In what some saw as a surprise move, Brigham Young University athletic director Tom Holmoe has decided that “this is the right time” to retire. Over the last two decades, Holmoe has been at the helm of BYU Athletics as teams have won national championships, garnered international attention, and shared their testimonies on and off the field, the court and the track.
On this episode of the Church News podcast, the award-winning sports legend and former Cougar defensive back talks about faith, football and moving forward with prayer in life transitions.
Listen to this episode of the Church News podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, bookshelf PLUS, YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.
Transcript:
Tom Holmoe: What I’ve learned and is pure knowledge to me now is that Jesus Christ, my Savior, my Redeemer, is my only hope. As a young boy growing up outside of the Church, I had a testimony that God lives. I knew, and He answered my prayers. But I was casual, and through experiences where I was down and it was tough, where when you totally submit and you realize and you confess, “Jesus, You are my only hope.” He’s your only hope too, whether you know that or not. You have to determine that. And when I confess that, that all good things come from Him, then I’m good. I’m at peace. And I can do anything through my Savior, anything. My only hope.
1:10
Jon Ryan Jensen: This is Jon Ryan Jensen, editor of the Church News. Welcome to the Church News podcast. Today, we are taking you on a journey of connection as we discuss news and events of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In what many saw as a surprise move, Brigham Young University athletic director Tom Holmoe has decided that “this is the right time” to retire. Over the last two decades, Tom Holmoe has been at the helm of BYU Athletics as teams have won national championships, garnered international attention, and shared their testimonies on and off the field, the court and the track.
On this edition of the Church News podcast, the award-winning sports legend and former Cougar defensive back talks about faith, football and moving forward with prayer in life transitions.
Tom Holmoe, thank you for coming in and joining us on the Church News podcast today.
Tom Holmoe: Thank you. It’s good to be with you.
2:05
Jon Ryan Jensen: I don’t want to call you leaving your role as athletic director at Brigham Young University the end of anything. I think that’s a little disingenuous to you as a whole person. It seems more like this is a fork in the road for you and your wife as the two of you move to a new stage of life.
Is that kind of how you’re looking at what’s going on with you right now?
2:24
Tom Holmoe: I don’t really look at retirement as the end of the road. I retired from the NFL when I was 30, and I definitely needed to go get another job. So, this is an adventure that I’ve been involved with, and I’m retiring. I don’t see it at the end of the road, because a great story was: I have a 6-year-old granddaughter who missed school to come see my retirement press conference.
Jon Ryan Jensen: So cute, by the way.
Tom Holmoe: And she came to school the next day, and her mom overheard a conversation with another little girl that said, “Remy, where were you yesterday?” And she said, “Oh, I was at my papa’s graduation.” And I thought that was cute, and I thought it was true. I think that graduation is like a commencement. And I think as people, we’re constantly going through commencements, beginnings, in our lives. There’s so many cycles that we go through, and then there’s new adventures that we go through.
And I can see, and I can really feel through the Spirit that this was the right time for me to announce my retirement and to retire, because up until about two years ago, I was getting up to an age where people would ask me all the time, “When are you going to retire? Are you going to retire?” And I didn’t get offended, but I thought, “What, do I have a mark on me or something that says it’s time?” And a year would pass, and I felt like I had the energy and the passion to go forward another year, another year, another year. And then this last summer, I was at the beach, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks: It’s time.
And so, I explored that, thought about it for a few days myself to contemplate if it was just something in the wind or if it was real. And then after those three days, I knew it was real, so I approached my wife, and we talked about it for a couple days. It wasn’t easy. I said, “Honey, I think it’s time for me to retire.” And she goes, “You mean ‘us.’ When you retire, that’s my retirement too.” And I said, “Yeah, I guess that’s right.”
I really had to apologize because I was a little insensitive to that. We hadn’t really spoken about it like that. We’d talked about our future many times, but retirement is a new beginning. And so, we talked about it, and then after a couple days, we came to agreements and understandings about what that would mean and then how we would go forward.
