Practice Monday features short, snappy session

Most Monday practice sessions are short, brief and basically a way for players to do a light workout after team meetings and health clincs.

In my opinion, there was a little more “team” work on this Monday, which are chances for the offense and defense to work against the scout teams. There appeared to be a few interesting tweaks, nothing major, but it was visible in what the Cougars were practicing.

For the second week in a row, I sensed the team worked like it was hungry and eager to get after it. Last week you could see this all week long leading up to the Air Force game. The best way to describe it is this wasn’t just routine go out and get it done and leave type of session like I’d seen leading up to games with Utah State, UNLV or New Mexico.

Dennis Pitta came in after practice started. He apparently had been receiving treatment and I’m assuming he got a good bit of work on his knee because he was favoring it a bit. He did not practice.

Jeff Call and I spent the afternoon working on assignments our editors have carved out for rivalry week. If anything, this week puts a lot of pressure on beat writers because of the volume required and the short amount of time we are allowed access to the team. Monday was it. We’ve been locked out the rest of the week.

Sensing practice closures, other members of the media made Monday’s session a crowded one.

Hans Olsen of 1280 AM The Zone told me his morning program Tuesday has stocked up a series of interviews, one right after another. He’ll have Miami Dolphin Ryan Denney on at 6:30 a.m., followed by Steeler Chris Hoke at 8:30 a.m. John Beck will call in from Miami at 7:10, followed by an interview with BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe at 9:10.

For Tuesday’s paper, I’ve got a column on the rivalry, plus a second piece, a feature story that will be played as a centerpiece and on a father torn by his loyalties this week. It’s about Tom Sitake, father of former Cougar fullback Kalani Sitake, who is now the linebacker coach at Utah.

Something you won’t read as part of that story is this background information about Tom and I from about 1966.

I first met Tom when I was about 12 years old, living in Tonga where my father, Rondo Harmon, was the principal of Liahona High School. Tom was 15 or 16 at the time and a student at Liahona. Back then, we had tried to organize a unit of theBoy Scouts and our leaders had a whole bunch of kids lined up for a photo shoot in front of the school. Mekeli Wesley’s father was also in the picture, he was attending Liahona as a native of nearby Fiji.

Well, when my father passed away back in 1998, about the time Kalani returned from his LDS mission and played on the final LaVell Edwards teams, we had a big photo layout at the funeral home of my father’s life in Tonga and that photo was included in a picture board.

Tom came through the funeral greeting line to see my mother, who had taught him English. Her other students included others like Limhi Latu, father of current RB Wayne Latu. Any way, Tom saw that photo and was stunned. Tears came to his eyes and me and my two brothers asked Tom what was up.

Tom begged us for a copy of that photo, he just had to have a copy of it as soon as possible. I asked him why and he replied that it was the only photo of him as a kid, that in Tonga, he’d never had his picture taken as a child growing up and he’d like it for his family, his three sons and his grandchildren.

We got him a copy the next day.

On Saturday, our photographer did a photo shoot at Tom’s house, showing his split loyalties to BYU as a lifelong fan, yet a Ute supporter because his son receives a paycheck from Utah.

Monday, I sat with Tom and my oldest son at the Bamboo Hut in Provo and we chatted about life in Tonga and specifically how Tom felt about his role as a devoted BYU fan who has a son coaching at Utah.

I remember breaking the story of Kalani’s oral commitment to BYU back in the mid-90s. While he played one year at Timpview High, he finished his high school career as a highly recruited running back out of Kirkwood, Mo., near St. Louis. Back then, Kalani and Tom used Kalani’s grandmother’s name and was known as Kalani Fifita. It wasn’t until after his mission that Kalani and Tom took on the name of Tom’s grandfather, Sitake.

Any way, this is all background and stuff you won’t read in Tuesday’s centerpiece in the Desnews sports section.

It certainly is a small world.