Glory Days

Jared has always loved sports!  

When he went to BYU, he discovered that he enjoyed playing Rugby (he was pretty good too).  

Those were fun days!

Jared - front and center

Such a great group of guys!

It's been a few years, well I guess it's been a lot of years.
You can imagine my surprise when Jared told me that he wanted to play in an alumni tournament.   Like real Rugby again...  just for one weekend, an old boys tournament he explained.

This was right before Christmas and he was having some problems with his foot, he actually sort of broke it while running on a treadmill and may or may not have said that it might be a good idea to go and support his buddies in more of a coaching role than actually playing.  Perfect I thought, he can just go and see a bunch of old friends and then watch the Sevens Rugby Tournament which was also the same weekend as the Old Boys Tournament, all in Vegas.  A pretty awesome guys weekend.

Next thing I knew he was ordering a jersey and he was back in the game.  I prayed that he would come home in one piece.  (Thankfully he did, just some bruises and scrapes.)

That's Jared #3.

He actually had a blast!  Said it was amazing!

It's been 15-20 years since these BYU champs played together and they held their own.  

It's amazing that several of these men are now bishops, stake presidents, lawyers, and doctors.  Jared says its because they learned to work hard while playing Rugby.

Jared's brother Mike brought his family up from Orem to cheer on Jared and the BYU alumnus.  

Mike sent the family an email about Jared and what a great Rugby player he was.  Here is what he said:

"Btw, ya’ll missed out on Jared tearing it up in Vegas.  Looked good running around and punishing fools!  You’d a never guessed he just turned 40, cause that’s really old!  I was proud to be his brother.  One of his old BYU coaches, who also happens to be my neighbor in Provo, approached me and said Jared was the best Prop (a Rugby position) he’s ever coached.  Said back in Jared’s prime (which insinuates that he’s not in it anymore?) he would have put Jared up against the boys from the All-Blacks, which is the National team from New Zealand, and considered to be the best team in the world.  He also said Jared was so coachable, he could tell him anything and he’d just listen and do it.  This coach is from New Zealand, and has experience around the All-Blacks, so he has a good gauge for talent.  I thought that was pretty cool."

-Mike

Those glory days, they were pretty great!