Speaker 1: You been called to listen to the missionary moment here
on Cougar Sports with Ben Kretel, Crittle's catching up with
all the Cougar athletes that are serving the Lord with
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Speaker 2: Literally my favorite segment of the show, Welcome Back Cougar
Sports one to three, nine ninety point three Esbon the Fan.
I'm in Crital broadcasting from our Vanderwilth Studios Vanderwelt dot Com.
We're gonna get into a missionary moment. Here're gonna welcome
in former BYU great four time Super Bowl Jampie, the
greatest athletic director in BYU athletics history, Tom Homo here momentarily.
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com today. All right, let's get into our missionary moment.
Let's welcome into the show. Four time Super Bowl champion,
former b YU great and uh the greatest athletic director
in BYU history. We got Tom Homo on the line. Thh,
how the heck are you? Brother?
Speaker 3: How are you doing? Band?
Speaker 2: I'm doing good, man, Well, I'm doing awesome. I'm glad
you're doing well. Called to serve? But brother, how does
it feel man? To get that mission call?
Speaker 3: It feels great. Llourie and I are super excited, but
we realize it's like kind of starting the season. You're
super excited, but you know there's a lot of work
ahead and they'll be challenges and trials. And great moments,
but we're looking forward to it in a big way.
Speaker 2: You went through obviously as the AD and many of
your administrative and professional roles the Refining Fire as a
coach right being in the limelight, dealing with all manner relationships,
managing relationships, whether it's players, parents, donors. There's a lot
of stress over that awesome career that you had professionally.
Now you're jumping into a very unique role as a
mission president. But I feel like all of this Refining
Fire you're built for this. Now it's gonna be a
cake walk for you.
Speaker 3: Brother, No, please, no, I mean I think that there
has been many opportunities for me and my wife through
our experience in athletics, to meet a lot of people,
to visit a lot of places, to have ups and
downs and wins and losses, and experience so many different emotions.
And I'm sure and we're sure that that will follow
that as we do this work in the mission field,
that will go at it and attack it in a
similar way. But it's quite different. But I'm very excited
to be able to work with great people of that
Bay Area. I love the diversity there, I love the
people there in the seventeen years I was there, I
got to meet a ton of different people from different
areas of that bay But it's work, and I'm super
excited to work with the missionaries that are coming to
San Francisco and Oakland from all over the world to
be part of the Gospel message, bringing the Gospel message
to the Bay area.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how special is it to go back to the
Bay Area and serve the people of that geography and
serve with those missionaries as well well?
Speaker 3: If I just it's overwhelming to think about it right now,
because it's such a wonderful place and a place where
I tell people it's the Homo family roots. That's where
our children were born, and that's where our children were raised,
and that's where we saw them grow in the Gospel,
and that's where we saw so many people just experiencing
life to the fullest. And we have a chance to
go back there now and certainly in a way different capacity.
But if this is the location that the Lord wants
us to go, that's where we're going.
Speaker 2: Let's go love that. When do you guys enter the
MPC and start your training if you will.
Speaker 3: That begins towards the end of June and there's a
few days of pretty quick training. I think it's like
four days, but very very special training, and then we're
off to the.
Speaker 2: Do you know how many missionaries you're going to be
administering to, managing and ultimately serving in that geography with.
Speaker 3: There's right now currently in the Oaklan, San Francisco Mission
one hundred and seventy seven. But there's a great influx
of missionaries coming into the field nowadays, and they expect more,
especially with new change in missionary age for young women sisters.
So with that being eighteen, they look back to when
they change the age for young men and there was
the influx that was rather strong at that time, and
anticipate the same with young women.
Speaker 2: How many different languages will you also be overseeing there
in that geography?
Speaker 3: Now this doesn't mean that Loren and now will be
speaking these languages, but there are eleven different languages in
that mission.
Speaker 2: We expect you to be fluent at all eleven once
you get back your teaching.
Speaker 3: I have hard enough time with English.
Speaker 2: That's crazy, man. No, it's a very diverse, as you know,
diverse population and uh, and I can't wait to see
how you manage it. All like, who have you been
leaning on as mentors in this process? I don't know
all the process that goes into this, and and uh,
you know, you know obviously you were waiting for that
that mission call you were called to serve, But who
have you been leaning on for mentorship in this process?
Speaker 3: The spirit? And I laugh at that, but that is
so true, Chrid, I'm telling you there. You know, I've
I've have a lot of friends that have served as
mission leaders. And you know, I think everyone that's grown
up in the church. I didn't grow up in the church,
but I'm an older guy, so I've been around it
since I was twenty eight, you know how it is.
But the formally, formally the church has mentors that help
the incoming mission leaders to begin that process and transition
from whatever career you've been into the mission field. And
then I think informally, I have a lot of super
close friends of mine who have been in the field.