5:06
Jon Ryan Jensen: I love that you bring that up. When I watched you making that announcement, it really struck me because we talk a lot about counseling and the value of counseling as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And it seemed to me that you set a good example for others as you talked about counseling with your wife, with your family and with Heavenly Father. It doesn’t sound like it was something new to you. It sounds like something that is built into you.
Can you give maybe some examples of how you’ve done that, either in your family or here in the Athletic Department?
5:34
Tom Holmoe: Well, I think from the very beginning, as long as I can remember being alive, when I was a young boy, I wasn’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I attended another church, and I believed in God. And so, in my earliest memories where I was really scared of the dark when I was a kid — with some burglars, actually, that were in our neighborhood for a long period of time — and it made me afraid.
And so at night, when I was a young boy, like 7, 8, 9 years old, I would just pray myself to sleep, that I’d be safe. And I’d wake up in the morning, and it was a new day. And so that’s where I first learned to understand that Heavenly Father hears my prayers. He answers my prayers. I was so scared at night that I could hardly stop shaking, to the point where I’d wake up in the morning, and everything was great. And that was a great day for me to wake up knowing that Heavenly Father was watching over me.
And so from that time forward, prayer has always been a big part of my life. So there really hasn’t been any areas in my life where I’m not going to come to Heavenly Father in prayer. So, this was no different. I think I can’t say it was more; I just think it was important prayer.
7:02
Jon Ryan Jensen: You mentioned that you didn’t grow up as a member of the Church. That lasted through your time at BYU as well, right? And so, for those who are hearing this and saying, “How could you go to BYU and not be a member of the Church? What is that like?”
I would love to hear your feelings on that, because then your conversion involves time having played football here, having gone to the NFL, then that transition period to marriage and family, and you have that baptism kind of in the middle of all of those things in life.
What was that experience like for you?
7:36
Tom Holmoe: Well, this conversion story has been as short as a minute and as long as three hours. So I’m not sure exactly what your time period is, but I think I’ll give you somewhat of a package. Coming to BYU was something that I determined that I wanted to do, and I think that that was the most important decision I made in my life, because I didn’t have support from my best friends, my family — my parents and my brother and sister — my extended family, my coaches. There was nobody that wanted me to choose BYU over the other choices that I had.
Jon Ryan Jensen: And this is back in California, correct?
Tom Holmoe: This is in California, in Southern California, when I was making my decision on where to go being recruited, and I had other choices and other good choices. But every time I would take another recruiting trip — BYU was my first — I would, on the flight home from those trips, I would think to myself, “They didn’t knock BYU out of the top spot.” And that was — it wasn’t hard, but it was an interesting feeling for me, confusing to a degree, to like, “Why is BYU at that top spot?”
And after the fifth trip, BYU was still on top, and I had to deal with that, and I prayed and thought, “Is this the right spot for me to go?” The reason that BYU was important to me was that they played a good brand of football. That’s why a nonmember of the Church would come here. And their academics were really good, and I was a good student athlete. But the other decision for me was there weren’t very many distractions up here, and I was a young man that could be easily distracted when I was at that time. So the other schools were really good choices, but I think I would have been distracted.
And so, it’s interesting that that was a factor for me. I saw young friends of mine, young members of the Church, that went to my high school that were really good friends of mine, and their example was exceptional for me. And like many other converts that had this similar experience, my experience was: “These friends of mine, who I hold close and dearly to my heart, are members of the Church and want to go to BYU. I’d better look into it and see what it’s all about.” And they basically were the ones that got me early on to take a look at BYU, then the recruitment started, and I came.
So, I think the important part is how I got here. Once I got here, that’s a totally whole new story. And I think I’ll just sum it up by saying: To be on this campus — and I’m looking out the windows right now onto the campus — is like none other. The Spirit is there every day, every hour, every minute, if you only let It be. But I cannot feel that Spirit as much on the campuses that I’ve coached at in other schools or that I visited many times. And so, when you’re at BYU, a lot of miracles can happen if you let it.
