Experience, success come with new Warrior basketball coach Meacham

ST. GEORGE – Sometimes finding a new coach to lead a program can be an agonizing experience. But then again, sometimes it’s a no brainer.

Snow Canyon’s administration just tabbed Doug Meacham (pronounced mee-chum, not meek-um) as its new boys head basketball coach. Meacham takes over at Snow Canyon after 16 years as the head coach at 6A American Fork High School, leading the Cavemen to a 219-148 record over that span, including several appearances in the 5A and 4A state semifinals and finals over those years.

“We’re excited because he does have an amazing résumé and is a proven coach,” Snow Canyon principal Warren Brooks said. “We really had quite a few applicants, but he stood out because he has so much experience and has shown that he can succeed as a coach. We’re so excited that he is willing to come down here and coach.”

Meacham is a native of American Fork and played for the Cavemen during his prep days. He took over as the basketball coach in 2002 and immediately led AFHS to five straight winning seasons, including an appearance in the 4A semifinals. After American Fork was bumped up to 5A in 2005, the program took a few years to adjust to the more competitive and larger classification.

Doug Meacham and his wife.

But in the 2010-11 season, Meacham led the Cavemen to a 20-5 season, falling 64-52 in the 5A championship game to perennial powerhouse Lone Peak. From that point on, Meacham accumulated a 127-69 record in eight seasons.

“I’ve been fortunate to have really good players at American Fork and I feel like we’ve built a good program – a program that year-in and year-out was competitive,” Meacham said. “I can’t say enough about the experience I’ve had there and the people I’ve worked with. But I’ve always wanted to head south. This is maybe a little sooner than we were planning, but it’s worked out.”

Meacham, who is married and has four children, said he is excited to get started with the Warriors as soon as he finishes his commitment with American Fork.

“I’m going to be coming down as much as I can until we move down here,” he said. “I want to come down and watch and observe and see what we have. I want to be able to assess our skill set and figure out what our strengths are and after that, then we can move into what type of offense and what type of defense we will run.”

Brooks said he believes Meacham will be a perfect fit for Snow Canyon and its boosters.

“He really seems like players’ coach,” Brooks said. “I was impressed when we interviewed him with how he cared and was concerned about the players, plus the traditions in the school and the community. He seems like a great fit for Snow Canyon.”

Meacham didn’t make any promises as far as number of wins or championships, but he did vow that his teams would be tough.

“Our kids will come out and compete, and if you do that the numbers will take care of themselves and I’ll be able to sleep at night,” he said. “There are some things you can’t control, like injuries and certain years you have higher talent level, but I take pride in getting guys to compete, play for each other and play hard every night.”

Meacham takes over for Jamison Sorenson, who stepped down after two years at the helm. Sorenson was 15-28 in two seasons as SC’s head coach.

The Meacham family

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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