And you know, some of the council I've received, at
least so far as you know, this is something that
you have to do with your heart, with constant player
every day. It's not something that I'm going to run
the San Francisco or the Oakland San Francisco mission. Like
I ran in the athletic department. It's two different things.
Maybe there's some skills and attributes that I've picked up
along the way that might help. But on a daily basis,
I think it's important to follow a spare.
Speaker 2: Tom Holmo, former b YU great football players, four time
Super Bowl champion and the greatest athletics from BYU Athletics history.
Here on your UTAI ESPN Radio network. Tom, on our show,
we discuss, you know, the ambassadorial tool that is athletics,
the missionary tool that is athletics. I think you've been
impacted personally. I know your conversion to the church and
to Christ maybe came later on after your BYU career,
But what role did that maybe locker room and all
the touch points at BOU play in your conversion? And
how would you say BYU Athletics plays a role in
that ambassadorial mission that the church has.
Speaker 3: Well. I was baptized been when I was twenty eight,
and I was in the off season right before my
last year playing with the forty nine ers, But the
influence came along before that. I actually had some really
really good friends in high school that were like maybe
seven to ten members of the church that this is
in southern California, Los Angeles area that were great examples
to me in high school. And I start to feel
their example back then. And then when you come to
BYU as a student athlete, if your eyes and heart
are open to it, you're going to feel a lot
of things. And those things are the spirit and the
sweet service that is around everywhere. And so I think
that it's pretty much. I think it's a lot similar
now to when it was a lot of great member
missionaries that are trying to express their love and their
feelings about the Savior. But one of the things today
now is with technology and the ability to communicate so
much more efficiently and effectively, the message gets out a
little more. And I think that in the world of athletics,
you see that when you see someone like this year
football Bear Bachmeyer, who's not a member of the church
but handles himself so well. He's such a great young man,
and the way he communicates with his teammate, it's the
way he serves in the community, the way he expresses
just his love for people. He's not even a member
of our faith, but he is a great, great individual
that represents BYU and in so doing, it's a light
that shined on bringing me on and the church. And
so I think that that was around a long time ago.
You might not have seen it because it really didn't
get out beyond the watch front too much. But now
if you can have teams that people want to see
and they feel something when they watch those teams and
they listen to their players, that's a beautiful thing that
you can have an athletic program and teams that play
and compete and do a great job on the court,
on the field, in the pool, on the track, and
also represent just living a good life. So people will
see them and respect them and they kind of want to
follow them. And for that it opens up a lot
of doors. It opens up a lot of conversations around
the world.
Speaker 2: Well, you bring up some awesome points in these anecdotes
I've done. I've delved into, you know, these former players
that have come to b YU and been impacted by
the church and by all of the teammates and things
that nature guys like ty deppm Er, you know former
b YU Great Heisman Trophy when it ended up converting
to the faith, teammates of mine, setteel Lay and Curtis
Brown and many others. You can go down the list.
I think Robbie, if I'm not saying it wasn't Robbie
Bosco came to be YU, not as a member. You
have this list of individuals that came to b YU
for football, and it was more than just football that
that impacted them. They were obviously very successful in the
football field, but they ended up you know, convert into
the faith and maybe even changing their life lives in
many ways. So when you evaluate that dynamic and maybe
the role that the locker rooms play, like, what do
you ponder, like, what do you think about when when
you hear of these these stories of I think Fosterri
just got baptized, uh in the church that you discrastulated.
There's there's all these stories and I'm like, man, like,
what is it a person that's individual that's experienced it himself.
And I know it was when you were twenty eight,
but you you had these these core experiences at BYU.
What do you think about when you hear about all
these stories?
Speaker 3: Well, I think there's two things. One is when our
coaches and our teams, our players recruit young men and
young women. Cod when they recruit these people that have
to fit, then you got a chance for anything great
to happen, you know. And usually there's been times when
coaches have how did an opportunity to get maybe someone
that's a higher, better player, but they know right from
the recruitment that's not a good fit. And I think
By has done a very good job through the years
of recruiting to fit. And I think that's a big
part of it is you have, you know, a critical mass.
With football, there's one hundred twenty five the world, one
hundreds about now, one hundred and one hundred season, one
hundred and five players on the team. And when you
get one hundred and five people that are you know,
similar not they're not always similar in every respect. They
have a lot of diverse ideas and stuff. But when
you come in a locker room and you and you
bring it all together for one unifying force, and that's
to be successful together, you can share a lot of
ideas and a lot of love, and you can serve
each other in great ways, and that's that's pretty special.
But I think that the thing that is the most
important is that I've always said that when you recruit,
there's three people, three kind of players you have to get.
