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After four decades, one of the winningest coaches in Utah high school football history is coming back to NS.
On Dec. 12, NS announced the new head football coach as Dave Peck, a five-time state championship-winning coach.
“I’m excited for the opportunity, and it’s not just about wins and losses,” Peck said. “It’s exciting to try to come and just make a huge impact on these kids and the community, try to run a program that they will be really proud of.”
Peck grew up in West Valley and attended Cyprus High School and later Southern Utah University. He and his wife, Christy, have four children, one girl and three boys. Peck is also the oldest brother of three sisters, with two of them currently living in Sanpete County. His grandparents were also from Milburn, resulting in some of his family ending up in Sanpete.
Family is important to Peck, and their support, especially that of his wife, has also helped him be successful.
One of Peck’s sisters is Christine Straatman, the principal at NS. The two have had a strong relationship despite Peck being nearly a decade older.
“When [I] was a freshman in college,” Peck said, “she sent [me] a letter when she was just a young girl and sent all of her change that she had to help [me] while [I] was in college.”
As a coach of over 30 years, Peck has been inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame as a distinguished high school coach, as well as the Southern Utah University Coaches Hall of Fame. In 2014, his Bingham High School team was ranked top 10 in the nation.
Peck’s success at Bingham is a significant contrast to the success of all boys’ teams at NS through the years.
“There has been one state championship in a men’s sport here in the history of the school,” Peck said. “That’s in the 60s. You know what, something has got to change, and you know what, I think I could be the right person to maybe change that culture. That’s my goal.”
Besides winning and changing the culture at NS, the focus of the coaches will be on the development of the team as they become better both as players and people.
“The program is going to be a hundred percent based on the growth of them as individuals rather than the growth that we see on the football field,” said Rhett Bird, Peck’s nephew and former head coach who will be an assistant next year. “We believe that if they do grow as young men, that the winning will take care of itself.”
Peck plans on setting expectations to grow the team as a whole. There will be a year-round alcohol and drug policy for the team, a code of ethics and a set of rules for allowable language.
“I’m real big on, there is a right way and a wrong way, and now there’s the Sanpete way,” Peck said. “For us in football, the Sanpete way is going to be even a little bit better than the right way… We’re taking it to the next step.”
The coaches at NS also plan on improving the team by using Peck’s connections to other experienced coaches.
“We’ve talked about taking the group and doing coaches clinics with some of those coaches in the state of Utah,” Bird said. “That’s going to be a huge benefit for us is to learn from some of those coaches that [Peck] has connections with.”
NS has previously benefited from Peck’s experience when he coached in 1985 and again as the assistant head coach in 2016.
“It ended up being a great experience,” Peck said. “If you go look in the gym on the banners it says football region titles. We were the one in 1985… it’s the first one on the banner. That was my first year [at NS]. It was awesome.”
As he returns, he plans on building strong relationships and getting everyone invested in the team.
“At the end of the day, do you know what I found out?” Peck said. “It’s not about your offense or your defense. It’s all about relationships. I always could get kids to go out there and just play really hard and together and to have a belief that they could be the best.”
Athletic director Cheryl Hadley looks forward to having Peck strengthen both the football team and the community.
“I just think we’re excited for what the future could bring here,” Hadley said. “We’re excited to have him lead the program and be a part of not only the football program but the athletic department in general and the community. He’s a great addition to all of those programs. We look forward to working with him.”