10:53
Jon Ryan Jensen: I love that you mentioned it looks different at BYU, it feels different at BYU. You play football here, and you get drafted 42 years ago, fourth round, and you find out you’re going back to California. What was that emotion like for you?
And, again, when that’s not your choice, that’s not one where you get to pray to say, “Where am I going to go play?” but you get picked, now what is that decision-making process like for you in your life of, “This is where I’m going to go. What do I do?”
11:23
Tom Holmoe: Well, I really didn’t care where I was going to get drafted or sign as a free agent, whichever was going to be the case. Beggars can’t be choosers. They selected me, I was going to go. And I grew up in LA, Southern California, and all of my cousins, all of my cousins on my dad’s side, lived in the Bay Area, and they were huge 49ers fans, and I was a big Ram fan, being an LA Ram. And so when I got drafted, the 49ers were really good and had won the Super Bowl in ‘81, and this was ‘83, two years later.
So I was just thrilled to go to a community that I was familiar with, because I’d spent quite a bit of time in the Bay Area with my cousins and my aunts and uncles, and I loved the Bay Area. And it was the 49ers, so I didn’t look back one time.
12:14
Jon Ryan Jensen: LaVell Edwards — you’ve mentioned him and some of his impact on you. What did you learn from him? What did you take away from him, and not only him, but other coaches who you have associated with over your time here at BYU?
Tom Holmoe: LaVell Edwards was the head coach that recruited me, but he had other assistants that were more involved in my recruitment. Fred Whittingham, who’s father of Kyle Whittingham up at the University of Utah, dear friend of mine; Dick Felt, who was my position coach at BYU, were very heavily involved in my recruitment; and of course, LaVell.
And during the recruitment, that’s when I first could see that things were different from other staffs. They didn’t put pressure on me. They just recruited me, and it felt right. The things that they said and the things that they envisioned for me seemed that it was logical and I could relate to. Some of the other coaches, I just didn’t feel they were being honest with me about my potential future. They were overstating, I think, what was real, and so that was part of what touched me.
And then when you get here, you realize that LaVell’s fingerprints, or his love, it permeates the entire football program. So it’s the coaches and the players, and that was my day-to-day activity, was 90% of my closest, closest friends were BYU football players, and the coaches were great leaders. I had other people that were not football players that I got to meet here, but I started knowing that at BYU, it started with LaVell for me. And I think about that often, that, “Does that happen in every department? Is it someone that goes and is in the business school, do they get that same impression from the students and the faculty?”
And you name the department or the unit here on campus, and after the number of years I’ve been here, I think it’s true. And I think that the board of trustees and the leadership of this campus, with President [C. Shane] Reese, they’re always striving to increase the spirituality, the connectiveness, the connection with all the people — I’m just going to say people — and the students, because that’s what it’s all about, is this is a place that is the future, not the only place, but this is kind of the mecca for the future leaders of the Church. They can come from other spots, but a lot of them come here.
And when I say “leadership,” I’m not just talking Salt Lake City; I’m just talking Church leadership, helping to share the gospel and gather Israel. A lot of it starts here on this campus. That’s where it started with me, was with LaVell, and I realized that from LaVell, it kind of, what do they say, they kind of circled out in the pond, the ripples in the pond. They go a long ways with LaVell. He touched a lot of people, so I was extraordinarily blessed to have that experience, not only to come to BYU, but to rub shoulders with LaVell.
15:36
Jon Ryan Jensen: So, you get that experience with him, and then you come into BYU as athletic director. And not everybody in the world is going to have a chance to ever be anything close to an athletic director or a senior administrator at a university like BYU, but they do in their own spheres — whether that’s in their family, in their ward or stake — have a chance to consider individuals who they’re going to work and serve with. And you here have that opportunity as well as you consider coaches who are going to interact with these student athletes and maybe have that same kind of experience and build these mentor relationships like you had with LaVell.
