Roger Campbell, Bob Gabbitas and Tom Means played volleyball and basketball together on their Bakersfield (Calif.) ward teams in the 1960s. Later, Brother Campbell and Brother Means moved to Placerville, Calif., and Brother Gabbitas became a high school Spanish teacher in Bakersfield. When I started high school, I learned that our freshman basketball team would have a new coach, Tom Means. He was an inspiration to us. And he was a disciplinarian. He would not allow any of the team members to swear, cheat or use tobacco or alcohol. He trained us hard, but he made practice fun. He also made us believe in ourselves and in our ability to win.
I was even more impressed with Brother Means off the court. He was clean-cut, fun-loving and always friendly. He invited the whole team over to his home for a team party. I could feel a warm, loving spirit there. I learned he was a Mormon. His religion seemed to play such a big part in making him the kind of person he was. He was always willing to answer my questions, and he gave me a copy of Joseph Smith's Testimony, the Book of Mormon and the book, Meet the Mormons.The next year Brother Means was teaching at the Church College of New Zealand, and my junior varsity coach was Brother Campbell. I had a similar positive experience playing for him.
Brother Means wrote me frequently over the next two years and invited me to visit his family in New Zealand. I did just that. Brother Means and his wife, Marge, served in a student ward where he was the bishop. It was in their home that I first attended a family home evening and decided I wanted to learn about the Church. I wanted the kind of happiness they had in their family. Upon returning home, I studied with stake missionaries and was baptized by my new bishop, Coach Roger Campbell. He carefully guided me as a recent convert and assigned me to be his home teaching companion and to speak in sacrament meeting.
I later served a mission to Sapporo, Japan, and, after I returned home, Brother Means was a witness at my marriage to my wife, Donna, in the Salt Lake Temple. Brother Campbell and Brother Means have been powerful examples to our family.
But the story doesn't end. Today, their friend from Bakersfield, Bob Gabbitas, is my son's mission president in the Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission. He has had a wonderful influence in molding my son into a happy and effective missionary. -- Richard Garrison, Antioch, Calif.
Illustration by John Clark.