HIGHLAND, Utah – Lone Peak High School’s boys basketball team is trying to stay grounded after being ranked among the top high school teams in the country.
The Knights are ranked 3rd in the latest Maxprep.com poll. Their standing was bumped up after a strong win over Provisio East High School in Illinois.
“It’s nice for our school, community and things like that,” says head coach Quincey Lewis. “But who knows what that really means.”
Lewis says the players are still young in their basketball careers, and hopes the national recognition won’t put undue pressure on the team.
Already three players have signed to play basketball at a collegiate level with BYU. Nick Emery, Eric Mika, and TJ Haws have committed to play as Cougars after high school. A fourth player, Talon Shumway will become a Cougar, but opted to trade in the basketball shorts for a football helmet.
Lewis says the best part is being able to show the rest of the country what Utah basketball players can do.
“I think we turned some heads a little bit about Utah in general,” says Lewis. “They said “Geez, what kind of teams you got out there?” I said, ‘you know what, we’ve got good teams.”
“For years I don’t think Utah got the respect that it deserved,” says Orem High Head Coach Golden Holt. “But Lone Peak, a bunch of other teams have done a lot of traveling in the past few years, so they’ve proven themselves outside of Utah.”
The Knights are coming off back-to-back 5A state championships.
