The Eureka Lions won a lot of football games under a native son, and now there’s been a change at the top with Trevor Utter’s departure for the college ranks.

Utter, a 1994 graduate of Lincoln County High School, has stepped down to become receivers coach at Simpson University, a Christian school in Redding, Calif.  

“It’s quite a change for me,” Utter said Friday. “Honestly, there are a lot of things that are hard to leave, I’m not going to lie. Great program and great kids.” 

The Lions went 93-37 in 13 seasons under Utter, winning the program’s first State B championship in 2016 by beating Missoula Loyola 31-28 in the title game. The Lions made it back-to-back titles in 2017, beating Shelby 47-7; another title followed, over Manhattan, in 2019. 

The move to California can be traced to 2022, when Utter’s son Caleb was looking at playing college football. Simpson was just starting its program and head coach Shawn Daniel had reached out to then-MSU Northern coach Andrew Roland. 

Roland in turn recommended Utter, and he and his son visited the campus. Caleb Utter ended up playing safety at Montana Western, but his dad and Daniel kept in contact. 

“And I thought, ‘Gosh, I thought it might be fun to go coach in college, and for me, I wanted to coach at a Christian college,” Trevor Utter said. “The timing now is such that Caleb is willing to transfer and a wide receiver’s coaching position was open. It all just kind of fit together.  

“This is something we probably need to do.” 

The Simpson Red Hawks are joining the Frontier Conference in 2025, and played six of their 2024 games against Frontier programs. They took their lumps, going 0-9 overall.   

Utter, who retired from his principal’s job in Eureka in June, will be coaching the position he played when he walked on at the University of Montana. He lettered three times for the Grizzlies, then returned home and was a football assistant at his high school in 2000-01. 

From 2002-05 he spent three seasons as the Lions girls basketball coach. Then came pursuit of a Masters, after which he jumped into administration.  

After six years as the middle school principal, he became the Lions football coach in 2012. Eureka will continue to be home, he said. “I have familly here, my wife has family here,” he said. “We’re keeping the house.” 

Utter said pending approval, Kenny Kindel – Lincoln County High Class of ‘91 - will take over as the Lions head coach. He’d been on staff for 11 seasons, the last two as the Lions’ defensive coordinator. 

“I had a really good crew and they’re all going stay with the program we built,” Utter said.  

The Montana High School Association split football into four classifications, including B, in 1973. Since then eight programs have won back-to-back titles:  Thompson Falls in 1974-75; Belgrade in 77-78; Cut Bank in 1989-90; Baker in 2003-04; Huntley Project in 2008-09; Loyola in 2012-13; Eureka in 2016-17 and Florence, which became the first team to win three straight titles from 2021-23.  

Only Baker, Eureka and Florence managed to win three times in four years. It’s tough to leave that kind of success behind, but this was a chance to broaden horizons. 

“Thirty-nine applicants and I got the job,” he said. “I thought, ‘We’d better go do this.’ ”