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Smalley resigns as PCHS head football coach

By Christopher Kamrani,The Park Record

Park City High School head football coach Kai Smalley resigned from his position Wednesday afternoon when he addressed his players and told them he was stepping away from the program.

Smalley was at the team’s helm for three seasons, starting in 2010. In his three seasons as head coach, Park City finished with a combined record of 10-21 and 0-2 in postseason play. In his first year as head coach, the Miners went 6-4 and won the Region 10 championship, but lost in the first round of the 3A state playoffs to Emery at home.

In 2011, Park City struggled out of the gate and fell to 0-5 to start the season, but finished the season 3-8 before falling to Desert Hills in the first round of the 3A playoffs.

This season, the Miners were saddled with injuries at nearly every position, which took a harsh toll on such a young and inexperienced team. Park City finished 1-9 and went 0-5 in Region 10 play.

The job was Smalley’s first as a head coach. Before his time as an offensive coordinator at Wasatch High School, prior to his hiring in the spring of 2010 at Park City, Smalley, a former defensive lineman for the University of Oregon Ducks, won state titles as a coordinator at Marist High School in Eugene, Ore.

"It was just as hard if not harder than I thought it was," Smalley said Wednesday evening. "It doesn’t have the impact when you’re leaving as a coordinator as it does as a head coach. It’s tough."

Smalley said he plans to remain as a physical education teacher at Park City High School through the 2012-13 school year and will help whoever is brought in as the next Miners’ head coach become familiar with the players and the program.

"The longer I stayed here as head coach, the longer I was stringing those kids along," he said. "I had to make and own up to a decision.

"I took this job to help (the players) out and until someone tells me to stop doing it, I’m going to help them out."


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