The Hillcrest Huskies kick off their football season Aug. 15 on the road in Logan.

“Starting the season on the road is tough,” said head football coach Robby Kaelin. “We will be going into a hostile environment; Logan is a great football town because everyone comes to games and packs the stands. We won’t have the energy of all our fans, but we’ll make sure our kids will come out with energy, because there's a lot of factors against us there. There's not much room for errors or first-game jitters because they’re a good team, so we need to battle through and have energy and positivity.”

Husky fans won’t wait long to see their team at home. The JV plays Summit Academy Aug. 20, and varsity hosts Cottonwood Aug. 29 before starting region play Sept. 12 vs. Hunter. West follows on Sept. 19. In the stands may be 65 Little League players who were trained by Husky coaches and players in the offseason.

“A lot of the youth come watch and support our team; it's great to have them in the stands with us,” he said.

Hillcrest joins a competitive 5A Region 4 this year.

“We've got a tough one. There are some very solid and established teams with West, West Jordan and Granger. Hunter and Taylorsville are good teams as well with a lot of size and returning starters at the varsity level. Cyprus and Kearns round out the group. It'll be a good challenge, but definitely a region we can compete in,” Kaelin said. “We're excited about this year. We've got a good, cohesive group of kids who have all been working hard this off season and we're excited to see what we can do continuing to build the program brick by brick. We're in the process of building something that can stand a long time.”

Returning at quarterback is junior K’von Houston, who earned the starting job as a freshman, but was sidelined most of the season by a collarbone injury.

“Last year, he got thrown into the fire as a sophomore; he had some growing pains there, but did really well,” Kaelin said. “We've also got one of our running backs (senior Charlie Brown) who got some time last year and a few other running backs we're excited about this year.”

Brown also will start as linebacker as he did last year, while sophomore Keli’I Batimana transitions to running back after playing safety and receiver last season.

“He'll also play a prominent role on the defensive side of the ball again this year,” Kaelin said. “Receiver wise, we've got a couple who are returning. Everybody else is either new to the front at varsity level or is transferring in so it'll be interesting to see how we can mesh all together there. We've got good talent on the offensive line and are returning two senior starters, who are great leaders for our team. Defensively, we look pretty much brand new from last year. A lot of underclassmen who are going to be stepping up defensively for us.”

With only 14 seniors, Kaelin leans on underclassmen: 21 juniors, 23 sophomores, and 29 freshmen.

“A handful of them are actually first year football players too,” he said adding student-athletes have returned to their boundary school to play or reached out to a friend who plays to ask how to be part of the program. “They have been in the school and seen some of the hype and positivity come from our program and have just wanted to be associated with it.”

The Huskies will still run a spread offense, but plan to introduce new formations.

“We've got quite a few tight-end bodies who we're excited about. We'll do a little bit of 11 and 12 personnel, with one running back, one tight end or one running back and two tight ends, but the main point of our offense is to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers quickly and let them operate in space,” Kaelin said.

Players prepared all summer with strength and speed training and practicing at Union Middle while Hillcrest’s stadium underwent renovations. New turf and an eight-lane track were recently completed; Kaelin said the team was slated to play on the new field for the annual Green and White scrimmage.

“I'm very excited about how our team has jumped together; they’re very cohesive. They constantly push each other,” Kaelin said. “We've got great leadership at all age groups, at all levels. We've got a great incoming freshman class who are willing to work hard, and they're learning from our upperclassmen, who have trusted in the process of building this team.”