PROVO, Utah — Aside from Tuesday's devotional, Tom Holmoe hadn't
attended many Campus Education Week activities before giving his own
presentation on Thursday, Aug. 20.
His football coach made up for it, though.
"I don't think I've caught any other Education Week talks except for a
few by Bronco Mendenhall in team meetings," said Holmoe, BYU's director
of athletics. "They were really good."As a fifth-year presenter, Holmoe knows that a BYU sports update is an
Education Week tradition for many attendees, so he made sure not to
neglect the Cougar "junkies."He gave a brief overview of an athletic
program that won nine conference championships, had 31 all-Americans
and made 11 NCAA postseason appearances in 2008-09.He talked about
lofty goals and how mad he gets when BYU doesn't get the top LDS
recruits in the country. And he ended his presentation with a photo
slide show that read "Beat Utah" while "Rise and Shout" played in the
background.
But Holmoe's stated goal was "education," and the former NFL defensive
back spent most of his time talking about Bill Walsh, Mount Everest,
lighting fires and his 602 little brothers and sisters.
Relationships and goal-setting, Holmoe said, are the keys to athletic
success. He emphasized the importance of building solid and significant
relationships, and said teams, coaches and players who operate on
surface relationships don't succeed.
"How often do they win championships?" Holmoe said. "Never. They can't
do it. ... That's one of the goals, to build relationships of trust,
relationships where you have confidence and they will look out for your
best interest."
Holmoe, who was named director of athletics in March 2005, said his job
is to "coach the coaches," while the 125-member athletic department
staff's objective is "to help influence our student athletes' lives in
a positive manner.
"Those coaches have valuable cargo, and those are our student athletes," he said.
Holmoe says he's fortunate to have a job that grows his family by 602
— the number of student-athletes on BYU's 21 athletic teams this past
year.
"Did I influence all of them in a positive way last year? No," he said.
"Did I miss out on some good opportunities? Yes. Is my goal to reach
more players this year? Yes."
Holmoe encouraged audience members to make a difference in the lives of
others.Everyone is a mentor, he said, from the elderly member of an
LDS ward to the 14-year-old on a Babe Ruth baseball team.
"You can do it," he said. "I challenge you to do it."
He referenced former teammate Ronnie Lott, a Hall-of-Fame defensive back who had a positive impact on Holmoe's life.
"It think he's the greatest defensive player ever ... and the reason I
think that is because of his influence on me," Holmoe said. "He took
the time to mentor me."
Holmoe referred to those who encourage and inspire others as
"firelighters." Those who throw cold water on dreams and aspirations
are "firefighters." He conceded to having "doused" some fires in the
past.
"Hopefully I've learned from that," Holmoe said.
He wants everyone in the athletic department to be firelighters, from himself to coaches to athletes to parents to fans.
"I make a conscious effort to not waste my time with firefighters," he said.
Holmoe talked about the importance of leaving a legacy, whether it be
in family life or athletics. He seemed agitated by those who coast.
"I think there's a lot of people in our athletic department who are
living in leisure," he said. "It makes me so stinking mad, because
they're cheating our student athletes. ...
"But we have some people that are retiring a year from now, and they're
sprinting to the finish line. ... I know that we've got a football coach
that has accomplished a lot, and he is not anywhere near satisfied. His
stride is long."
Holmoe said he's never been on a team that didn't start with a goal. He
expressed an affinity for Mount Everest and what it represents, and
talked about how Walsh, former head coach of the 49ers, used to liken
the season to climbing the mountain.
Walsh emphasized that preparation began long before the season started.
Once the team got its schedule, he'd divide the games into different
short-term goals — or "little base camps." After the team finished each
stretch, it re-evaluated its position and goals.
He remembers the Niners being 6-5 in 1988 and having to reassess their position.They went on to win the Super Bowl.
"If you don't have a plan on what that path is going to be, you're not going to get there," he said.
Similarly, the athletic department has set goals to win at least 10 of
the available conference championships. The football team, which opens
play Sept. 5, has the goal to win all its home games, a "state
championship," a conference title and a bowl game.
"They have a clear vision of what they want to be come January," Holmoe said.
E-mail: ashill@desnews.com