It is not Texas. It is not California, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Yet.  But without a doubt, more and more Utah athletes are getting national exposure and being recruited by the very best schools in the country.

Timpview’s Chris Badger, a top-ranked safety for the defending champion T-Birds, has been the most recent prep athlete to sign at a big time school. Badger has verbally committed to play for Notre Dame in the 2010 season. Click here for more information on Badger

Pleasant Grove’s Dallas Lloyd, who was heavily recruited nationally, finally chose Stanford in early June. Lloyd, who led his team on a 10-game winning streak in 2008 and threw 15 TD’s and passed for over 1,600 yards will serve an LDS mission prior to his time in Palo Alto, California, according to Scout.com. For more information on Lloyd, see the following article.

Provo’s Kyle Collingsworth is head and shoulders the top recruit for basketball. The 6′7″ senior has Kansas, Virginia, Arizona State, Stanford and BYU as top schools that he has indicated he will visit soon. Collingworth recently participated in a NBA Top 100 camp in Virginia, where he was tutored by former NBA player Lindsey Hunter. Collingworth has stated he wants to make a decision soon prior to the hoop season on where he will play. His brother played for BYU before leaving for an LDS mission to Australia. Collingsworth averaged 18.4 ppg for the Bulldogs in the 2008-09 season.

Pine View junior Marcus Littlewood has begun to earn accolades world wide. The Panther shortstop has been a starter for Pine View since his freshman year. He recently earned the title of “Mr. Baseball” in the state of Utah by the Deseret News (click here for full story).

Littlewood was recently named to the all-tournament team as a member of Team USA. The 16 and under team earned Gold Medal honors with a 7-3 win over Mexico.

photo by Tom Smart, Deseret News

Other links to follow Littlewood’s career include:

USA Baseball

BaseballRumorMill

MIDVALE - Former Richfield High star and later Mountain View Coach Rob Cuff has been tabbed as the new executive director of the Utah High School Activities Association. Cuff replaces Dave Wilkey, who retires after over thirty years as a educator and administrator.

Cuff has been with the UHSAA since 2001 and worked as an assistant executive director under Evan Excell and then later Wilkey. Cuff beat out colleague Bart Thompson, North Summit principal and coach Jerre Holmes and Ben Lomond Principal Ben Smith.

Cuff was very successful as a coach for the Bruins for twelve years, including seven as head coach. In that time, MV compiled a 126-44 mark and dominated in the playoffs. His teams went 23-5 in the state tournament, winning twelve straight games at one point and earned two state banners in the process.

totalUTAHpreps.com is pleased with this decision to promote Cuff. We have found him very fair to work with in the past and believe his calm, gentle approach and experience will continue to push the UHSAA in a positive direction.

For other articles concerning this appointment, click below:

UHSAA Press Release

The Salt Lake Tribune selected twins Colby and Caden Richins as their Boys Athletes of the Year. The North Summit stars led their teams to state championships in both football and basketball this past year. For the full article, click below:

Salt Lake Tribune article

HURRICANE - totalUTAHpreps.com will host its first ever basketball tournament December 18-19, 2009 with host Hurricane High School.

Maple Mountain, a new school beginning in the 2009-10 year from Nebo school district will participate. Parowan High School from Iron County and Gunnison Valley High School will participate with Hurricane in the Tiger Classic.

The TUP tournament will be much more than just the basketball games. Following the Friday games, which Maple Mountain will play Parowan and Gunnison battles Hurricane, Saturday will have all the teams together to have a skills contest. Slam dunk, 3-point shots and a coaches contest on the free throw line will be memorable.

Also, TUP will have a motivational speaker to come and speak to the students prior to the Saturday games, which will be the winners of Friday’s games and the losers battle. All schools will also bring their junior varsity teams for the two game tournament.

It is the first year TUP has taken this on and plans to make it into a 16-team tournament by 2011. “We hope to make this an tremendous event for the community and for these schools,” said TUP’s Mike Butler. “We believe that in a short time, this can be a premier event that can rival tournaments all throughout the Western United States”.

Coaches have made their voices known and post season honors have been given.  Here is a list of some players in totalUTAHpreps.com radius of teams.