So, when you look at a Kevin Young and a Mark Pope, when you look at a Kalani Sitake and a Bronco Mendenhall, or coach [Jennifer] Rockwood with the soccer team, or Diljeet Taylor for the running team, are there things that you’ve learned through that experience of interviewing coaches and looking at, “How are these people going to help these student athletes?”
Are there things that you would share with our listeners about how to choose good coaches and mentors?
16:35
Tom Holmoe: Well, it’s not proprietary information. I think a lot of people have figured it out, but they might not be able to really stick to it. But I think that first and foremost is you have to have the sport acumen. You have to be really good and know the sport inside out. You’ve got to be able to not only know it yourself but be able to teach it and coach it. So there’s a certain depth that you have to look into the various candidates to see how well they know, how deep they can go in the smarts of the sport.
And then the second thing is just the fit, and that is important everywhere. We don’t have the market on getting people that fit here, but we don’t really care about where other people do. Here at BYU, the fit is super important. So when I interview people, I’m always considering that. I’ve usually done my research and my due diligence, and because we hire so many members of the Church, I know a lot of them beforehand, so I pretty much know how smart they are in the sport and that they’ll be able to teach and coach and lead in that regard.
But you have a little bit of time with them to be able to really understand or feel if it’s the right person, and that’s a time when I’m very prayerful, because I don’t think I have this great skill set that I’m going to pick other than it’s pretty much revelation, and I think people might do it the same way at other schools and not call It revelation, but that’s what it is. And so, knowing that’s what it is for me, I’m super prayerful about going into the hiring process, during the interview process, and then just that, what I sense from it. And then I stop and I wait, and I ask questions and follow up on some of those feelings that I have about people, then you go with your gut and your instincts, which is the Holy Ghost.
18:48
Jon Ryan Jensen: There are so many principles there that can be applied in everybody’s life. And that first one, as you talked about, knowing your subject really well; especially as members of the Church, we hear a lot when people say, “Well, I was called on to give this talk, and I feel like I learned more than you’re going to learn when I give this talk,” or “I learned more by preparing this lesson than you’re going to learn by hearing this lesson.” It sounds like it’s kind of the same thing; you really need to be immersed in the subject.
19:10
Tom Holmoe: Yeah, and I think going back on that, an example would be Kalani Sitake. He had played here. I didn’t know him when he was here. He was a missionary in the Oakland mission when I was down in the Bay Area. So I knew him a little bit from that; not personally, but knew of a player that was on a mission, and that’s about the extent of it. Then I come back up here, and I get to know his father, Tom Sitake, more than I know Kalani.
And I’m looking back at this story; at the time, I didn’t really understand how all these pieces were kind of coming together. As I get to know Tom, Tom says to me, “Hey, I have a son that’s coaching up at University of Utah. You should keep an eye on him.” “I’m well aware of him, Tom.” And so, during that period of time, now I have a little bit of a connection with him, even though he doesn’t really know me that well. And when it’s time and it opens up, I already have done some work, and I’ve been watching him for a while.
So, during my time here at BYU, as an AD, I’m constantly keeping an eye on those members of the Church that are rising in the various levels of coaching in various sports, and I’m not calling them and doing in depth. I’m just kind of watching to see how they are without them knowing that. I don’t want them to know I’m watching them. I just want to see them in natural light so that I can see what they’re all really about. And then by the time you get past that stage, then it’s just a matter of confirmation; “Are the things that you’ve been thinking true?” And that’s where the interview and the personal discussion comes in.
20:58
Jon Ryan Jensen: And then as you watch them interact with student athletes, you’re getting to see both the performance on the field or the court, you see how the team does, you see the individual growth. And you look back on that, are there some things that have stood out to you — I don’t want to ask you to rank things, but — maybe some favorites or something that you would share about moments that you for sure want to keep close to your heart?
