The program, named Elevation 801, is open to area students on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m., at no cost to families. Bus transportation is offered on those days from Highland and Mound Fort junior highs.

BL football coach Ty Smith — in collaboration with Mitch Arquette, the district athletic supervisor, and fellow Scots coach Lyndon Johnson — has developed a business model he hopes will drive substantial change in how students approach personal health, not just their preferred sports teams. It’s open to youth, whether or not they play a school sport.

“A lot of them are getting left behind,” Smith said. “Then, what happens is, this year, whenever I got here, I’m walking around trying to get kids to come out for football two weeks into the season, and you may get some kids, but they’ve never been in a weight room, they’ve never been in a conditioning program, and a lot of them have never put on shoulder pads.”

The average U.S. family spent $1,016 on their child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019, according to Project Play. As of Tuesday, Smith reported 31 students signed up for his program and expects that number to double by next week.

Elevation 801, which targets junior high students, is the latest in the district’s strategy to get more students involved with school sports. In May, the district announced a partnership between itself, Ogden City’s Wildcats football program and the Wasatch Front Football League to address low participation.

Smith, who suited up just 28 total players in BL’s 2025 football opener, knows the wall he’s up against, and the former Mississippi high school football coach says fixing the problem begins with structure.

“It’s not just a Ben Lomond problem, I think it’s a youth problem,” Smith said. “This isn’t a sports-specific issue… Here in Utah, you see a lot of it.”

The program, providing “after-school care and athletic development designed to help students rise to their full potential,” according to the program’s official sign-up flyer, is opening its doors to any student of any background, whether they plan on competing or not.

Smith is specifically chasing those students who would otherwise go without after-school training due to the financial strain of other sports programs or their family’s financial situation.

As of last year, families can expect to spend $40 to $120 per hour on private trainers or lessons, regardless of the sport, according to Athletes Untapped.

“They’re charging kids for weekly workouts, they’re charging kids to play in this certain league,” Smith said.”It’s getting so much with the price of it, with the way the economy is right now, and a lot of people can’t pay that.

“What we’re focused on here is we’re trying to make it so everybody doesn’t have to go to the bank every month to send their kids to get the training they need.”

All sessions are currently held at the Ben Lomond High School Athletic Center in Ogden, a $28.2 million project completed in 2021, which features a 1,500-seat main gymnasium, 300-seat indoor practice facility, weightlifting equipment, auxiliary gyms, a one-sixth-mile running track, and a golf simulator.

The lasting goal of the program, Smith said, is to improve the footing of every participant, wherever they stand.

“If a kid comes here and he’s training from seventh, eighth, and ninth grade here, doing this, and he goes to another school across the interstate, or goes to Weber High or Roy, or down to Salt Lake, that’s fine,” Smith said. “We’re not doing this just to say you’re coming here to play high school sports. We’re doing this truly to get these kids an opportunity to get better, put themselves in a better situation, and give the parents a little bit of relief.”

Interested students and their families can sign up at https://forms.gle/DZZEAFxMNQ23LeiF9, or by emailing Smith at smith.ty@ogdensd.org.

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