Then, he got a FaceTime call earlier this summer from his daughter, Jodi. She, and several other people Excell knew very well, told the former, longtime BLHS basketball coach and athletic director that the new gym floor would eventually be named after him.

“I’m just overwhelmed,” Excell said in a phone interview in July. “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, 78, 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.

Excell grew up in Panguitch, graduated from the University of Utah, taught at Bryce Valley High, Escalante, East Carbon (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 school activities, and lamented the direction sports have gone in recent years with the rise of specialization and commercialization of club sports.

In 1986, the Scots boys basketball team won the 3A state championship with a star-studded team including standout Kurt Miller. In the state championship game, the Scots beat Timpview 85-82 the year before the 3-point line came into place.

Excell said he was happy Ben Lomond won the 1986 title when it did because Timpview had a couple of players with good shooting range that, had there been a 3-point line, would’ve made the Scots scrap their game plan.

Perhaps the more dominant performance, according to Excell, was on the track in 1987 when the Ben Lomond girls track and field team won the 3A state championship.

“We had a 4×100 meter relay team that was undefeated that year regardless of — we were in the 3A out of four classes — and they were undefeated even with the big boys. All four of those girls qualified for the 100 finals, so I mean that’s almost unheard of,” Excell said.

Several people who either knew Excell or attended Ben Lomond when he taught there formed a committee to both raise awareness about the court-naming as well as solicit donations for an endowment fund that was also created in Excell’s name.

“One of the things Ben Lomond struggles with is participation. A lot of that has to do with financial constraints,” administrator Ed Morris said earlier this year. “We’d want money to have more kids participate in sports and pay fees for kids or meet whatever needs the kids need.”

Morris, the principal of the Malan’s Peak School in Ogden, played for Excell at BLHS. The endowment isn’t exclusive to “athletics,” he said, but rather all “activities” because that fits with how Excell operated.

While Excell said he was humbled and overwhelmed by the honor, another former player said Excell was the perfect person for honor.

“He’s done so much for so many kids and stuff at that school, not just basketball, as a teacher and coaching other sports,” said Eddie Greene, a member of the 1986 state title-winning basketball team. “And then going to the state office and working there and continuing to make high school sports in Utah safe and important for everybody. If anybody deserves it, it’s him.”

Another thing Morris, Greene and Excell pointed out is that most of the kids Excell coached, particularly on the 1986 title-winning basketball team, earned bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees later on in life

Earlier this year, Ben Lomond High announced plans to name the basketball court at its new gym after Excell, a move that needed school board approval, which happened in the spring.

A court-naming ceremony is expected to happen later this year during a home basketball game, possibly when the Scots host Ogden.

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