ROY — Some dudes are designed to do it all.

Like Batman’s toolbelt or the magic conch shell, just about every program north of Salt Lake can point to the guy they’d turn to night in and night out for an answer. Drag your finger up and down any roster, and there’ll be someone who made a difference.

All season, Roy and Davis could point out those names with little hesitation. Royals senior Robert Young and Darts sophomore Bode Sparrow electrified a one-of-a-kind season that simply couldn’t consolidate this year’s All-Area awards to one name.

Young and Sparrow are the 2024 Standard-Examiner All-Area Football Players of the Year.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

We remember our favorite players for doing their job better than anyone else. But what about when your title stretches beyond “best hands” or “skill player.”

That’s the unique parallel between Young and Sparrow. Sure, the former has two seasons of experience on the latter, but each are a brand of athlete Northern Utah coaches will surely flock toward moving forward. In technical terms: A-T-H-L-E-T-E.

Sometimes, these players hide in the rough.

In early 2022, former Oregon defensive end Chris Solomona was tabbed as Roy’s next head football coach following seven seasons as a position coach. The southern California native wasn’t sure what to make of an incoming transfer from Maui nicknamed “Rob.”

Solomona visited track practice to catch a glimpse of Young and another Hawaiian arrival named Kahekili Eleneke.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

“They looked a little undersized at first glance,” Solomona said. “You look at them and you’re like ‘OK. Well, we’ll see, man, if they can handle everything.’ … They were winning a few meets here and there so you could just tell off the bat they were good athletes. That was before they’d even laced them up and put on their helmet and shoulder pads.”

Young’s parents arranged for their son to live with his uncle, Pete, and attend Roy to expand his football opportunities, Solomona said. Young had already been introduced to former Roy head coach Fred Fernades before the longtime coach resigned his post after 11 seasons.

The Royals finished 7-4 in Solomona’s first season, with Young producing 1,037 all-purpose yards and 11 total touchdowns as a sophomore in 2022. In his debut, Young led the Royals’ receiving corp and finished second in rushing behind junior tailback Daeqwan Snider.

From then, Solomona’s perception of the future 2024 All-Region 5 MVP and Mr. Football nominee changed.

“Any lift you’d put out there for him, Rob would eat it up,” Solomona said. “What he was able to do in the weight room and what we were seeing on the field running around and seeing just how quick he was it was, ‘Oh, he’s going to be special.'”

* * *

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

Bode Sparrow and Robert Young first crossed paths competing together on the same 7-on-7 summer squad, P&K, spending their most recent offseason traveling as far as Phoenix, Arizona.

Flirting with 900 receiving yards as a freshman, Sparrow had every reason to feel good about himself heading into 7s. The Mountain Green native was poised to join returning juniors Cooper Harsin, Connor Brown and Isaac Morrison in Scott Peery’s secondary.

So when Sparrow first watched Young in action, it carried a delayed effect.

“He kind of flies under the radar at first,” Sparrow said. “But then you see him go up and make grabs and just run around the whole defense … you’re just like, ‘Dude, this guy’s a cheat code, right?'”

Sparrow and Young each surpassed their previous season’s receiving totals, with Young adding another 1,088 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground. Sparrow’s dual contributions, however, came at defensive back.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

At just 16 years old, Sparrow led the state with nine interceptions, adding 59 total tackles; Sparrow ended the season as the best hands in 6A with 944 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.

Sparrow proved he could do both.

“The main focus this year (was) being a beast on the other side of the ball,” Sparrow said.

Davis, under the direction of Peery for a fourth season, finished the year 8-4 (3-2 Region 1), falling to No. 2 Skyridge 49-32 in the 6A state quarterfinals after finishing third in region play.

Late-season losses at Fremont (19-10), home against Farmington (28-20) and finally at Skyridge are weeks the Darts won’t soon forget, Sparrow said.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

“We love that,” Sparrow said. “We love the pressure when the moment’s the brightest and that’s when I feel like me, and our team, we play the best when it means the most.”

