For years, the Harvest brothers have been a two-man wrecking crew and soccer coaching staff at Cottonwood High. 

BryLee and Bryce have made a slew of state playoff appearances as Colts head and assistant coach, or vice versa. Depending on the season, the Harvests would take the reins of the Cottonwood soccer program—BryLee for the boys and Bryce on the girls. 

This year, however, BryLee heads to Taylorsville where he’ll take over both the boys and girls programs and teach. Bryce admitted that not having BryLee on board has had an effect on the team’s preparation. 

“Coaching without him is difficult for me this year…definitely,” said Cottonwood head girls soccer coach Bryce Harvest. 

In the meantime, the Cottonwood coach said he will be changing about half his roster for the 2025-26 season. 

“I would anticipate about 10-13 new players,” said coach Harvest, who added that his new girls are integrating with the returning ones—about half the team is new to Cottonwood, he estimated. 

Game 1 has the Colts traveling to Roy Aug. 8 in another nonregion contest. Cottonwood will be back on the road for Game 2 Aug. 12 at Bear River and will hop back on the school bus for a game Aug. 13 at Hunter, in what is currently scheduled to be its final preseason game. 

Region 10 play opens Aug. 19 with a familiar opponent, a matchup at Park City for Game 3. 

Continuing its region slate of games, Game 4 brings Cottonwood home for the first time for an Aug. 21 game versus Murray. 

At that point in the season, the Colts will begin welcoming newcomers to the region, starting with a Game 5 match at Judge Memorial Catholic Aug. 26, formerly a 3A state juggernaut. 

Cottonwood will continue playing newbies in the region when it hosts Juan Diego Catholic for Game 6 on Aug. 28. 

Game 7 will be an away match at Jordan on Sept. 2, and older folks will remember when Highland was in Cottonwood’s region—it’s happening again Sept. 4 as the Colts host the Rams for Game 8. 

Game 9 gives the Colts another new region opponent when they travel to East Sept. 9, and the Colts will host Park City for Game 10 on Sept. 11. 

Cottonwood travels to Murray for Game 11 on Sept. 16, and for Game 12 the Colts will be at home against Judge Memorial Catholic Sept. 18 in the return match. 

The Colts will hit the road on Sept. 23 for Game 13 at Juan Diego Catholic, completing that home-and-home region series. 

Game 14 sees the Colts back home against Jordan Sept. 25, and Game 15 is an away game Sept. 30 at Highland. 

Cottonwood is currently scheduled to play a nonregion Game 16 at Emery on Oct. 1 to prepare for the state playoffs—one day before the Colts wrap up the regular season and region slate against East on Oct. 2 for Game 17.

If the weather permits, the Colts would be completing their regular season in the earliest time since the year following the pandemic. Seventeen games in 57 days for Cottonwood is equivalent to a match being played every 3.33 days. 

For July though, coach Harvest will continue getting his Colts ready for this lengthy slog in a very short period of time.