DALLAS, Texas — BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake and coaches and players from the 2024 football team gathered with members of Cougar Nation in the Dallas area over the weekend at a Fan Fest and devotional conducted on Saturday and Sunday.
The first of two BYU Fan Fest events this spring, Fan Fest Dallas took place at Josey Ranch Athletic Complex in Carrollton, Texas, on Saturday, followed by a multi-stake devotional on Sunday organized by a local stake youth leadership committee in Trophy Club, Texas.
Sitake was joined at the Fan Fest by defensive coordinator Jay Hill, cornerbacks coach Jernaro Gilford and new tight end coach Kevin Gilbride from the coaching staff along with nearly a dozen student-athletes from the football team, including Texas natives tight end Keanu Hill (Bedford), quarterback Cade Fennegan (Dallas) and running back LJ Martin (El Paso). Other football players on site to meet and interact with fans included quarterback Jake Retzlaff, running back Miles Davis, linebackers Ben Bywater, Isaiah Glasker and Siale Esera, cornerback Jakob Robinson, safety Raider Damuni, and defensive end Logan Lutui.
Fans had the chance to get autographed posters and meet and take photos with the members of the football team and Cosmo during the two-hour event while also enjoying a variety of games and festivities such as inflatable slides, bounce houses, lawn games, face painting and balloon artists.
BYU Store merchandise and food concessions were available, and the Cougar Club and BYU Alumni Association were also on hand providing information and connecting with fans.
BYUtv was on site broadcasting a special one-hour Saturday episode of BYU Sports Nation from Josey Ranch Athletic Complex. Fans not able to attend the Fan Fest were able to watch interviews conducted with Coach Sitake and Coach Hill as well as players Hill, Bywater, Robinson, Retzlaff, Fennegan, Martin and Davis.
“This is the heart of the Big 12,” Sitake told BYUtv’s Spencer Linton and Jarom Jordan during the BYU Sports Nation broadcast. “It’s important for us to have a presence here. We happen to have a bunch of unbelievable fans and amazing people that live in the area.”
SUNDAY DEVOTIONAL
Coach Sitake and five members of the football team spoke at Sunday’s full-capacity devotional, which was also streamed live to other Dallas area stakes. Joining Sitake in sharing inspiring messages about the Gospel of Jesus Christ were Esera, Damuni, Fennegan, Lutui and Bywater, while a local youth choir provided a beautiful musical number. Members of the congregation were able to meet with the players and Coach Sitake following the service.
BYU football will make two trips to Texas in the upcoming 2024 season, facing SMU of the ACC in a nonconference matchup on Friday, Sept. 6 in Dallas before returning for a Big 12 contest in Waco with Baylor on Saturday, Sept. 28.
NEXT UP PHOENIX
In addition to this weekend's festivities in Dallas, BYU Athletics will travel to participate in Fan Fest Gilbert on May 18 in the Phoenix area at Gilbert Regional Park in Gilbert, Arizona. A local-area devotional will also take place May 19. This season BYU football will travel back to Phoenix to take on a new Big 12 member Arizona State on Saturday, Nov. 23. The game will be BYU’s first visit to Tempe to face the Sun Devils since a 13-10 BYU victory in 1997. The two former WAC foes will be meeting for the 29th time in 2024.
Similar to the Cougar Kickoff held in Provo each year in August, BYU Fan Fest events are a tradition that began in 2013 to give Cougar fans in other communities the opportunity to meet and interact with BYU student-athletes.