Davis returns tall expectations, once again, with 6,595-yard passer Tradon Bessinger returning for his senior season. Having a blue-chip name like Sparrow returning to that offense doesn’t hurt, either.

However, Peery isn’t ready to settle for what Sparrow, or anyone on his roster for that matter, has already accomplished.

“I would never put limits on kids,” Peery said. “We knew Bode was special when he first came in and it was apparent immediately in his skillset, talent and confidence. … So a ceiling? I don’t see it, so I’m excited for the next two years as he continues to take off.”

In the meantime, Sparrow’s just going to do what he knows best.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

“I’ve been playing (football) since I’ve been a little kid — all my friends and family, that’s just kind of what we do,” Sparrow said. “All my little brothers play and stuff so they keep me wanting to play and I think I will keep them wanting to play.”

* * *

Three games in, the Royals were 3-0.

Robert Young had produced more than 600 all-purpose yards at Farmington (38-14) and Roy’s first pair of home dates with Fremont (50-16) and Weber (48-34). Still, the senior didn’t feel whole.

“It always felt like I wasn’t at 100% after the first couple of games,” Young said. “I think it was just the physical toll of being on the field like the whole time.”

By Week 8, the nicks and bruises caught up with Solomona’s group, trailing Viewmont on the road 14-0 by the end of the first quarter. Eleneke came up with what Solomona considered a “momentum-shifting” interception, a goal line to goal line dash, that fueled Roy’s 42-28 comeback.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

Young finished the night with 158 all-purpose yards, including three rushing touchdowns and another score through the air.

“Guys like Rob, (Logan Cella), all of our two-way players, they felt it,” Solomona said. “They felt the end of that. I’m going to leave that bye there for Week 9. … They needed to really just take a few days off to heal their bodies before they get going with the playoffs.”

Roy returned home for eventual 5A champion Bountiful a week later and gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns. The Redhawks walked out with the 42-35 win.

“I think that game knocked us off of our groove,” Young said. “We had an eight-win streak and were planning on making it nine, then the next week we were kind of struggling a little bit against Northridge. We just pulled it together.”

Winning their regular-season finale, the Royals ripped by Granger (45-28) and Viewmont (43-29) en route to the 5A state semifinals with Timpview, a team that deprived Roy of a state title during its last appearance in 2014, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

A 53-yard field goal by Colby Frokjer punched Roy’s ticket back to the title stage for another test with Bountiful, a team Roy’s coaches and players could sense from Week 9.

These were fresh wounds.

“A lot of us kind of went in knowing like, ‘OK, this is what we wanted,'” Solomona said.

Young and the Royals were determined to play until their bodies simply couldn’t take it. And Solomona got just that out of his group on a sunny Thursday in November, with the Royals grinding down to Siaki Fekitoa’s game-winning touchdown with 19 seconds left.

Once again, the Royals were runner-ups. Young’s senior season ended at the U.

“It wasn’t relieving but it was at the same time,” Young said. “I still wanted to have that feeling, like throughout the year, because having that feeling is probably one of the best feelings in the world where you get to play football the whole time — but your body just needs a break.”

Young closed his senior season with 2,340 all-purpose yards and 35 touchdowns, including three kickoff return touchdowns and throwing two touchdown passes. He was 118 receiving yards away from eclipsing 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving. On defense, Young totaled 54 tackles, two tackles-for-loss and one interception.

Young currently holds offers from Idaho State and Montana Tech. Solomona won’t be looking for “the next Rob,” but a similar football brain.

“He was one of the highest football IQs that I’ve been fortunate and blessed to be able to coach and be around,” Solomona said. “That part of the game, that part I’ll definitely miss from Rob.”

Twenty-eight seniors won’t don the black and gold next season. Roy will regroup what currently stands as the best finish of the Solomona era (12-2) and the program’s best finish since 2014 (12-1).

Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net.