21:20
Tom Holmoe: Yeah, I think one of the things that you said that struck me is as we see coaches and players develop and athletic directors develop, we’re all in the process of learning. And so that’s the thing that is most impressive to me, is — I’m going to tell this little short story, but — every year, we have at the end of the year an athletic graduation banquet. All of the kids that have played here that are graduating that year come together for one last time for a great celebration of their graduation. And their coaches are there, and we take pictures, and I usually speak.
And I get up to speak, I look out into the audience, and I see the greatest kids in the world. There are leaders, there’s All-Americans out there, there’s champions out there, there’s captains out there, there’s great fighters. And I look and see all of these kids have overcome unbelievable challenges to be able to finish up. And I think, “Where do we go from here? What are we going to do? How are we going to make it? We’re losing all these great kids.”
And then you realize that you have this class coming in a freshman, snot-nosed little punky kids that think they’re so great, or they’re scared to death. And that’s what you change: great out, questionable in. And then the magic that starts to happen is that those freshmen or newcomers come to BYU, and they start the process over, and eventually they get to that point where they’re the All-Americans, the captains, the leaders, the champions. And it has happened every year, where that amazing metamorphosis takes place. And so, if you were to ask me, “Who or what are the experiences?” it’s just like every one of them in their growth.
Now, some of these kids don’t make it to the graduation banquet. It’s just that challenges are too tough, and they either don’t make it in the sport, or they leave the school, and they’re off on another challenge or adventure. But the ones that do, that’s gold; that’s amazing. And every one of those has been in my office, or I know of crazy, tremendous challenges having to do with health, injuries, family, sometimes death of parents, school issues, sometimes personal tragedy. And there’s not one of those champs that hasn’t had to go through the grinder, through the crucible, before they get to the end. And that’s my favorite part of it.
24:16
Jon Ryan Jensen: I love that. So, we talked about individuals, we’ve talked a little bit about teams. Your role has seen — some would call it a roller coaster. In whatever metaphor you want to use, it’s been a journey. And most recently, two years ago, some would say the culmination of that is BYU joining the Big 12 conference. But you also had to go through challenges and some growth experiences, some development, if you will, to get to that point.
What did you learn personally in that process? And was that a struggle, or did you find joy in that journey bringing BYU through Independents and the West Coast Conference and coming into the Big 12?
24:59
Tom Holmoe: Yeah, I’ve found joy in the journey, because I’m still here. But there were days that were — I always say to my wife, “Some days are better than others.” But I really believe, like Kevin Young right now, our basketball coach, he talks about “stacking wins.”
Jon Ryan Jensen: “Stacking wins”; yeah, I’ve heard him say that.
Tom Holmoe: And what he means by that is you’ve got to win a game, and then you’ve got to win another game and another. And right now [at the time of recording], we’re on a three-game win streak. But I think one of the things that’s helped me the most — and I can say this because I’m an older administrator at BYU — I have a lot of experience with a lot of games. I don’t know what the number of games that I’ve played or coached or been an administrator for, but there’s a lot, and we don’t win them all. And if you just talk about the games, I’ve seen stacking, and I’ve seen that stack fall over, and then you start over.
And on a day-to-day basis here at BYU, one of the things people ask me when they are interested in wanting to be an athletic director, “What’s your favorite part about your job?” One of the favorite parts — well, my favorite is the student athletes, but another one is that every day is a new day. Every day is a different day. But I really like the fact that we’re going to fail in athletics. I like that. There’s no person in the world that can go through life on a perfect trajectory. There’s always bumps. And in athletics, that’s really the case.
The great analogy is in baseball, if you get out seven out of 10 times, you’re in the Hall of Fame, you’re hitting 300. And so, I don’t really struggle with difficult losses or challenges or adversity too long. Obviously, we always get hit in the side of the head. Sometimes we see it coming and get hit. But I like to think that each day, I’m going to stack days. So, when Kevin Young says to stack wins, I like stacking days. And you’ve just got to kind of get into a groove. And when you feel like things are going great, you are super careful not to get into a rut. There’s a difference between a groove and a rut. A groove, you can be flying down and it goes for a long, long time. A rut, you can’t get out of.
