BYU-Idaho Human Performance and Recreation students are lacing up their sneakers, drawing up practice plans, and leading drills this summer as they lead local sports camps—gaining real coaching experience while mentoring the next generation of athletes.
For two years, BYU-Idaho’s Strength and Conditioning Academy has given skilled, experienced students hands-on experience with training teen athletes in two five-day camps hosted on campus.
This year’s camps are scheduled for the following dates:
- Strength and Agility Camp: June 9–13, 9 a.m.–12 p.m.
- Soccer Camp: June 23–27, 9 a.m.–12 p.m.
Teen athletes interested in participating can register on the Strength and Conditioning Academy website. Early bird pricing ends on May 11, and the final registration deadline is June 8.
Martin Dietze-Hermosa and Scott Flynn, teachers in the Department of Human Performance and Recreation, started the program.
“This is an opportunity for our students to work with community members, refine their interpersonal skills, and work as a team towards a goal,” he said.
Aspen Boulter, a junior from Sheridan, Wyoming, coached with the academy in 2024. As an exercise physiology major, she appreciated the opportunity to solidify textbook knowledge with experience.
“Applying classroom material is something I really love about BYU-Idaho. We’d teach them some agility and explosive energy movements and then take it and put it into a game,” Boulter said. “The coolest thing to see the students improve was their self-confidence.”
She explained that coaching last summer helped her decide “this what [she] wants to do” for her career.
Ethan Spencer, also a junior studying exercise physiology, shared that last year’s athletes participated in data collection for a research project. Before the camp, each athlete went through four different tests.
“They got to use expensive technology to assess some of their athletic capabilities, which hopefully will be used in the National Strength and Conditioning Academy Conference (NSCAC) this July,” he said.
More than the research though, he said he hopes the athletes see how much they can improve “with just a little bit of hard work and dedication and consistency.”
One of the things he appreciated about the campus was that the coaches developed spiritually, too.
Christlike Sportsmanship
On top of the training that athletes in the program receive, they’re also able to learn in an environment that welcomes the Spirit. The athletes learned that it’s possible to have spiritual experiences, even if they're just running on the field, and see examples of normal adults who live the gospel.
“The athletes saw the tough, silly, and also the spiritual sides to us,” Spencer said.
Dietze-Hermosa encourages his coaches to use the same teaching methods that he learned from his teachers, who coached Ricks College sports.
“When I was a student here, some of my teachers were coaches when Ricks still had sports. I admired their ability to coach the one,” he said. “That Christlike attribute is something that we try to highlight in the program.”
At the end of the camp, the athletes were invited to take a campus tour. Just before the tour, Brother Dietze-Hermosa and Brother Flynn asked the coaches to share their reasons for choosing BYU-Idaho.
“We're out on the field, everyone's sweating, and right there, with 40 athletes and 10 coaches, the Spirit was palpable,” Brother Dietze-Hermosa said. “It was just beautiful seeing the coaches, my students, tearing up while sharing their experience with BYU-Idaho.”