One is that you have to get the core members
of the church. Those are like the blue bloods, the
legacy people that their parents and grandparents and aunts and
uncles and their brothers and sisters. They know what BYU is,
they know what the church is. They have a strong
testimony of the Gospel, and they come to BYU and
they're going to lay it all on the line. That's
one you have to have. That is your core, is
that those legacy kids. The second is you have to
have you have to get the greatest LEDs players. And
if you see our national championship teams and the teams
that go really far, they get the best players in
the country that are members of the church in every sport.
And the third is then you go outside and you
find people that are not members of our faith that's fit.
And you just nailed off about five or six plus
the great ones that and I could do that in
every sport. And when you put those three together and
you have that balance, I think great things are going
to happen. And if you look at the teams right now,
the coaches and the administration, Brian Santiago and his people
and all the head coaches and assistant coaches and the
team members. That's what they got right now.
Speaker 2: Tom I wrote an article at casel dot com a
couple of years ago, and I asked the question, is
BYU athletics a missionary tool?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: I have debates with people within the faith and outside
of the faith about this, those that are BYU fans
and not BYU fans. And I always look at it
from the perspective of Okay, well, if BYU Athletics is
aligned with the mission of the school and then the
and then the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ
and latterday Saints, I think it is an ambassadory, a
tool for good and a missionary tool for good to
promulgate and share the positive fruits of the faith and
and to a certain extent human eyes and maybe normalize
Latter day saintdom in the modern era. But there are
those that don't feel that way. They don't like maybe
the form and fashion that maybe Athletics operates. Uh, they'll
kind of poke holes at the you know when whenever
b why you fall short of their own standard? See
I told you so. We'll get the the see I
told you so type of deal. And so it is
a it is an interesting dynamic, you know, trying to
wend your way through you know, the the the mission
of of of the church and mission of the of
the school and and what the mission of athletics is
supposed to be. But I just want to get your
perspective on that alignment and how b y U Athletics
is is going forth with that. And I know you
you had your vision and what you executed, and I
know you know Brian's executing his vision. But from your perspective,
how does it all align together?
Speaker 3: It aligns up perfectly. I mean that we make no mistake.
We don't hide from the fact that we need to
be aligned with the church athletically. First of all, when
I was first hired at BYU as the athlete director
of President Cecil Sanmuelson sat me down in his office
and said, look, if you are not aligned and don't
align the athletic department with what's going on from Salt
Lake City, the church leadership and that comes through all
the presidents and the administration of BYU. If you don't
align yourself of that, you're on your own Tom, You're
gonna have a hard time, but if you do, then
good things will happen. You'll follow those blessings. But we
don't try to hide that fact. I think that we,
like I said, we recruit to that fit. We try
to get the strongest and the greatest and the best
Latter Day Saint student athletes that we can find. When
you have those young men and young women going out
on missions and coming back, you get this injection of
the spirit which is so strong, and that helps the
locker room that you talk about, Grid and it really
renews that locker room on a regular basis, and you
have young kids coming in and then as you can
see this football team this year, there's quite a few
members are players on the team that are not members
of our faith. But they came here knowing what the
rules were and they were going to live up to
a certain standard and they love that. And if you
go in that locker room, you know that the brotherhood
on that team, there was no guarantee or no didn't
make them have to be joined the church or had
come to Seminarrea or anything like that. The thing was
come and give us with the best you God, Bay
of the rules and sitting with the team and will
all help make each other better. And I'm going to
tell you that a lot of those players on the
team that are not members of faith have added to,
not taken away distracted, They've added to a shiny example
of that by athletics is right now.
Speaker 2: Love that perspective. Couple last questions before we let you go,
Tom Holmo here on ESP and the fan. I converse
with those of the faith as I mentioned, and those
that have attended in our alums of b YU and
one of I call them the kingdom builders, and I'll
preface I'll kind of preface these like the kingdom builders
don't believe athletics builds up the kingdom. They only believe science, academia, music,
moral spirituality, those ethical theological tenets or what build up
the kingdom? Proselyining athletics, Why do even spend money on athletics?
It doesn't build up the kingdom? Do you ever have
the did you ever have those conversations with those individuals
that just didn't believe that we should invest at all
in student athletes or athletics and that it should just
go away, like maybe b YU Hawaii or b y
u Idah.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I don't really agree with what you
call the builders. I don't believe that. I don't really
have a lot of people over my years that would
come to me and have that discussion. I believe that
all people are children of God, have our having Father.
And if you have that light in you and you
want to make the world a better place, and you
want to show love and build your neighbor and build
strong families, then people are going to look at that
and go, yeah, I like that, that's what this is. Well, yeah,
you can do that at by football. You can do
it at UCLA music if you want. You know, people,
it's all about people and the spirit that they have
in them and the willingness they are to share that love.
So if it's just so happens that it's an athletic
program or an athletic team at BYU that is helping
people maybe open up their heart a little bit and
their mind to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so be it.
