At BYU, the sight of athletes leaving their teams, scholarships, and competitive momentum behind for 18 to 24 months has become almost ordinary.
But the physical, mental, and spiritual impact of those missions is anything but.
For many athletes, the time spent far from courts, pools and weight rooms becomes the very thing that reshapes how they handle pressure, view success and define themselves long after they return.
At BYU, returned missionary athletes step back into competition with a renewed sense of clarity. Their stories differ in geography and circumstance, but the theme is consistent: missions don’t set athletes back, missions change them. And for many, that change has become their greatest competitive advantage.
For BYU men’s tennis player Redd Owen, pressure used to feel consuming.
Before his mission in West Virginia and Benin, he placed enormous value on performance. But witnessing the real challenges people faced redefined the stakes of a tight match.
“In college tennis we have sudden-death points,” Owen said. “But in real life, people actually have that. It’s not true life or death like some people have it in West Africa.”
The shift gave him a mantra that now shapes his game: pressure is a privilege.
Owen returned with the ability to hold competition in its proper place. Tennis is important, but it’s not ultimate. That perspective has made him steadier, humbler and more joyful.
Fellow tennis teammate Otto Schreiner, who served in Florianópolis, Brazil, felt a similar shift.
Before his mission, he admits that pressure weighed heavily on him. But two years away from tennis made him grateful to play again.
“I take pressure off myself and remember that I’m having fun and it’s a privilege to play the game I love,” he said.
The mission strengthened his spiritual foundation and taught him to set goals, work patiently, and embrace adversity without letting it define him.
For many athletes, missions create a kind of emotional recalibration. BYU swimmer Ethan Purcell, who served in Cambodia, remembers how consuming swimming felt in high school.
“My sport was my life and everything my self worth was was in that,” he said.
Seeing people living in vastly different circumstances helped him detach his identity from results. Losing a race no longer felt catastrophic and winning no longer validated his worth.
One of the biggest changes he experienced on his mission was a renewed sense of confidence. Purcell walked on to the program this year and the shift in his motivation became central to how he competes.
“I wasn’t trying to do things for the approval of others,” he said. “I wanted to win for me, not for others.”
Volleyball player Jackson Fife, who served in both Brazil and California, described a similar shift.
“Winning or losing is not the end of the world to me because I know I am a son of God and I have worth outside of volleyball," said Fife.
Before his mission, he hated losing. Now the perspective he gained on his mission gives him emotional steadiness on and off the court.
When athletes step away from their sport, they often fear losing momentum. But many returned missionaries describe the opposite. Many come back with a stronger sense of who they are and why they compete at all.
For Owen, identity became the anchor of his post mission game. He recalls the joy he witnessed in Benin among people whose lives were far more difficult than his own.
“I developed an identity of gratitude independent of what’s going on around me. My joy is not grounded in being a tennis player, it’s grounded in being a child of God,” said Owen.
That identity makes him more resilient in losses, more joyful in wins, and more grounded overall.
Schreiner experienced a similar transformation.
“I try to make sure my actions on the court reflect my being a disciple of Jesus Christ,” he said. That sense of purpose helps him compete with integrity, positivity, and patience.
Purcell echoes that idea: “The main identity you get from your mission is being a disciple of Christ first.”
Fife feels his mission taught him to think beyond himself. Supporting companions and strangers daily changed how he now supports teammates.
“A mission teaches you to support others like how I support my teammates now,” he said. “I show up to practice not just wanting to make myself better, but others around me as well.”
For women’s volleyball player Sophia Callahan, who served in Arequipa, Peru, returning mid-career required her to navigate unfamiliar team dynamics and a new sense of self. But her mission grounded her in something stronger than performance.
“My value doesn’t change based off others’ opinions or my performance,” she said. Her teammates now often come to her for spiritual support, something she never expected but deeply values.
Every athlete interviewed gave the same answer when asked whether they would recommend serving a mission to another athlete: a resounding yes.
Owen said the change in perspective alone makes it worth it.
“Tennis isn’t the most important thing. My mission taught me who I really am and what matters most and that’s my relationship with God. The perspective and maturity I gained are worth far more than anything I missed on the court.”
Schreiner agreed wholeheartedly.
“Do it. I grew so much spiritually and personally, and I don’t think I’d have the same success in tennis without that growth. It’s a sacrifice, but it improves every part of your life.”
For Purcell, missions aren’t just helpful, they're essential.
“Every athlete with a testimony should go," she said. "My mission helped me mature in ways I couldn’t have at home and it’s actually helped my swimming more than staying would have. It’s so much more important than your sport.”
Fife sees it as life-changing beyond athletics.
“One hundred percent go. A mission teaches you that life isn’t all about you and that changes everything. Serving strengthened my relationship with Christ and made me better in every way.”
Callahan described it as irreplaceable.
“I think [a mission] is one of the best things that someone [my] age can do. The people I met and the growth I experienced are things that a sport can't replace."
Together their voices echo a consistent message that the mission field didn’t take them away from their sports but rather, it prepared them to return stronger.
For athletes outside BYU, a two year pause might look like a setback. For athletes inside BYU, it’s increasingly clear that missions are in many ways an advantage.
Perspective replaces pressure.
Purpose drowns out fear.
Identity becomes steadier than a scoreboard.
And when athletes return, they compete not just harder, but truer with gratitude, humility, and a sense that what they’re doing is meaningful, whether they win or lose.
The mission field and the playing field may seem worlds apart. But for these athletes, the lessons from one continue to shape everything they do in the other.