Stayed after the game last night with my three sons to get player autographs. My 9 year old wore his DH Express Richie Saunders jersey and really wanted to meet Richie.

We went down to the front row after most people had cleared out and waited patiently as each player came out of the locker room and signed things and said hi to every kid that wanted to talk.

To a man, every one of the players was kind to every kid (and adult) who wanted some of their time and attention. Brody Kozlowski actually missed giving my 6 year old a high five (lots of kids, lots of hands, just didn’t see him) and the 6 year old was bummed about it. I’m not sure how Brody became aware but 15 mins later he left his conversation and trotted over to us, found my 6 year old and said “Hey man, didn’t mean to miss you!” and looked him in the eye and gave him a fist bump. Totally thoughtful and unexpected. Made the kid’s night.

Well we’d seen everyone except Dallin and Richie and my 9 year old was dead set on seeing the two of them. At the minute right before I was about to insist that we go, we spotted Richie being interviewed on the court by Spencer Linton. Richie looked physically spent and his cute wife was tugging at his coat like “hey, we’ve been here a LONG time” but Richie made sure to sign every thing for every kid and when he eventually made it over to us he spent a couple mins and asked my son his name and what he thought of the game. They say never meet your heroes, and that’s probably right unless your hero is Richie Saunders. Couldn’t find a nicer guy.

Just as Richie turned to walk away, we were about to go when Dallin Hall came walking through the seats over to us. He had seen my sons standing there a while before and they had called to him. He’d said he would come back over but I figured he’d be busy and forget, no worries. Well he didn’t forget and he came walking over and did the same as Richie - spent a couple mins, signed things, took a picture and really looked my kids in the eye and expressed interest in them.

Totally cool. Couldn’t be happier with how it went. Even the 16 year old who calls it “sports balls” and regularly says things like “oh, so like our gladiators did a little better pushing than their gladiators and you’re thrilled? I’m glad!” He said he was really impressed by the players and how they treated his little brothers and I think I saw his little Grinchy BYU heart grow a couple of sizes.

Go Cougs.