Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — There is no offseason in high school football anymore.
In the state of Utah, too much great competition and talent means any player who wants to excel has to put in the extra work.
Mountain West Elite is helping them do just that.
“Everyone who is good basically comes to this camp,” Olympus’ Ben Bywater said.
Herriman star athlete Noah Vaea helped lead the Mustangs to a Class 5A state title a year ago. This spring, he was on the field with Mountain West Elite.
“There are a bunch of great kids here,” Vaea said. “It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of time and a lot of film.”
Lehi coach Ed Larsen is one of the camp’s biggest proponents. He and his colleagues wanted to offer a camp to help the best players get even better without having to leave for more expensive locales such as Southern California and Florida.
“When we came up with this idea, we wanted to get the kids better, get the rust off, work on some technique, and when they hit their schools, they are ready to go,” he said.
Bywater called the offseason workouts extremely important.
“The best of the best are here,” he added. “It’s fun to compete with everyone.”
Camps like Mountain West Elite help separate the very good players from, well, the elite.
“Back when you were little kids, if you were big and fast, that was all you needed,” Lehi’s Colton Carter said. “But now everyone is big and faster, and you have to work harder than everyone else so you can get a leg up on everyone.
“You get to test yourself every week, and see if you can level up to the competition.”