And I think sometimes, with days to days, when you go day to day to day to day to day and they’re all going good, that’s when you’ve got to stop and say, look around and say, “What’s coming?” Because you know something’s coming. And at BYU, with 631 student athletes and over 200 employees, there’s not a day that’s going to go by where we’re not going to have a challenge.
And that would be maybe a third thing that I like about my job, is that one of my jobs is to solve problems. And we have problems, but I like it. I’ve gotten used to it, and as long as I know older I get, the more experiences I have to be able to share with individuals, “You’re going to be fine. This is something that’s going to take time. We have to get through it. You might have to heal up, or you might have to take another class, or you might have to be out of school for a while, but just think: When you come back, you’ll be stronger. You can do this.” And so, I’ve just had so many failures that I know the other side of it is a win.
28:26
Jon Ryan Jensen: Education generally is full of failures as well. You’re always trying to learn something, to pass a test, to become excellent at something. President Russell M. Nelson, Prophet and President of our Church, has said that “education is a religious responsibility.”
When you hear him say that, is there something that you have to consider, as athletic director at BYU, where you say, “How are we embracing the religious responsibility of education that we provide through BYU?”
28:57
Tom Holmoe: Well, you don’t have to follow that prophetic counsel, but you really should if you want to be successful. And I love the Prophet, I believe in the Prophet, and I follow his promptings. I follow what he — I can’t say “commands”; I would just say when the Prophet speaks, I try to listen as best I can. And we should share that here at BYU. That’s a beautiful thing about BYU, is we quote the prophets, seers and revelators all the time. We can do that at BYU. And I think that’s a beautiful thing.
But as I have gone down the road, when you talk about education, one of my things I wake up in the morning and I kind of go through in my mind, not my prayers, but I guess it’s a form of prayer, a series of key things that I say every morning to myself, and one of the things is “learn.” It’s a series of words, and one of them is “learn.”
And I haven’t done this forever in my life, but I think with the Prophet’s counsel, if I come to school here and I can learn something, it might not be out of a book, but it could be from a relationship, it could be just some something that occurred to me, or something brand spanking new, and I look at it as a great opportunity. And it changes me for the better, and I can learn; I’m just going to get better. And I think in the latter part of my tenure here at BYU, I think that pushed me forward longer than I could have gone because I’ve learned way more in the latter part of my tenure than the early part, when I wasn’t paying attention.
30:40
Jon Ryan Jensen: I love that thought of that process. If you could go backwards to the decision you made to come to BYU in high school, knowing everything you know now, what would you go back and tell that young high school Tom Holmoe?
Tom Holmoe: “Do it again,” for sure. I would say — I often think about it, and I’m super grateful in my prayers often that the Lord led me to BYU. There’s no question. There is absolutely no question. Part of that was I made that decision because I didn’t want to go somewhere and not have it work and blame it on someone else. And I think the fact that I made the decision to come to BYU, that I had to make it work. And I think I did the same thing with my conversion, with my baptism.
There were not a lot of people — let’s just put it this way: I had a lot of friends and family members that did not want me to get baptized. But I had, obviously, by that time a lot of people that wanted me to, and it was this constant hammering in my brain. And I think it came back to that again where the Spirit said, “It’s your call. You have the choice to make.” They call it agency. I didn’t really know a lot of it then. But as I look back now, I can say that the agency I had to choose BYU was for a very good reason. And the agency I chose to get baptized was I did it on my own. It was my choice, and though I had family members and dear friends who I loved that did not want me to do that, that it was my choice.
And when I was coaching at Cal, I oftentimes would second-guess my choices, and that was a reason for my failure at Cal. And I knew at that time when I resigned at Cal, and I said to myself, “If I ever get another opportunity to lead, I’m going to do it my way, and I’m not going to choose choices that are in the benefit of other people. I’m going to do what’s best in my judgment.” Because I knew in my life I’d made a lot of good choices, but during that period of time, I just was looking more to other people than my personal revelation.
