Each year the local non-profit Youth Sports Alliance provides opportunities for kids to participate in a variety of sports after early dismissal on Fridays. The activities range from the luge at Olympic Park to jazz and hip hop for beginners at the Summit Dance Project.
Heather Sims is the director of after-school programs at YSA. She said the Get Out and Play activities are for elementary school students and the Activate activities are for grades 6th through 12th. The wide variety of programs fill up fast and registration is open.
“We’ve had a lot of calls asking when the ski programs will happen,” Sims said. “We offer programs for Summit County and Wasatch County. And they are everything that you can think of that's on snow and ice from learning to ski to Nordic jumping to park and pipe to ice skating to cross country skiing. We utilize all the venues in town and in Wasatch County by using Soldier Hollow.”
The activities that are offered range from beginner to advanced and typically last four to five weeks.
“So our beginner program, which is a flagship program, beginner ski and snowboard, they have five Fridays, they get to the mountain at 1:15 p.m. and they leave at 4 p.m.,” she said. “So they have 12.5 hours of ski instruction. And some of the other programs that are a little smaller, like our cross country skiing, that has six hours at White Pine, and then we have four days at UOP and Woodward.”
Sims said the cost for these programs varies as well, and scholarships are offered for families who qualify. This year YSA is offering sibling tickets at a significant discount thanks to Kodiak Cakes, a local business and YSA sponsor. She said the sibling code is embedded in the registration which will apply the discount at the end of the process.
“If you've got a family of three or four, it becomes extremely expensive. So now we're able to offer that.”
Transportation is provided to and from many of the programs around town, but not all of them. Check the transportation details when registering.
For more information about YSA and the programs offered visit Youth Sports Alliance.