When Sam Bergeson left his hometown of Boise, Idaho, on the coattails of a pandemic to start his freshman year at BYU, one of the first things he saw was a man running a club booth who didn’t want to be there.
He got closer to see the sign at his booth and read, “BYU Sports Hero Day —hang out with athletes and elementary students.”
Bergeson loved sports all his life and was especially involved with them at that elementary school age. Playing in college never materialized for him, but that love for sports was still strong. How cool would it be to be part of an activity that connects kids with college athletes? He signed up to volunteer.
Fast forward to the day of the event, Sam is running bases at the baseball station.
“Some kid came up to me who was getting athletes to sign a shirt,” said Bergeson. “He said, ‘Hey, would you sign my shirt?’ I was like, ‘I’m not an athlete. I’m nobody.’ He’s like, ‘No, you’re awesome!’ I’ve loved hanging out with you today. Could you sign my shirt?’”
He did, but much more happened at that moment.
“That made a really big impact on me,” he said. “It made me realize I could have an impact on people and these kids.”
That opportunity brought Bergeson back again and again to help at Sports Hero Day, becoming the lead program director in 2024.
Sports Hero Day is an event where Utah County elementary schools participate in drills and rallies with BYU athletes from various sports teams, including extramural sports like men’s and women’s lacrosse. This year also featured football, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, swim and dive, and relay.
Sports Hero Day also gives volunteers from the wider student body the opportunity to serve the community. The event is put together every fall and winter semester, averaging thirty to forty student volunteers with the help of Y-Serve.
“Our mission is to provide a service experience for BYU students,” Bergeson said. “Obviously, we want this day to be awesome for the elementary kids, and it really makes an impact on them and really helps them to find purpose in this time in their life, but it is such a special moment for BYU students.”
Some of the five elementary schools present this semester participated in Sports Hero Day for the first time. The schools were Cascade, Centennial, Desert Sky, Harbor Point and Wasatch Elementary.
Each school rotated to different stations led by players from the teams before a rally with guest speakers at the end. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) coordinated players to come and connect with the kids at each station. Addison Benson is one of the representatives for women’s volleyball on the committee and plays at the outside hitter position.
"It's a really good opportunity to get to give back to our community, and we know that a lot of the kids here are very involved in and, like, see BYU athletics,” Benson said. “Growing up, I think it would have been so cool to be able to go to a college near me and be able to meet, the players, and to get to know them instead of just seeing them on the court or on a TV. So I think that aspect really gets me excited about it.”
The rally included a guest appearance from Cosmo and several speakers from the ranks of BYU athletics. Football running back Sione Moa, women’s soccer goalie Lynette Hernaez and women’s volleyball outside hitter Claire Little all spoke to the crowd of over a thousand sixth-graders packed into the Smith Fieldhouse.
Moa had a great first season, leading the charge for the Cougars’ run game against Kansas State as the 5th-string running back while LJ Martin was sidelined with an injury. His touchdown run in that game showed he has a high ceiling coming into the new season.
Rumble young man rumble.
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) September 22, 2024
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/xQ1OLDusq7
But instead of talking about his highlights from the season, Moa focused on his journey to BYU.
He described what inspired him to come to — meeting players from the football team on his recruiting visit while he was a student at Timpview High School.
“I wanted to become a Cougar,” Moa said. “I saw the influence that they had on kids my age. I saw what kind of a person they were on and off the field. They inspired me to be better each and every day.”
Moa still feels motivated to continue to improve at his craft, but character doesn’t come from putting on a pair of cleats every day. He highlighted how important his relationship with God has been for his journey to BYU, and he mentioned his service as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the California San Bernardino Mission.
Service and supporting others were something of a theme across the various speakers.
Hernaez likewise shared about her decision to serve a mission and come to BYU during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing how she learned to “live for others.”
Claire Little shared how she was the recipient of immense support. She described a time when she felt pressure to be perfect as an athlete when she committed to BYU in sixth grade — the same grade as the crowd she was speaking to.
“If we lost it was my fault,” she said.
Then Little came to understand that the other volleyball players on her side of the net weren’t there to watch her fail, but to build her up.
“Every time I stepped on the volleyball court, I had my team,” she said. “The best part about volleyball that I absolutely love to this day [is] the people.”
It’s likely that the sixth-graders will not walk away from Sports Hero Day with all the fundamentals of each sport they met on March 28.
But what they will walk away with is the memory of people at BYU who saw them for who they are and what they will one day become. That’s what heroes do.