Fittingly the first-year Tiger coach only made himself available to the media after joining Orem’s seniors in a much-deserved ceremony, which included the player’s family. Each senior player lined up in the endzone and joined with one another arm-in-arm to walk to midfield where their parents greeted them with hearty congratulations and hugs.

“This is new for us up here this year because I think it’s important that symbolically we pay respect to what the seniors have done,” Stokes said. “Not just here, and for the last few seasons because these players have been at it for a long time — since like fourth grade, you know? And their parents have been right there with them, so we wanted to recognize all of it as best we could.”

For Stokes peronally, he certainly recognized all his senior players and leaned on them heavily at the start of the season, extending into Wednesday’s wallop over the Golden Eagles, which secured for Orem a Region 7 championship.

“I think the transition of any coaching staff can be tough, and I think these seniors really held us together from the time I arrived,” Stokes said. “They’ve done a really good job of being leaders and and being a stabilizing factor, and there’s a lot of upheaval since clear back when we came in as coaches back in March. So I’m grateful for these guys, man. They really stepped up. They hold the standard well for us.”

Orem’s senior class includes top players such as Krew Jones, MJ Bateman, Will Rasmussen, Beckham Curtis and Jag Ioane, among several others — a lot of whom have college scholarships to play football waiting for them upon graduation. Banding together Orem’s typically highly-talented team can be a challenge in and of itself, although Stokes believes each of them gelled together to form one of 5A’s most impressive teams with the state championships now on tap.

“They are super mature, man. They play their game no matter what the situation is,” Stokes said. “We preach every every every day that we just we just do Orem, and no matter what the situation is, we’re going to do Orem Tiger football. So hey do a good job doing that. I mean, the environment is crazy. You get a lot of (college) coaches attending games and a lot of side things going on, but they’re doing a really good job of focusing on the details and being Orem Tigers.”

And what Orem has formed this season, on top of last season’s state championship, was impressive throughout during Wednesday’s game.

Quarterback Tanner Lewis threw four touchdown passes, three of which came in the first half as Orem built a 26-0 lead at the break. Lewis threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Makai Gordon which was sandwiched between touchdown runs of three and eight yards from Curtis to build a 47-0 lead, which was enough to end the game after three quarters due to mercy employed by the UHSAA.

“It was bittersweet, because, as a coach, you want to get as many reps in as possible, but tonight I wanted to make it all about the seniors, so it was good that it ended before I pulled most of them from the game,” Stokes said. “I want them to have as much time as they possibly could want out here with their parents, with their families, and with their friends. So tonight was special, but on a normal night it’s tough, man. Like you want a lot of young kids to get to play, and they don’t get the opportunity as much anymore.”

The opportunity ahead of Orem is clear as the team appears primed to secure yet another state championship due to its dominating play, most of which is displayed on the defensive side of the football.

“I feel it’s our defense that has led us this year, but we still have to get better — both offensively and defensively,” Stokes said. “We’re not there yet and we have to keep working at it. So we’ll get together, and we’ll get back to the drawing board and and really zone in and work on improving everything we do. We tried tonight to really work on things we weren’t in the past doing really well, and I liked how we fixed some of those things. So we’ll continue to do that and try to just make it a whole package.”

With the win Orem finishes the season with a 7-2 record and a high seed with the 5A state championship set to begin a week from Friday.

(8:58 1Q) Brooks Ross, 45-yard pass from Tanner Lewis (kick from Adrian Sanchez)

(7:12 1Q) safety

(4:25 1Q) Po Faumui, 4-yard pass from Tanner Lewis (kick from Adrian Sanchez)

(9:23 2Q) Adrian Sanchez, 25-yard FG

(7:17 2Q) Todd Lewis, 23-yard pass from Tanner Lewis (kick from Adrian Sanchez)

(9:25 3Q) Beckham Curtis, 3-yard run (kick from Adrian Sanchez)

(5:49 3Q) Makai Gordon, 8-yard pass from Tanner Lewis (kick from Adrian Sanchez)

(2:00 3Q) Beckham Curtis, 8-yard run (kick from Adrian Sanchez)