But you know, we don't necessarily expect that every time
we score a touchdown someone's going to get baptized. It's
just that you got these guys want to play ball, man,
you know that. But they are fiercely competitive on the field,
and then when they step off the field, there's a
certain spirit about them that is doing everything they can
to help and assist other people and build their own
lives and look for a better life for themselves, for
their family and the people around them.
Speaker 2: How do you think your experiences in athletics will will
help you in this next niver as a mission president, Tom, You.
Speaker 3: Know, I'm not really sure. I just look at every
experience that I've had in every phase of my life
where there's just challenges. We all know that we're going
to have them. We're all going to have trials, but
we all have faith that if we stay on the
path and we live our life according to the principles
and the doctrine the love that we believe in from Christ,
that things are going to turn out okay. And so
I'm not going to go into this with a predetermined
idea of how it's going to go. I'm just going
to go into it with the principles of the Gospel
that I've learned and a faith in Jesus Christ, who
we will preach, and then just love those Missonaris to
do the very best that we can do together.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm excited for you, Tom. Congratulations to you and
your wonderful wife, your family as you thrust in your
sickle with your MC they're in the Bay Area, It's
going to be awesome to watch from a far last
thing for you. I love the Kilani culture and I
view the Klonia culture as an extension of your culture
that you instituted as a leader, as well as the
Lavelle culture. Right that and in Kilani has his own
spin on it, right his love and learning and humble
and hungry, etc. And I think that culture is winning out.
Culture is everything. As you know, as you've led and
you've been led. How cool is it to see, for instance,
this offseason, in the in most recent offseasons, Klanni retain
pretty much his entire roster, you know. I mean there's
guys that leave, but a lot of guys that are
in the two D they just love playing for BYU
and they love playing for Kolonie. How special is that
to watch?
Speaker 3: It is super sweet. I know Kilani as a friend,
I know him as a competitor, I know him as
a leader, I know him as a saint. And by
the way, Colonia Sintaki served in the California Oaklands, a
Francisco mission, so we've already had a little discussion about that.
But he is an extraordinary leader because he's humble and
because he is assertive and he has he's goal oriented,
and he has a great amount of love to give.
And I think that when I see young players or
people coming in for the first time to meet him
or to be part of the team, whether it's a
recruiting trip or they've committed to the team and they're starting,
I think a lot of people say, I like what
he's teaching. I want to be like that. I want
to do what he says we should do to be successful.
And that's leadership, that's mentorship, but it's also love and
he teaches that all the time. Now you've seen the
pictures from the sideline. We call own his love fire. Well,
I think that fire. People like that, and it's just
part of his personality that he is going to dream
and he's going to set goals to achieve them in
life on the field, and his spiritual desires to do
all he can for his family. Clown, You've got a
lovely family, and I can assure you that's the most
important thing in his life.
Speaker 2: Tom Home, Old Ladies and Gentlemen, I always appreciate our time. Tom.
Congratulations once again, inspired by your words today and then
excited to watch you get out into the mission field. Brother.
Speaker 3: Thank you Glen. It's great to be a part of
the band of brothers that was coined by coach Bendon Hall.
But that goes backwards and forwards and as one football
lump to another, Goku's.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you, Tom Home, Old ladies and Gentlemen, former b
YU great, four times Super Bowl champion and also the
greatest athletic director in BYU athletics history. I've said this
many times, and obviously we're celebrating his mission call. But
as the greatest athletic director in BYU history, you know
you're only You're only as good as the HighRes that
you make. If anyone's been in a sort of executive
administrative role where you're having to hire people or delegate
to people to make key decisions and govern certain silos
of a business or of an entity, man Tom was
inspired to hire Dave Rose, the greatest basketball coach all
time in BYU basketball history. Bronco men In Hall was
hired right, ushered in. I believe the second best aaron
BYU athletics history up to this point. He hired Kilani Sataki.
He was a visionary. In hiring Kilani, he took BYU
into independence. That was a visionary move that helped BYU
finally earn through objective data points. Okay, a viewership as
an independent B way's like one of two or maybe
three teams that could truly be successful as independent. He
had that vision and had that faith that it would
work out. I thought that was Some people say it's
a gamble. I'd say it was a vision that he had.
He was able to persevere too. Through COVID. If you
guys don't remember, everyone was canceling, Everyone was fearful, everyone
was fear mongering. Tom entered into that space and said,
we're gonna go forth with faith, We're going to execute
safety protocols, and we're gonna play football. And they did
and they had tremendous success in twenty twenty because of that.
In my opinion and obviously his career as a player,
he's he's the best eighty and BYU athletics history appreciate him.
We gotta get him an odeon suit Ronald the three
Man Weaver. We got to get him a stretchy suit
for his mission there in the Bay area. Something lightweight. Yes,
he valuable and provides great range of motion for him.
All right, let's go to break. Please, don't go anywhere
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