In an interview recently posted by College Sports Connect, BYU Senior Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator Liz Darger sat down for an interview with college athletics thought leader Matt Brown at the 2023 Women Leaders in Sports Convention.
In the interview, which was recorded back in October, Darger talks about the transition for BYU Athletics into the Big 12 Conference while articulating key points about the unique and important mission of BYU Athletics and what that mission means.
One of Darger's responses is transcribed below. Watch for the full video for more.
"Our mission and vision is all about preparing our student-athletes to be ambassadors for good and represent their Savior Jesus Christ throughout the world. We are sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we take that very seriously. We don't just want to align with BYU and the Church, we want to prominently promote the values espoused by Jesus Christ. For our student-athletes, we want to prepare them for all aspects of their lives, and athletics can be a great vehicle to teach young people and young adults how to overcome challenges, how to reach out to others who are in need, how to be a great part of a team, how to have self improvement. We believe athletics is a great vehicle to prepare young adults to share their unique light with all the world as leaders in the world, in the future. We recognize that BYU is a very visible arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and BYU Athletics is a very visible arm of BYU. We take that responsibility very seriously, in terms of how we represent BYU and the Church, and our student-athletes do a phenomenal job of truly being disciples of Jesus Christ in how they treat others and how they share their testimony of the Savior and how they do it all in this crazy world of college athletics. I love watching them shine in the classroom, in their sport and as communty members, and not all of our student-athletes are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, about a fourth of our student-athletes are not, and we love them, they enrich our athletic department. Their lived experiences, their beliefs and their religious experiences make us even better, too. We love having them a part of our campus."