PROVO — Jasen Ah You and Jack Damuni have been overseeing BYU’s football recruiting efforts and other outreach programs for several months now, but on Monday, head football coach Kalani Sitake made their responsibilities official.
Ah You is the executive coordinator of recruiting and player personnel, while Damuni is the executive coordinator of on-campus recruiting and community/player relations.
Both men came to BYU in 2016 when Sitake replaced Bronco Mendenhall and have been part of the football support staff for more than four years.
“Recruiting is a critical part of everything we do, and I am excited to have both Jasen and Jack putting their vision and energies into our daily recruiting efforts,” Sitake said in a school news release. “They have both done an excellent job on our staff the past four years, and I am confident in what they will be able to help us accomplish in their new responsibilities.”
In a teleconference with reporters who cover the program in March, a week after BYU’s remaining spring football practices were canceled, Sitake said Ah You and Damuni were already acting in those recruiting roles “and have a good bead on everything that is going on.”
Former BYU player Alema Fitisemanu had been the recruiting and player personnel coordinator before leaving the position in early March when Sitake announced he was shuffling some roles in the department.
“Recruiting is a critical part of everything we do, and I am excited to have both Jasen and Jack putting their vision and energies into our daily recruiting efforts. They have both done an excellent job on our staff the past four years, and I am confident in what they will be able to help us accomplish in their new responsibilities.” — BYU football coach Kalani Sitake
The position “is more about staying in touch with recruits and checking up on them, but also giving them a little bit of insight on what we are doing as a program and the connections we have with our players and allowing that to happen a little bit,” Sitake said in March. “I don’t think you can force-feed a relationship with recruits. You just have to let it happen organically, and fortunately for us we have a lot of time to make that happen.”
According to 247sports.com, BYU has four commitments from the class of 2021, all from the state of Utah: Maple Mountain receiver Kyson Hall (brother of current BYU quarterback Jaren Hall); Timpview athlete Raider Damuni (Jack Damuni’s son); Jordan athlete Tevita Mafileo; and East linebacker Ricky Wolfgramm.
Ah You spoke to reporters via Zoom for more than 40 minutes Monday after the announcement was made and outlined his vision for his new position. He said BYU will play to its strengths, which is its nationwide fanbase, its tradition of success, its schedule loaded with teams from Power Five conferences, and its affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I will tell you right now that there is no place like BYU for a member (of the church),” he said. “We check all the boxes. It is my job, my responsibility, to show recruits that they can find everything that they are looking for in a university here at BYU. Plus, so much more.”
Ah You and Damuni “are going to oversee everything, but also the assistant coaches and myself have a heavy hand in recruiting,” Sitake said. “But they are going to be the organizers and coordinators of everything that we are trying to accomplish.”
Ah You will direct the strategic planning and execution of BYU’s recruiting activities, including official and unofficial campus visits by recruits, coordination of communications, and the implementation of special events like junior day and the high school coaches clinic that BYU does during spring camp.
He will continue to serve as BYU’s liaison with professional football teams.
Although its main recruiting focus will be on church members and student-athletes who can abide by BYU’s honor code, Ah You promised the coaching staff will “swing big” in an attempt to upgrade the talent level.
“We are going to be very selective,” he said, noting that BYU currently has a “roster crunch” and will sign a limited number of recruits — fewer than the allotted 25 — the next few recruiting cycles because so many scholarship players are currently on church mission.
“If we are going to play a Power Five schedule, we need Power Five kids (that fit the lifestyle),” he said. “But we are not trying to build a team of Boy Scouts. ... We want to win football games. And we will win football games.”
Ah You mentioned that he recently went through the recruiting process with his son, Chaz, a member of the BYU team who was a four-star recruit out of Timpview High, and saw firsthand the recruiting efforts of schools such as Utah, Washington, Oregon and Stanford.
“You can imitate the LDS experience, but you can’t replicate what is here at BYU,” he said. “The BYU experience is something that I feel that I need to share and carry forward and be able to showcase — everything that BYU has to offer that makes it unique and very special.”
Ah You said he was born in Provo while his father played for BYU and delivered by BYU’s team doctor. He was raised in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and has been involved in football at the high school, junior college and university levels for 17 years. He was the support services coordinator on BYU’s staff the previous four years. He was a defensive line coach at Snow College from 2004-07, a defensive administrative assistant on Utah’s staff from 2008-10 and the defensive coordinator at Westlake High School from 2011-15.
He said he will place a big emphasis on using social media — not just during the pandemic, but for years to come — to attract recruits to BYU and make them feel loved. That will be especially important if the NCAA allows student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) as has been proposed.
“We are laying the groundwork now so we are on the forefront of it,” he said.
Damuni has been running BYU’s True Blue Hero program and overseeing alumni relations for Sitake the past four years. He is known for his “relentless energy and infectious passion” for BYU, according to the news release.
His new responsibilities will include planning and supervising summer camps and game-day recruiting activities, and managing the program’s missionaries. He will serve as a liaison with campus departments and football recruits.
“Recruiting is the life blood of every sport that is played at the collegiate level and is a year-round battle,” Damuni said. “I am honored to be part of this important component and will always strive to do my best and represent Brigham Young University in making a positive impact to every student-athlete we serve, and to the people in our community as well.”
Damuni began his college career at Dixie State College in St. George, and played strong safety for BYU in 1993-94. He returned to BYU in 2016 after a long career as an educator in Maui from 1996-2015.