ST. GEORGE — The term “Dynasty” in sports is typically associated with a streak of dominant wins that extend from one season to the next. Notable sports dynasties include the 1990s Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods dominating the PGA tour and Alabama football under Nick Saban in the NCAA.
The Canyon View Falcons Horseshoe team is establishing their own dynasty by capturing their fifth straight Utah High School Horseshoe League state championship.
The event was staged May 12 at the Cedar City Horseshoe Park, a facility with 24 professional-grade horseshoe courts used by three area UHSHL teams. The league is now in its fifth year and is comprised of several high school teams, plus a home school-based team from southwestern Utah. Canyon View entered the state tournament as the top seed with a season record of five wins and one loss and 54 season “match points.”
“Match point ranking is the method used to seed teams in the championship.,” Canyon View Head Coach Seth Ohms said. “When teams play in regular-season matches, there are 10.5 match points available to the teams. The points won accumulate over the season to seed the teams in the state bracket.”
Canyon View is no stranger to being the top seed, having held that rank each of the last five seasons, but this year was a little different for the Falcons; they lost their first match this season to a strong team from Hurricane High School and had to play catch up all season, Ohms said.
“That loss was a wake-up call for our team and served as motivation to get better over the season,” he said. “We knew if we worked hard, we would have a chance to see Hurricane again at state to avenge that loss.”
The scenario played out. After besting an impressive Panguitch team in the semi-finals, Canyon View met Hurricane in the finals, who themselves, in the semi-finals, had dispatched a combined team from the St George area high schools called Red Rock.
“Our team is pretty young with freshmen making up the bulk of the roster, among a couple upperclassmen,” Ohms said. “The kids had a strong desire to prove they were able to keep the dynasty going at Canyon View this season after having lost several top players the last couple seasons.”
Prove it they did. Canyon View’s team won four of five rounds in the final. Each round is a best-of-three head-to-head face-off to 21 points for each competitor. To win the match, a team must win three of the five rounds. The Falcons sealed the victory over Hurricane and claimed the 2022 Utah State High School Championship crown.
“We have a strong young team this year and hope to get better and better throughout our high school years,” said team captain Coulson Ohms, himself a freshman
And he is no stranger to the competition; his older brother and sister each were each top competitors for Canyon View in past seasons, and his dad is his coach. But Coulson Ohms is not living in anyone’s shadow, having notched a game this season at 80% ringers.
“That’s world-class level,” Coach Ohms said. “Not many people, let alone a young kid, can pitch a game that consistently.”
He’s not the only Falcon to catch his coach’s attention. Fellow freshmen Tayvin Peterson pitched two games at 70% ringers, and Zach Nielson added two at 50% this season.
“The whole team stepped up their game throughout this year; they’re young and hungry,” Coach Ohms said. “Other UHSHL teams have some hot players too, but what sets us apart is the greater number of kids pitching at a higher level.”
Numbers are important in this sport. The more players who join a team helps build a stronger starting lineup for matches. Ten players compete at a match, five from each team. Ringer percentage, the average number of ringers one makes out of 100 tries, is the tell-tale measure of individual and team skill.
“It’s a little different than other team sports … it’s not high impact like football, but still competitive just in more of skill and consistency rather than force,” Coulson Ohms said. “It’s a blast, we have fun; we have a fun team cheer before we pitch and we have fun with everybody.”
Added Coach Ohms. “Horseshoes is a really social sport. The kids are friendly with players from other teams; they have a lot of fun together.”
But there is a serious side too, Coulson Ohms said said.
“We’ve got a dynasty; we have taken it more seriously than some other teams have and it shows,” he said.
The Falcons are already looking forward to next year and anticipate strong competition from more teams. The UHSHL is starting to expand to include other areas of the state, inviting students to form teams at other Utah high schools.
Coach Ohms says it doesn’t take much to form a team. Teams can organize as a school club-based group or even as a community group of interested students.
“We’re the same as high school mountain biking or water polo; non-traditional club sports that are available to allow more students to get involved in extracurricular activities,” he said.
Asked if more teams might threaten Canyon View’s dynasty, Ohms said, “I hope so. I have no doubt there are some excellent horseshoe pitchers in Utah who just need the chance to shine on the courts. As a coach, I look forward to the challenge that presents and the motivation it provides for these kids to work harder to defend their title.”