When will BYU hire a sports psychologist?

I caught the mens volleyball team game last night. BYU is (or was) ranked as the #2 team in the nation, had an 8 match winning streak or something and last night, jumped out to a 2-0 set lead over CONCORDIA IRVINE, a school which I didn’t even know existed until last night. Not only that, they dominated the first 2 sets, 25-16 and 25-19, which are dominating scores, if you know volleyball.

So in set 3 they have a mental breakdown and lose by a closer score of 22-25. No huge deal for a #2 team that has their mental stuff together, right? But then they can’t get it back on track and lose set 4, 21-25 and during that set it became obvious that it was nothing more than a head case thing. They were clearly the more talented team… except in the mental aspect of the game.

They go on to lose the final set 14-16 and there you go… head case city, aka Provo, rears its’ ugly head and BYU chokes away an easy match against the #14 ranked Concordia Irvine Eagles. I don’t think there has been an eagle sighting in Irvine in probably 100 years… and in fact only a month ago BYU beat this same team in 3 sets 25-21, 25-22 and 25-15.

So what is the problem with the BYU sports teams? This has been an issue since I can remember. It ultimately keeps the teams from being winners.

Is there a Sports Physiologist at BYU Athletic Dept? If not, talk to Tom Holmoe to get it going and you fit perfectly for this job.

Hard to understand why they lost the last three sets in a row. Weird!

If it is a one time thing (meaning you do not get to be #2 in the country having mental lapses), I am not worried about it.

What it sounds to me is that the Cougars took the other team lightly… Especially after they won the first two games…

“They relaxed” and got hammered the last three games.

I am not worried about it at this point, unless it is a continual trend.

It is a “trend” with all of BYU’s athletic teams. I have thought a lot about why it is but I have seen it numerous times.

We have talked about this a lot over the years. It is a problem. You think their bishops can handle it :wink:

But, I think there is a change going on and the future looks bright for BYU. We now have 2 non-white apostles. Big changes and that will trickle down to BYU sports :slight_smile: