Never Give Up

August 1st is the day when the NCAA allows the college football teams to begin the practices and their team meetings. BYU is no exception. But this year there is one big difference from my point of view; I got to attend the team meetings.

For those who have not heard, Bronco Mendenhall, the head coach approached Pam Mayes, the director of the Western Sand Play Associates, asking for help with some his players who are not totally prepared for college academically, socially or culturally. The result of this is that I am now part of “Project Morningstar” or as Bronco calls us, the Dream Team; a set of diverse people who are going to work with a subset of the football team in order to help them get their grape point average up among other things.

So let me describe August 1st, one of the more exciting days I have experience in a long time.

At 8:45 we meet with Bronco and all the Freshman players (along with their parents.) We meet in the athletic building, a building I had never been in before expect to eat at the Legends Grille. For those who know the campus, it is the building across from the George Albert Smith Fieldhouse. This building is relatively new and it is beautiful. The halls are filled with displays of passed glories – the BYU National Championship, the Cotton Bowl victory in the late 90’s, etc.

Bronco (isn’t that a great name for a football coach) has the meeting open with prayer. He then introduces all the assistant coaches. One comment is worth mentioning. He says that he has nothing to do with the team’s offense. He leaves that totally in the hands of the offensive coordinator. The only time he gets involved is on fourth down, he does make the decision whether to punt or go for a first down.

The assistant coaches are then dismissed and we then have a couple of musical numbers by Maxine, a daughter of one the campus security officer, who is in attendance.

Bronco then launches into an extended pep talk for these Freshman. The pep talk includes football, but mostly it is about how to succeed in life. If I were a player on Bronco’s team, I would be enthusiastic. HE IS THE RIGHT MAN FOR THIS JOB.

He tells these young men that as football players that are particularly visible as part of BYU and NOT JUST ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD. They are representatives for Christ in everything they do.

The goal of this year’s team is “Quest for perfection and eternal life.” This goal has been widely interpreted by the press that he wants an undefeated season, be he says, no, he just wants his players to do their personal best in all aspects of his life.

So he had a longer goal –

“Flag bearer of Brigham Young University through football excellence, embracing truth, tradition, virtue and honor as a beacon to the world.”

Speaking of flag bearer, when the team comes on the field one player leads the team carrying the flag with the big Y. The team chooses who gets to carry that flag.

As most of you know, before every game the team gives firesides. Last year 60,000 people came to those firesides.

Two years ago BYU was ranked 15th at the end of the season. Last year they were ranked 14th. ONLY 5 TEAMS IN THE USA WERE RANKED IN THE TOP 15 BOTH YEARS.

We also have the longest win streak in the country – 10 games.

The present team has 68 returned missionaries.

The Grade Point Average of the team is 2.94 which might be the best in the country, but Bronco wants it to be higher, at least 3.0.

Bronco met one of his previous graduates who is now playing for New York Giants. The alumni told him how disappointed he was in his teammates; vulgar, immoral players. At one time there were two buses offered to players—one going back to the Hotel where the players could indulge in their hedonistic activities—the second going to a Ronald McDonald House where the players could talk to some kids who were fighting some disease. At first no one was going on the Ronald McDonald bus, but then the BYU player said he would go and finally a couple other players joined him.

Bronco then introduces us, the members of his ‘Dream Team.’ He has our names on excellently prepared PowerPoint slides along with our accomplishments. For me he mentions my WordPrint study and my work with ranking sports teams. He lets me say a word about the latter. I keep it quick and just say that our ranking system is better than the BCS systems and that when Lavell Edwards won the National Championship our system vindicated Lavell. Bronco also pointed out that I was the man who developed the formula for Expected Grade Point Average which the team uses to identify team members who might get into trouble. He made me sound like one of the world’s best statisticians.

After he introduces us, Pam, our leader says that what we are going do is going to be fun. Bronco says good, since he is not know for being fun. (His practices are known for being extremely hard.)

The meeting ends.

Our group meets before lunch and discuss a few details and then we break for lunch.

We come back at 1:00 this time with just team assistants in charge of academics. After about a 15 spiel where they tell the Freshman how to contact them with any problems with their academic schedules, they dismiss the players who are not in “Project Morningstar” and we are left with the Freshman who are in the program. The are about 9 others who are in the program but by some NCAA rule since they are not Freshman they cannot meet with us today.

Pam tells them a little of what the program is and has us introduce ourselves again. I have about 2 minutes this time and tell them a little about both LARC and the WordPrint analysis. I also tell them I am excited about Sand Trays.

Pam them distributes a story about “MorningStar” who was an actual Native American who has a pretty dramatic story to tell. She tells the story. I save that story for another time. It turns out that one our team, Lakato John, is his great-grandson. Spring Term these young football players are going to get go down to Southern Utah and go through a 5 day vision quest with Lakato John. I may be going with them.

At this time each football player is given a one-on-one (or at most a one-on-two) interview with an Associate of Western Sand Play. The Associate was doing an In-Take interview and then scheduling a time that the young man could do an initial Sand Tray.
Pam had divided all the young men up to us practitioners beforehand. My two are both non freshman, so I did not get to meet them; will do so when we meet again at 9:00 on Monday morning.

I then left for supper break to return for the team’s first activity at 8:15 that evening.

At 8:15 Bronco opened again by introducing us, the Dream Team again; this time to the full team. He then show a 17-minute DVD; a church film entitled “Only a Stone Cutter.” This is wonderful film, about a man who walked 22 miles each week from Alpine, Utah to work on the Salt Lake City Temple for over two decades. He even continued this after he had lost a leg.

After the film, Bronco told each of the players he had a chisel for each of them. They were to go into ten separate rooms and each write their life’s mission of the chisel and then come out on the patio and coat their chisel with gold or some other color of paint. They would then come back at 9:30 and report.

I mingled around the rooms while the players where writing their goals. One of the players said to me, “So you are the numbers person?” I affirmed that I was. He said that he had trouble with numbers. I told him that they were “the only true fun”. I mention this because I think this young man might be one of my two clients.

I asked Bronco could I pick up the DVD at church distribution. He said no, that he had a special relationship with Sherri Dew and got a pre-release copy. But look for it when it comes out. It will make a real impression on the church.

I told Bronco that I was very impressed with the day’s activities. He said that this was not unusual. They often had activities like this that had nothing to do with football.

We were then dismissed. They wanted to have the reporting back be strictly a team affair.

A day to remember.

Wow Wayne!!
That sounds like quite the experience for you. I love to hear how the football team does stuff like that. What a neat opportunity for you to be a part of and What a neat coach. Thank you for sharing that with us. You will have to keep us updated.

I think you mean you are *now* a part of project... instead of *not* a part of....? yes?

It sounds to me that your second career is your dream career. Well deserved!