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Ben Lomond High School's new gymnasium is seen Nov. 23, 2020. Construction on the school's new athletic facility started in March 2019.

PATRICK CARR, Standard-Examiner

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Friday’s high school boys basketball schedule is highlighted by a massive rivalry game: Ben Lomond at Ogden.

In that rivalry setting, Ogden High will honor its back-to-back, state-champion boys basketball teams of 1991 and 1992 during halftime. Tipoff for the game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The ’91 team won the 3A classification championship by beating Sky View, securing Ogden’s first boys basketball state title at the time since 1940.

Both the ’91 and ’92 teams were known for their prolific 3-point shooting. The 1992 team shot 44.1% from 3-point range and the 1991 team shot 44%, percentages that rank fourth and fifth, respectively, in UHSAA history for a team’s single-season 3-point shooting percentage.

OHS will also induct four new members to the OHS Athletic Hall of Fame at halftime: Mitch Wilcox, John Bush, Dave Gray and Brian Moore.

Wilcox was a teacher and coach at Ogden High, and was the head coach for those two state-title teams being honored. Wilcox graduated from Ben Lomond High in 1972 and played basketball at Weber State, where he would later coach.

Bush graduated from OHS (basketball, football, baseball) in 1977 and was drafted by MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 in the fourth round of the MLB Draft and had minor-league stints in both the Dodgers’ and Texas Rangers’ organizations. Bush then played college basketball at Weber State and Rocky Mountain College (Idaho).

Gray graduated from Ogden High in 1961 and after playing baseball at Arizona State and Weber State, signed with the Boston Red Sox in 1964 and played briefly for the Red Sox in 1964 as a pitcher. Gray died in 2020.

Moore graduated from Ogden High in 1989 and was a three-sport standout at OHS in football, basketball and baseball. He was a First-Team All-State honoree in all three sports, among numerous additional awards and accolades in his high-school career.

BEN LOMOND COURT NAMING SET

In May 2022, the Ogden school board approved a plan to name the basketball court at Ben Lomond High’s gym after Evan Excell, a longtime, former basketball coach and athletic director at BLHS.

The court-naming ceremony now has a date: Friday, Jan. 27, during halftime of Ben Lomond’s boys basketball game against Grantsville.

In a summer interview with the Standard-Examiner, Excell said he was overwhelmed by the court-naming honor.

“There’s so many people involved in the years since Ben Lomond started back in the ’50s that could’ve had their name on that place that I have the utmost respect for, but to be chosen, it’s just simply overwhelming,” Excell said in July.

Excell taught and coached at Ben Lomond High from 1978-94. In that time, he coached all manner of sports including boys basketball and girls track and field, winning state championships in basketball (1986) and track (1987).

Excell grew up in Panguitch, graduated from the University of Utah, taught at Bryce Valley High, Escalante, East Carbon (which no longer exists) and Carbon before landing at Ben Lomond.

From 1994-2008, Excell was the executive director of the UHSAA. Throughout his career, Excell was a staunch supporter of students playing multiple sports and participating in multiple activities.

DAVIS ALUMNA NAMED TO USU HOF

Krista Larson Du Plessis, a Kaysville native, Davis High alumna and former track and field athlete at Utah State, is among Utah State athletics’ seven-person, hall-of-fame class announced Wednesday.

Larson Du Plessis earned All-American honors as a senior at Utah State by finishing ninth in the hammer throw at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

At Utah State, Larson Du Plessis was a two-time all-Western Athletic Conference honoree and was the first female hammer thrower at Utah State to earn All-American honors.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.