33:07
Jon Ryan Jensen: Yeah, I look at you when you say that, and it doesn’t look like you have any regret about that. It’s all — you just see it as another step in that.
Tom Holmoe: Yeah, there’s no regret. If I could go back and do things differently in my life, we all would. We would avoid the traps and the temptations that all come to us all. But as I look back, each one of those errors or transgressions or mistakes or dumb choices, call it whatever you want, if you take that and grow from it, you’re going to be better. And forgiveness is a beautiful thing, and you talk about the Atonement, if you put it all together, your faith is so strong that you can overcome difficult situations.
Now, look — and I totally understand that I haven’t had as difficult and trying situations as many people have that have led to death and illness and serious mental and emotional pain. I’m not comparing. I’m just saying my faith has grown amidst the problems and issues that I’ve dealt with, and I think that everyone has their personal plan where they have to deal with what is dealt them.
34:21
Jon Ryan Jensen: Your athletes themselves, they get a chance to be examples of everything that you just talked about, because they get a unique opportunity as they travel to participate in devotionals, sometimes those Sunday night devotionals or Saturday devotionals that teams will participate in.
Why is that an important part of the BYU experience for the athletes here?
34:43
Tom Holmoe: We’re instructed in the gospel, as a gospel principle, that if you live your life to have the Holy Spirit with you, so that you’re obedient and you are able to seek forgiveness and you live your life to be worthy of the Holy Ghost, in time you realize that’s the only way to go. That is one of the choicest blessings and gifts that we have, is the gift of the Holy Ghost.
So, knowing that, we should always teach that. And so that’s another beautiful thing; prayer, discussions, sacrament attendance. Some teams go to the temple. We talk about, in our Athletic Department meeting once a week, we have a senior leadership council that we start and review one of the general conference talks on a weekly basis. So, why would you not take every opportunity to strengthen your ability to receive revelation? I know that’s what we do. We try to do that.
Some coaches and some teams are way more involved and have learned greater faith. Some of the teams and coaches haven’t quite figured out that this is not a secret; it’s just an incredible, sweet mercy that He gives us that we just sometimes don’t grasp. So you asked me, “Is it an advantage?” Yeah, it’s a tremendous advantage, because it keeps them at peace, it increases their faith, and they feel the love.
36:21
Jon Ryan Jensen: Likewise, you also get an opportunity to be counseled by Church leaders at times, to come in, and it’s not like any other motivational speaker who steps into a locker room. And so, whether that’s a phone call or an official setting, is there any piece of counsel that you’ve received from a Church leader that has stood out to you and helped you stay the course?
36:42
Tom Holmoe: Yeah, I think so. I would say that my conversations with members of the Quorum of the Twelve or general authorities, and I’m in a position where I just feel blessed to be able to have those bumps occasionally. Those are sacred, and I really don’t feel I would share them.
But I think there’s one that I think has been very helpful to me, and it wasn’t personal, it wasn’t private, but it was many years ago, probably maybe 15 years ago, I was at a baseball function where Elder [David A.] Bednar came and spoke to the baseball team. So it was rather private, and as Elder Bednar often does, he will just open it up and answer a lot of questions. And one of the questions was asking, “How do you know, in your service or in your walk of life, how do you know who to see and who to talk to?” Something like that, the question.
His answer is what struck me. He says that, “As an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I know that every day the Lord is going to place somebody in my path. I don’t know who it is at the beginning of the day. Sometimes throughout the day, I’m talking to many, many people, and I often think, ‘Is that the one? Is that the one?‘” And then he says it’s not until the end of the day that it comes to him, that he realizes this one person at that time, that day, every day, “that person was the one I was supposed to see.” And you look at that, that’s a miracle.
