Brian E. Preece

Preece has worn many hats in his five decades of involvement in the sport of wrestling. As a competitor he was two-time state placer, a two-time region champion, and a state freestyle champion who wrestled one season at BYU. He officiated for several seasons at the varsity level and made efforts to save BYU wrestling and get Utah Valley wrestling started as an original member of the Utah Amateur Wrestling Foundation.

As an assistant coach at West High School for five years, Preece helped the Panthers move up from placing 18th at State to second. He was the assistant coach and primary workout partner for Jeff Holtry, who became an All-American and was the very first winner for Utah in the Dapper Dan Classic.

As a head coach at Provo High School for 12 seasons, Preece led the Bulldogs to six top ten finishes, including a fourth-place finish in 1997. As a coach he set school records for state champions in a season (three in 1998), state qualifiers, state finalists, state placers, and in 1997, Provo beat Timpview 84-0 in a perfect dual where all 14 weight classes were actually wrestled. Preece was named the 2006 Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He coached Nathaniel Holt who won the Reno Tournament of Champions, placed second in the NHSCA Senior Nationals and was the youngest freestyle wrestler in the 2008 Olympic Trials at age 19.

In 2010 Preece organized the Wrestling Against Cancer Duals to honor his coaching rival and friend Ric Thompson. Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised to help individuals and their families battle cancer.

Preece has also been instrumental in creating or helping to run events like the JV Rumble, Beehive Brawl, and the All-Star Dual. As an early adopter of Track Wrestling, he was invited by its creator and the NCAA to be a table scorer at the NCAA wrestling tournament when it was first implemented. He was also the Tournament Director for many high school wrestling and even college tournaments, one of which was WAC Wrestling Championships in 1998.

As a sportswriter off and on for 40 years, Preece has helped to publicize the sport of wrestling and prep athletes in general. He has published thousands of articles for publications such as the Daily Herald, Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune, ksl.com, WrestlingUSA magazine, and Coaches Quarterly.

In the past he worked with Don Neff on the Utah Wrestling Coaches Association newsletter and state wrestling programs. Preece also hosted or co-hosted two radio programs where he promoted prep athletics. Preece started the Super Rankings and the Power Poll rankings that inspired similar types of rankings by USA Wrestling Utah. He has co-written three books with Daniel Blanchard chronicling the father-son dynamic in wrestling and his own coaching experiences.

Preece was an early advocate for female wrestling through his journalistic efforts. The first two female high school wrestlers in Utah competed at West HS when he was an assistant coach. He also coached the first three female prep wrestlers in Utah County at Provo High School.

Preece is cognizant and grateful for the village that helped his competing and coaching careers, along with the events he has organized. He has very much enjoyed sharing the accomplishments of others within the Utah wrestling community. He also recognizes the sacrifices of his wife Heidi of 29 years and his two adult children Lizzy (and her spouse Jacob) and Zach while he coached, officiated, announced, chronicled and organized events for other people’s children.

Bart Thompson

Thompson grew up watching football games from the sidelines as his father coached in northern Wyoming and at Davis High in Utah, keeping score for wrestling duals and at tournaments and holding the finish tape at track meets.

While competing at Davis, Thompson was a state runner-up in wrestling and won a state championship in the pole vault. He was also awarded the “Doc Barnes” Award for the outstanding senior scholar athlete.

Following high school, Bart attended Weber State, and competed on the track & field team. After his freshman year, he served a two-year church mission in Japan. Upon his return, he continued competing at Weber State and coached the wrestling team at Kaysville Jr. High; the Knights won the district championship. Bart graduated magna cum laude from Weber State two years after his return from Japan. He was awarded the Weber State Scholar Athlete Award.

He planned to do graduate work the following year and compete during his final year of eligibility. However, upon his return from serving as an intern in a congressional office in Washington, D.C., he was contacted by the principal at Clearfield High School and was offered a job teaching and coaching wrestling, track & field, and cross country. He accepted the offer and thus began his 24-year high school coaching career.

In 1985, Thompson was offered the head wrestling coaching position at Viewmont High School, where he coached Shandell Smoot (2-time high school state champion at Viewmont and NJCAA national champion) and took over the wrestling program at Viewmont feeder school Centerville Jr. High.

During Thompson’s time as head coach at Viewmont, the Vikings won four state championships, including in 2002 when they scored more team points than any other 5A school in the history of the state tournament in Utah. Throughout his tenure at Viewmont, Viking wrestlers won 22 individual state championships and 130 individual state places. Thompson was also part of three boys’ track & field state championships as an assistant coach. He was named 5A Wrestling Coach of the Year three times by the Utah Wrestling Coaches Association. He was also named 5A Girls’ Track & Field Coach of the Year by the Utah Track Coaches Association.

In 2007, Thompson was named assistant director at the Utah High School Activities Association where, among other duties, he administered the sport of wrestling for the entire state of Utah. In 2015, he was named executive director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, supervising all high school extracurricular activities in the state of Nevada.

Bart served two four-year terms on the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee which writes the rules of the sport for high schools throughout the United States. The second of those terms was as the chair of that committee.

Thompson retired in 2022 following 38+ years coaching and administering high school sports and returned from Nevada to his Centerville home.

The Brunson Utah Wrestling Hall of Fame Banquet and Awards Night is September 29 at the UVU Ballroom in Orem. The event will honor Preece and Thompson for their accomplishments, celebrate youth wrestlers and raise money for UVU Wrestling. Tickets are $50 per person or $400 per table (10 seats) through Sept. 20. Prices are $60 per person and $500 per table starting Sept. 21.