With the 2009 season less than two weeks away and practices officially opening Monday, all seven teams from Washington and Iron County are optimistic about their chances for a playoff berth.

Two new coaches dot the Region 9 map, with both of them beginning their second stint with Region 9 teams. Snow Canyon’s Jay Graft, who coached the Warriors from 2002-2004 returns and Desert Hills Jake Nelson becomes a head coach again after a succesful run at Dixie High.

Hurricane and Pine View had the most successful seasons from a year ago with the Tigers reaching the state 3A finals and Pine View reaching the 4A semi-finals. Both teams come in with high hopes, but also realize they lost a ton of talent and experienced players. Dixie, with coach Blaine Monkres now in his second season in Southern Utah, looks to take aim at the Panthers. So in TUP’s forcast, here is who will be the champions, who will make the playoffs and how far teams will go in their playoff run:

1. Hurricane (3A) Despite losing nearly 2,000 all-purpose yards from superstar Gordie Dotson, the Tigers still have a backfield full of weapons to use as they hope to get back to back Region 9 titles. Hurricane also has a very favorable home schedule with Pine View, Snow Canyon and Cedar all in Tiger Stadium. Their road game against Dixie could decide the top seed in Region 9.  Hurricane’s defense should continue to be one of the top in the state. Six starters return from last season, all who are very athletic and talented. Offensively, the Dotson era is turned over to a committee of players who will have their chance to take the ball and earn the spotlight. Jacob Pugh has the most experience as well as Zach Sorenson who will play more on the defensive side of the ball. Two brothers will battle for QB honors. Adam and Tim Long both saw some varsity time last year and both have strengths to contend for the starting job.  Hurricane gets the top seed this season due to the great home schedule and will advance to the third round of the playoffs. Anticipated record 8-3.

2. Dixie (4A). The Flyers will win the 4A Region crown and could certainly knock off the Tigers for the top spot. Monkres will have his system in place, which has won a state title at Morgan and built a Fremont program from the trenches. QB Mike Sharp proved he can handle the spread offense. Sharp is athletic and smart and has RB Dallen Reber to pitch the ball. Also Dalton Smith should make many plays at the WR position for the Flyers. While Dixie will get the top seed, don’t look for any 4A team to make much of a dent in the playoffs. Anticipate a first-round win at home, and a 8-3 season for Dixie.

3. Pine View (4A) This is going to be a very interesting year for the Panthers. They will have to begin to feel the pinch of losing so many of their players to Desert Hills. Their always strong program under Coach Ray Hosner has tremendous tradition, but losing a major chunk of potential athletes to DHHS will take its toll. Their younger classes struggled last season, but they will rely on quality of players, but hurt in the depth department. K.J. Boyer will anchor the O line as well as the D line. He is a tremendous talent and leader of this team. PV plays a team from Alaska and then a Nevada team before squaring off with Cottonwood. With the different Region 9 format for the playoffs, PV will hope to earn a home game.  Anticipate the Panthers to go 6-4 on the year.

4. Desert Hills (3A) This will come as a surprise to many but the Thunder have got a lot of solid players who got thumped in ‘08 as sophomores and juniors, but will be the thumpees in ‘09. DHHS got off to a 2-0 start and with a favorable schedule should be 2-1 or even 3-0 going into the Pine View game. Coach Jake Nelson is a tremendous defensive mind and was a great coach for Dixie for many years, so this should help the Thunder cause as well. Two key players include Butch Hatch, who is a fierce hitter and runner. Hatch will be just a junior and QB Chase Webster showed signs of stardom before an injury ended his season.  TUP thinks the Thunder will give Hurricane a good run for their money for the 3A crown and make the playoffs for the first time. 2009 prediction 5-5.

5. Snow Canyon (4A) Under new/old Coach Jay Graf, expect SC to go back to more traditional ways, especially on offense, throwing out the spread offense.  The Warriors are thin on experience but had a boat load of players return to play. TUP doesn’t feel the schedule is kind to SC with a home opener against East (Leopards win),  two tough road games (at Las Vegas, at Morgan - lucky to win one of those) at Canyon View (win), at Hurricane (loss) and then the schedule gets tough!  Their home game against Cedar will be their last. 2009 prediction 3-6 and no playoffs for SC.

6. Cedar 3A Always a strong prgram under Coach Todd Peacock, this year’s Redman will again be competitive, but will feel a strong challenge from Desert Hills. You can always count on Cedar to compete, but they may be thin in key positions. They will likely make the playoffs in the third spot, but will have to travel. 2009 prediction 3-7.

7. Canyon View (3A) For so many years, when you talk about CV, you talk about building a program. They have struggled in nearly all of their 11 years of existence. With second year coach Alex Huxford attempting to build tradition, CV needs to strive for different levels of success. TUP likes their schedule (potential wins against Richfield, Desert Oasis, NV and Boulder City NV) they will give Snow Canyon a game at home, but stay away from the playoffs unless they buy a ticket. ‘09 prediction 2-7