So, that’s something that he said as an apostolic blessing. But he’s challenged us and said, “You can do the same.” And so that’s something that, for me, I think it’s a sweet exercise, that every day, I try to follow Elder Bednar’s counsel and at the end of the day say, “Who was the one person that the Lord put in front of me?”
We’re in front of hundreds. I’m in front of hundreds of people. But if you really take the time, prayerfully consider it, and through the day, you can’t really go try to find who it is, but with all the people that you’ve been through, if you can realize, “That’s the one,” and if you can figure that out while you’re in that point, then you have this incredible connection. And that’s blessed my life immensely. And I look forward to every day, because it’s a new day to find who the Lord wants me to chat with.
39:19
Jon Ryan Jensen: I love that. I’m seeing this in my mind, and if the Lord said, “Yeah, that was the one you were supposed to speak to,” would we just be like, “All right. Heading home for the day. I got it done”
Tom Holmoe: It’s like a tender mercy. And I’ll use that — that’s an Elder Bednar term, but he uses that often. I think it’s a tender mercy that we know that that’s part of our responsibility. I work with the youth in my calling, and we have priesthood responsibilities as young men and young women in our ward, and our responsibility is missionary work. And that’s missionary work for sure, whether it’s a member of the Church or not. And so, to be able to find the person that the Lord’s put in your path and know it, that’s a beautiful thought.
40:09
Jon Ryan Jensen: I love that. Tom, coming up at the conclusion of your time and your service here at Brigham Young University, I want to give you the chance to answer the question that we ask all of our podcast guests. And that is: What do you know now, having served here, having played here, having coached here at Brigham Young University?
Tom Holmoe: What I’ve learned and is pure knowledge to me now is that Jesus Christ, my Savior, my Redeemer, is my only hope. My only hope. As a young boy growing up outside of the Church, I had a testimony that God lives. I knew, and He answered my prayers. But I was casual, and I used opportunities sparingly to connect with my Father in Heaven. And through experiences where I was down and it was tough, I’ve had some difficult times in my life when you totally submit and you realize and you confess, “Jesus, You are my only hope.” If you give it all away, then you have nothing else, then I feel like I’m in a good spot, and I can build from there.
So, I remind myself and confirm in prayers to my Father in Heaven that He sent His Only Son to be my only hope. He’s your only hope too, whether you know that or not. You have to determine that. And so, being humble and kind and loving, when I am like that, then I feel that hope. That hope is so strong.
There’s a lot of times when I’m in environments, like the other night in a Kansas-BYU basketball game, where we are rocking and rolling and the Marriott Center roof is about to blow up and the scoreboard might fall onto center court. I can’t honestly say that that’s a time where I’m thinking, “My only hope is my Savior.” But that night, when I’m in bed and it’s quiet and it’s peaceful, and I know it’s time to reflect on the day, and you just think, “What kind of experience did I just have? It was a great experience. I’m the athletic director. I’m super grateful for that.”
And I think of all the things that went into producing that experience, and where did it all come from? The hands of God. And I know that. And when I confess that, that He is my only hope, that all good things come from Him, then I’m good. I’m at peace. And I can do anything through my Savior, anything.
Now, He only asks me to do certain things, and I’m going to try to do what He wants me to do and not try to do more than that. And if I have a good, strong relationship and realize that I can push everything out, and my only hope is right in front of me, right squarely in front of me, then I live. My only hope.
43:51
Jon Ryan Jensen: Thank you for listening to the Church News podcast. I’m your host, Church News editor Jon Ryan Jensen. I hope you learned something today about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had your faith in the Savior increase by looking through the Church News window as a living record of the Restoration. Please subscribe, rate and review this podcast so it can be accessible to more people. And if you enjoyed the messages we shared today, please share the podcast with others. Thanks to our guests; to my producer, KellieAnn Halvorsen; and to others who make this podcast possible. Join us every week for a new episode. Find us on your favorite podcasting channels or with other news and updates about the Church on TheChurchNews.com or on the Church News app.
