June 2026 | Vol. 12 Iss. 6
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West Valley City
Olympians skate into WVC
Gold medalists perform as part of nationwide tour Page 2
Summer conservation
Water districts urge residents, businesses to slow the flow Page 10
Tough love and personal responsibility are helping change the culture of Hunter baseball By Brian Shaw | b.shaw@mycityjournals.com Under new head coach Preston Vaccaro, the Wolverines are doing a lot of things differently—it’s already resulting in wins on the field and in the classroom.
I
nside an office at Hunter High, Preston Vaccaro met school administration to go over a spending plan for his baseball team. The 60-year-old who had never been a high school head coach sat there in disbelief. “They told me I had $1,300 and started telling me all the things I needed … flipping through a computer like it’s nobody’s business and telling me ‘you need about $20,000 to run this year,’” Vaccaro said. “I just about had a heart attack right there.” Hunter’s new coach added he’d been coaching baseball for 35 years and spent time as a high school assistant. What was Vaccaro supposed to do, though? As his dad often told him, when you commit to something, you put 100% into it. Coach Vaccaro did, spending 60 hours a week on his new team, in his estimation. First things first: Vaccaro organized a
team meeting at Hunter’s baseball field that July and, alongside assistants Kaden Wilson and Sam Brito, picked up a pen and paper since he admittedly isn’t tech-savvy, and started asking the players and parents questions from the visiting dugout. What did they need from this coaching staff? What does the team need? The prospective players told Vaccaro they needed a coach who cares and develops them. They added they’d like matching batting helmets so they could look like all the other teams. Their new coach said he’d see what he could do—but would need buy-in from them. “I was told by the UHSAA the requirements to play were a 2.0 GPA and you can fail one class,” Vaccaro said. “I looked at them all … I had parents and kids there … and said, ‘that’s bull …’” Vaccaro demanded kids get a 2.5 in the first quarter and keep it through the rest of the school year without failing a class. If not, they’d get a two-game suspension for every infraction. Perplexed, returning players asked
Hunter High’s baseball team is doing things a little differently, hoping for different results. (Photo
Continued page 6 courtesy Tiffany Brito)
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