Region 1 MVP -  JAMES COWSER, DAVIS

First team — Chase Christensen, Viewmont; Jordan Hanson, Clearfield; Alex Nelson, Clearfield; Trevor Daniels, Davis; Jordan Welk, Davis; Tanner Hendry, Northridge; Braden Hamblin, Syracuse; Kyle DeHart, Viewmont; Carson Fuller, Weber; Blake Smithing, Northridge.

Region 2 MVP — Ammon Olsen, Alta.

First team —Jed Deleeuw, Alta; Nate Nielsen, Alta; Kevin Wagstaff, Skyline; Ryan Osterloh, Skyline; Jordan Bernardo, Jordan; Colton Burgon, Jordan; Sam Wunderli, Brighton; Will Cannon, Brighton; Kyle Maughan, Hillcrest; Jordan Edgington, Taylorsville.

Region 5 MVP — Sean Carey, Bountiful.

First team —Tyler Stahle, Woods Cross; Chandler Smith, Mountain Crest; Travis Parrish, Bountiful; Brant Mecham, Box Elder; Kyler Carlsen, Sky View

OGDEN - Zac Lambert, announcer for the Bonneville Lakers for the 2008-09 season, has recently been chosen to work for KFAN 1320 in Salt Lake, beginning in May.

Lambert will be involved with the ‘DJ/PK In the Morning’ show. This show stars KUTV’s David James and former Salt Lake Tribune writer Patrick Kinanhan. Lambert will be an intern for this show for a few months.

Lambert, a Weber State University student, is a Broadcasting major and has done an excellent job working for totalUTAHpreps.  He has been a very consistent and solid employee and did a great job as the voice of the Lakers, a position that he will continue in the future.  “I am very excited for Zac. We are glad to have him with us, but want him to be able to further his career in broadcasting and this is a great opportunity to work with the best radio show in the Salt Lake market,” said TUP owner, Mike Butler.

Lambert is the second TUP employee who has gone onto a major market. Jordan Green, who was an part time announcer for the Cedar game last year, now works for FOX Sports in Phoenix.

“I think we came out and played for Joe Montgomery. Even though he wasn’t the most talented player, he was the hardest worker by far of anyone. We just came out and played like him, and just played in his memory,” said Weirick

Joe Montgomery, a reserve player for the Jaguars last season, was involved in an accident earlier this week and passed away during West Jordan’s semifinal win over Davis.

Jags Dark Knights Title Plans/Deseret News

Gallegos comes up huge in finale/Deseret News

Video Highlights/DeseretNews/GotHighlights

Salt Lake Tribune

WEST VALLEY - Move over 1975. A new trophy is going to share some space with you.

Hitting 23 out of 24 free throws, including 14 for 14 in the final quarter, the Panthers end Provo’s undefeated season and a half, snapping a 40-game winning streak, prevailing 56-44 to win their first title in over three decades.

West, playing loose and confident throughout the 4A tournament, put the pressure on the Bulldogs early, coming back from a 7-3 deficit to tie the game at 11-11 after one period.

The second quarter was the pivitol quarter for West, outscoring Provo 12-3 with a pair of three-point bombs by Austin and Barnes.  West also went 7-8 from the charity stripe.

Provo showed why they have been the most dominate team all season in the third quarter, eclipsing the big lead, with five different players scoring and snagging a 33-32 edge and momentum into the final period.

West withstood the Bulldog blows and manned up in the final quarter, hitting key free throws and playing good defense on Provo.

Chris Barnes led West with 17 points.

photo by Deseret News/Laura Seitz

WEST VALLEY - The Jaguars shot 70% in the first half to lead 16-13 after the first period of play.

West Jordan continues to play well in the second quarter and the Jags continue to light up the scoreboard as Weirick scores a season high 23 points to help boost the West Jordan team into the finals.

 SCORING SUMMARY West Jordan – Sawyer 11, Weirick 23, Holt 4, Gallegos 7, Udy 6. Totals — 18 13-21 51. 3-pointers – Sawyer, Gallegos.

 Davis – Welk 6, Larrabee 9, Taylor 6, Daniels 5, Cowser 10, Bennett 2, VanWeezep 3. Totals — 14 8-12 41. 3-pointers – Taylor 2, Larrabee, VanWeezep, Daniels.