Hi everyone! I am new to this site so I am unaware if it's taboo for an athlete for a team in question to make a comment on their experience, as I don't see many others doing the same thing for other situations/threads. However, I am an athlete that is on the BYU team and a happy member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I figured my honest experience would be insightful and hopefully clear up some misconceptions and ease any tension!
First off, as I have been taught my entire life, I love and respect all people, regardless of their beliefs about me, my church, their background, personal life details, or anything. I believe all people are children of our loving Heavenly Father and we all deserve to be treated in the way that the Savior treated others. It is my wish to spread that love and joy to others and I hope you are willing to lend that respect to me and everyone else, even if we don't agree on everything. I find life is much better that way!
I signed a letter of intent as a senior in high school, and I joined the team the following XC season after graduating. I used my redshirt for cross country, and then I left for my mission in the winter. Due to COVID restrictions, much of my mission (in South America), was limited to staying inside my apartment 24/7 unless I had a specific government-approved "pase de movilidad" of which each member of the country was given 2 per week. My instructions as a missionary were to use one of those passes for shopping on our preparation day, (each pass had an hour limit and required filling in identification to obtain, and then had to be presented to law enforcement at the place we were going, as police officers surveyed all the streets to check if each person had their pass on them), and I had to save the other pass in case of an emergency. Needless to say, for around 80% of my mission, I was not allowed to leave outside my apartment under any circumstance, to say nothing of recreational exercise. I became very out of shape during that time.
Upon coming home, my spot on the team was in jeopardy. Actually, it was flat-out gone. I had to try out for the team as a walk-on to snag a spot again. Unfortunately, this led to someone else on the roster getting cut to free up space.
I chose to serve a mission well before I ever began running. I didn't even know running was a collegiate sport until early high school, and I didn't get fast enough to consider running in college until years later. I had known I wanted to serve a mission not for any hypothetical gain in a sport, but rather because I knew of the joy my Savior's love gives me and the fact that I wanted to share that with everyone else. As I'm writing this now it seems so silly to even think to use my mission as an excuse for a competitive advantage. College sports and athletics in general are such a small part in the grand scheme of life. I was a missionary to orient myself to be a good member of society and to learn better how to help other people. I am positive that my teammates that have also served would stand with me on those statements. I knew that, once I was able to serve, my running career may have had to be a sacrifice that I offered to being a missionary.
For many of my friends, the mission has required of them to hang up their running shoes and end their running careers. The survivorship bias is in this situation is very real. On the team, very many of my fellow athletes are cut each year because they were unable to get back in shape after their missions. You never hear about them because they fade into obscurity. So who do you hear about? You hear about Conner Mantz, Casey Clinger, others. All the athletes who DO serve missions, and against the odds return and still improve. I know it may not be comfortable to hear, but the reality is, coming back from 2 years of no intense training and then being expected to keep up with one of the top teams in the NCAA is not as easy as it sounds.
Do I think that the mission can provide an advantage to athletes? Yes. But its the same kind of advantage that someone has when they persevere through an injury that takes them out for a few years. They become stronger from losing the abilities they once had. Do I think that being older is an advantage to runners? Yes. But I think that the consequences of taking the time off to serve a mission are also considerable, and not nearly as well known as any perceived benefit. This rule is not BYU exclusive. As I was being recruited by other schools, I let them know of my intentions to serve a mission and, interestingly, many if not all were actually turned away from me because of that fact, not drawn towards it. It takes work to develop an athlete from 0 and bring them back to 100. If it is such an easy exploit, then why don't more people try it? The fact is it is not an exploit. It requires sacrificing 2 years of your life to serve and honor God. If any other runner in the NCAA, regardless of their team, decided to take time away from running and serve a mission, I would celebrate that for them. They'll have the best two years of their lives!
(By the way, I don't know who said it, but I don't believe we have any freshman or sophomores that are 25 years old. I'm as old as they get as a sophomore and I am 22 years old. Maybe you heard of someone who accidentally served two missions, I'm not sure, haha. By the way, before anyone thinks of that, you're not allowed as a male to serve more than one young single adult mission.)
I know this was a very long post, but I hope it provided insight of what its like to actually be one of these runners everyone is talking about. I hope you don't think I'm brainwashed or only wanting to blindly defend my position, as I have really tried to speak from honesty. If anyone has any questions for me, I would love to answer them to my best ability! Have a great day!:)