Returning Missionaries in 2022?

[Brettski]

I remember being super excited about Nate Ritchie’s future as a Ute.  Does he come back next year?  Also, do we have other missionaries coming back that could make an impact next year?

[Utah5410]

Ritchie is next year. Sione Vaki and a DL return

[Jake]

Unless Ritchie comes home early he’ll be out another year, along with Fotu who was also impressive as a freshman. The coaching staff seems to like Vaki, safety battle will be interesting to see.

[Utesbyfive]

Is it early though? Honest question, I thought I heard that a one-year was a legit option now, yeah, nay?

[GameForAnyFuss]

It’s only a legit option if you play for BYU-Provo Campus.

Story time (names redacted to protect the innocent): When I was on my mission, I spent some time as the mission secretary. This was pre-email, so my job was to handle missionary mail (outbound and inbound) and I handled non-sensitive mail for the mission president as well.

We had an elder in the mission who played football for BYU-Provo Campus (this was during the Edwards era). He had redshirted as a freshman before his mission. Honestly, he was a great missionary…super zealous, hard worker, really nice guy. Meanwhile, the mission president was a big Utah fan.

Around the holidays – about 6 months before this elder was due to return home – the mission president received a letter from Lavell asking if he could be released a month early so he’d be back in time for fall camp at Provo Campus. I remember the mission president reading it and scoffing as he read. “I’ll take care of this. I’m calling Elder _______ tonight to talk about it.”

A couple days later, the mission president had me send a letter back to Lavell. Knowing that I was a Utah fan, he let me read it first. It said:

“Dear Coach Edwards,

I received your letter requesting that Elder __________ be released early so that he can return to BYU in time for fall football camp. It is the policy of the [name of the mission] to not release missionaries early for school-related reasons, so unfortunately, Elder __________ will miss fall football camp.

Elder __________ is an excellent missionary and is totally committed to the work and is an incredible asset to our mission. So I felt inspired to ask him if he would like to extend his mission by 1 month, which he eagerly agreed to. Therefore I must inform you that Elder __________ will also miss the entire football season.

Sincerely,
[Mission president]

P.S. Go Utes!”

For those wondering, that elder returned to BYU-Provo Campus the following year and played half a season before he sadly blew out his knee on a special teams play. He never played football again. Now he is a startup CEO in Silicon Valley.

[CincyUte]

Lol.  Awesome story.

[Author]

Posts