The most difficult moments in childhood for parents, the hours leading up to childbirth aside, come when their children take their last steps as kids and venture into adulthood.  

That happened for 31 Bingham senior football players this past Halloween night in Kaysville, when the Davis Darts ended the Miners’ season in the second round of the 6A state playoffs, 42-21. 

It was a rough season for a Bingham team that finished with a 3-7 record under head coach Josh Johnson, and one that only fielded 79 players, the fewest of any of its varsity football teams in years. 

That is in part due to the UHSAA’s unlimited transfer rule. The other is to boundary changes the Canyons School District enacted before the start of this school year, a decision that sent about one-third of last year’s starting lineup at Bingham to other schools, including last year’s starter at quarterback and kids at several other skill positions. 

Nevertheless, Bingham embarked on one of its most difficult schedules in years, one that included the No. 2 team in America in Corona (California) Centennial, the state’s No. 1 in Corner Canyon, and two new combatants in a reimagined Region 2. 

It was the kind of schedule that didn’t net Bingham a victory until the sixth week of the season, a 28-26 win over rival Riverton. The Miners then reeled off two more victories over Cedar Valley and Copper Hills before Mountain Ridge thumped Bingham 40-0 with some familiar names on its roster. 

Due to injuries mounting on both teams and with the state playoffs coming up, Bingham was scheduled to play Lone Peak in the season finale, but both schools opted out of the game, which the UHSAA ruled as a no-contest. 

For the 6A state playoffs, the Miners were given a 14-seed and a first-round bye, a decision that created some controversy among other schools that played all ten games during the regular season.  

In Bingham’s first season of girls flag football, both Miners teams fall in the quarterfinals 

Miners White team reaches the playoffs after a thrilling overtime win vs Park City in the play-ins 

It was always going to be a season of firsts for the Bingham Miners flag football teams. 

The first organized high school girls flag football league in Utah. First time a NFL team has endorsed and supported a girls flag league in Utah, and the first season of girls flag football for high schools, period. 

For a team that envisioned fighting for a title together as one at the start of the season, and then agreed to reform into two squads in week three once Timpview’s two teams couldn’t continue, it was rather odd to see Timpview’s one team compete at the league championship game. 

That’s what the league asked Bingham to do after the Miners fielded so much interest, and so many players, that their head coach couldn’t turn anyone away. 

With that in mind, and with the Miners Blue and Miners White beginning their seasons with 2-0 records, another provision of the agreement with the new league, both of Bingham’s teams lost in weeks 3, 4 and 5. 

In fact, it wasn’t until week 6, or the week of Oct. 25, that either of Bingham’s teams won as a separate entity. The Miners White team prevailed over Granger 21-18 and then won 26-20 in overtime against Park City Red, the only other school asked to compete in the league with two teams. 

The Miners Blue team had a first-round bye in the playoffs and lost 31-29 to Maple Mountain in the quarterfinals, while Bingham’s White team lost 56-29 to the same Timpview squad that was able to compete as one team after week two. 

In one sense, it was admirable that Bingham agreed to field two teams. In entirely another, that may have prevented Bingham from reaching at least the semifinals of the playoffs in this inaugural season of the UHSGFA, an unsanctioned high school girls flag football league that faces as many questions going forward as Bingham’s boys’ football program might.