Why Kalani Sitake celebrates by dancing

Kalani Sitake has a lot to celebrate these days.

He recently got a contract extension as BYU’s football coach, his team is coming off a victory over its rival and the Cougars are headed to a new conference.

It’s little surprise, then, that Sitake joined ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Thursday afternoon to talk about — among other things — BYU being invited to the Big 12, the Cougars’ victory over Utah last weekend and BYU’s upcoming matchup with No. 19 Arizona State.

Perhaps his best answer of the segment, though, was why the energetic coach loves dancing. 

Sitake helped get fans pumped up prior to last week’s game between BYU and Utah, then celebrated with them on the field postgame, and he’s been known to show off some moves in the locker room. Last year, he even shared video of him dancing with his daughter. 

“There’s no skill involved, it’s just effort. Everybody can dance, it just takes effort and what you do is open yourself for criticism,” he said of his dance moves. “But when the boys ask for it, I’m going to give it to them. When the fans ask for it, I’m going to give it to them. 

“You only regret not having a great time with the people that you love and the people you work really hard with. We do whatever we can to have a lot of fun. We don’t party here at BYU, so we try to do it here in the locker room at the football stadium.”

He also sent out a challenge to coaches and players around the country. 

“I encourage every coach and every player to dance as much as they can,” Sitake said.