Meet the Team
Shelby Schmalbeck
Co-FounderShelby Schmalbeck is a co-founder of Appreciation Project and a firm believer in the life-shaping power of a coach who chooses to see potential before results. Her journey into sports resilience began at age 12, when she moved to England and was forced to adapt—socially, culturally, and athletically. Basketball was the one constant she carried with her, even as access to organized girls’ programs was limited. It was a coach’s belief—and insistence—that she practice, push herself, and compete at a higher level that opened doors she never expected, including the opportunity to play on a boys’ high school basketball team.
That experience shaped how Shelby understands access: not as equal resources, but as equal belief.
It is a lesson reinforced through her family. Her husband grew up in foster care from the age of seven, moving through lower-income communities and searching for a place to belong. For years, sports were not readily accessible to him—until a late opportunity to play football at age 14 changed his trajectory. With guidance, structure, and support, that opportunity led to multiple college scholarship offers and a future that once felt out of reach.
Today, Shelby is a mother of seven and the owner and director of a multi-state basketball organization serving hundreds of athletes and coaches across Idaho and Utah. She brings lived experience into every program she builds—understanding firsthand how one opportunity, one coach, or one moment of belief can alter the course of a young person’s life.
Through The Appreciation Project, Shelby is committed to honoring the coaches and mentors—especially those working within underserved youth—who step in when resources are scarce, and who quietly change outcomes by refusing to let potential go unseen.
Jill Dempsey
Co-FounderJill Dempsey is a co-founder of Appreciation Project and a lifelong believer in the power of youth sports to build confidence, belonging, and resilient communities. Her commitment is personal. She was an All-American high school rugby player and college athlete at a time when girls’ programs were often under-resourced—and in some cases, unofficial. Access relied not on institutions, but on volunteer coaches who found fields, created teams, and fought for space so young women could train, compete, and belong—even when they weren’t allowed to practice on campus.
Those coaches didn’t just keep teams alive. They led Jill and her teammates to national championships, modeling what belief, persistence, and advocacy can create even when resources are scarce.
That belief in developing youth sports programs runs in her family, as well. Jill’s great-grandfather, Dr. Reed Swenson, was Weber State college football and basketball coach and athletic director beginning in the 1930s and played a formative role in sustaining athletic programs for minorities and unaddressed communities. He formed the National Junior College Athletic Association and the Big Sky Conference—through wartime disruption and systemic inequities. He helped build the infrastructure of collegiate athletics while protecting players—finding ways for teams to travel, compete, and stay together when opportunities were limited or denied.
Today, Jill brings both lived experience and inherited perspective into Appreciation Project—uplifting the coaches, parents, and community leaders who quietly hold youth sports together, and working to expand access to meaningful, high-quality athletic experiences for kids and communities too often left without resources, recognition, or support.