respect all of our opponents but it is about us improving each week especially early in the season.”

Region play will be a test of said preparation. The preseason Deseret News poll has pegged Brighton to finish a disappointing third behind West and Olympus. “We have a tough region and multiple teams have a case to be ranked No. 1. I don’t put a ton into the preseason ranking because at the end of the day we have to go earn the top spot,” Sutera said.

To earn the region title and a proper seeding in the state tournament Brighton will battle through Alta at home, Olympus on the road and an East Leopards team looking for revenge after losing to Brighton on a valiant goal-line stand the last time the two teams met at Brighton.

“Although we bounced back last year, the Alta game was for sure a tough part of the season. It is good to have them at home this year. I think Olympus is always a tough game. They are well coached and have some really good players returning. Again the focus has to be on how we prepare and execute in the game,” Sutera said.

Mason Haertel, captain of the track team and now captain of the football team, has the goal to “make it to the turf.” He says “this team works incredibly hard every day, and I believe we are the type of team to go undefeated in region and play in the November games on the turf at Rice Eccles Stadium in the final games of the state tournament.”

Brighton football team captain Gus Blake denies a Provo pass. (Photo David Mayfield @fortodayphotography)

Gus Blake, a varsity wrestler as a freshman and a 2024 football team captain, is known by his coaches as “a great leader on the field and a stalwart in the offseason during the months of strength and conditioning in the weight room.” Blake anchors the defense with a take-no-prisoners mindset. “Our defense is looking really solid and is only gonna get better with each game,” he said. “We have paid the price and worked really hard in the offseason.”

The season will likely come down to that last game on Oct. 16 against West. The Panthers just got reclassified to 5A after making it to the 6A quarterfinals in 2022. Last year on the West field region championship was determined on a rainy night where Brighton was forced to deploy its ground game. The game and the fourth-straight region title was in hand until 1:06 left in that late-October game. Brighton misfired on its own two-yard line allowing West an easy score and forfeiting the four-peat region tile. Coach Sutera’s team will be prepared to right that loss this year at home on Freestone Field.