Notre Dame has provided two Utah Mormons with a place to carry on their love of lacrosse.
Notre Dame College, that is, not to be confused with the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The small liberal-arts school near Cleveland is where Staci Myrup and Katie Christensen accepted scholarship offers to play lacrosse after graduating from Murray High and Jordan High, respectively. Opportunities in the western United States to compete in lacrosse at the collegiate level are limited.
Even though Notre Dame is just 20 minutes from Kirtland, Ohio, a city rich in LDS Church history, there are few members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living around the Notre Dame campus. In fact, according to Myrup and Christensen, knowledge about Mormons is pretty scarce.
"I am the first Mormon that so many people have ever met," said Christensen, a former Jordan High athlete who originally told her parents she would only go for one year — but "ended up loving it." She began her sophomore year this fall and plays on the Notre Dame soccer team as well as lacrosse.
Myrup blazed the trail two years ago, and she wouldn't trade her experience. Initially, her decision was difficult, but although more than a dozen schools showed interest in her after an all-America career at Murray, only Notre Dame offered a full scholarship.
Myrup was a team captain both her freshman and sophomore years, but she made her religious priorities clear to her coaches.
"It is more important to me to be able to go to my church meetings on Sunday than to play lacrosse," she said. So this past season, coaches rescheduled some of the team's Sunday games.
Candace Taglianetti, who coached Myrup her freshman and sophomore seasons, offers nothing but superlatives.
"I've never had a player as coachable as her," Taglianetti said. "I've never had to say, 'You need to work on this or you need to work on that.'
"We just call her 'Utah.' Nobody knows her by any other name."
Taglianetti also expects that Christensen, who redshirted her first year, will be "a great lacrosse player at NDC."
"She is a phenomenal athlete," Taglianetti said.
As the activities chairman in her ward, Myrup headed up a Zion's Camp conference in June where 150 young adults gathered for three days in Kirtland. Former Young Women general President Ardeth Kapp and her husband were keynote speakers at the event.
Myrup once had a classroom experience where a professor was talking about Warren Jeffs' trial and equated the FLDS Church to Salt Lake Mormons.
"I raised my hand and explained they were two different churches," Myrup said. "She didn't believe me at first, then she thought I was confused. Eventually, we got it straightened out."
Myrup and Christensen both field questions to clear up misunderstood beliefs.
"I have to explain the different lifestyles a lot," Myrup said.
Added Christensen: "They think the church is all about rules — you can't do this or you have to do that."
And Christensen swears there are still people who believe that Mormons have horns. "I ask them," she said, "if you were converted, do you think you would just grow horns?"
But Christensen advises all Utah high school students to get out and see what the world is really like.
"I didn't want to leave Utah," she said. "I wanted to stay in the bubble."
Both Christensen and Myrup say people are friendly at the Catholic school and, just like at Brigham Young University, there are a couple of required religion classes.
"I have always had a testimony," Myrup said, "but coming out here helped me to realize it and appreciate it."
E-mail: wjewkes@desnews.com