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BYU President Dallin H. Oaks charged the school’s new football coach, LaVell Edwards, “to change the impression that returned missionaries couldn’t be productive, effective, contributing football players.”

The Cougars had a single returned missionary at the time, but Edwards ran headlong at the assignment and made it his own.

He was fulfilling that charge in 1994 when he called a freshman fullback named Kalani Sitake (who was rostered under the name Kalani Fifita) to his office seven games into the season.

Sitake had just made several good plays in BYU’s 21-14 upset win at Notre Dame, but he was worried about what had happened right after the game ended. Several older players — Jack Damuni, Stan Raass and John Raass — told the rookie to stop Edwards before the legendary coach could leave the sideline when the game ended.

“I was obedient,” said Sitake, who now is in his 11th season as BYU’s head coach. “I did what those guys told me. So I stopped him.”

Sitake put a paw right on Edwards’ chest as the coach started to make his way onto the field to shake hands with Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz. Then the older players dumped Gatorade over Edwards’ head.

“I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, what did I just do?’” Sitake said. “I was nervous about that, because the (Gatorade) was really cold.”

On the flight home, Sitake worried the coach was mad at him. Sure enough, Edwards called his excitable young player into his office on Monday. Sitake was nervous Edwards would chew him out but hoped the coach would praise him for his good blocking. Instead Edwards threw him a curveball.

“Kalani,” he said, “I think you’d be an amazing missionary.”

“I didn’t want to have this conversation,” Sitake said this spring, when he told other former BYU players the story during an alumni event. “It was weird timing, because I had just decided before that, that I wasn’t going to go on a mission ... I was playing as a true freshman, and I thought, ‘This is what I was brought here to do.’”

Edwards shared why he felt a mission was right for Sitake. The coach said he wished he had served one himself.

“By the time he was done,” Sitake said with emotion, “I didn’t realize it but he’d borne me his testimony, and I thought it was super special. After that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and then next thing you know, I’m in the (Missionary Training Center) in January, and I don’t even know if I was ready for that.”

Edwards went on to complete a Hall of Fame career and serve a mission with his wife, Patti.

Sitake became his successor, steering a BYU team this fall with 64 returned missionaries.

President Oaks is the 18th president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which this summer set a church record with more than 88,500 missionaries.

Sitake asked Edwards why he left the message.

“Don’t worry about the record,” Edwards said. “You worry about the boys.”

Sitake told the former players they all are special, even if their teams weren’t BYU’s best.

“I see it in the fathers that you are,” he told them, “the grandpas that you are, the husbands and the brothers and the friends and more importantly the examples and the disciples of Christ that you are.”

To watch Sitake tell the story, click here:

Our Dave McCann also recently told this story as part of a larger piece in a series about the leadership legacy of LaVell Edwards.

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