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The United States' men's volleyball team is full of former BYU Cougars and is 2-0 in the Olympic tournament, so far, but the entire team has been playing through tremendous pain this week.
It's been the longest three days in USA volleyball history. The team's trying to play on while also processing incredible heartache.
Ryan Millar, a former Cougar who is competing in his third Olympics, said, "This tragedy has been horrible; it's put a dark cloud over the whole Olympic games."
While the entire Olympic community's been rocked by the brutal attack that killed Olympic volleyball and former Cougar coach Hugh McCutcheon's father-in-law, Todd Bachman, and seriously injured his mother-in-law, Barbara Bachman, there's guarded good news from Beijing tonight.
Rob Browning, the USA team leader and former Cougar, said, "The fact that Barbara took a big step forward yesterday and was able to talk to Hugh and Wiz and her sisters was a big relief."
"We're not getting a lot of sleep, we're talking, hugging and crying, and trying to get through it together," McCutcheon said.
McCutcheon was BYU's main recruiter and top assistant when the Cougars won back-to-back national championships in the late '90s. And now, after getting this USA volleyball team in position for a gold medal run, he's dealing with devastation.
Rich Lambourne, a former Cougar, said, "It's certainly a phenomenal tragedy that the Bachman family is having to deal with. And you know, that kind of thing always has ancillary effects, and one of those in this situation is that Hugh is taken away from something he's worked so hard for, for four years."
Now the team is feeding off every bit of good news, as Barbara begins her recovery.
Millar said the team has put Todd and Barbara Bachman's initials on their shoes. Clearly, this Olympic odyssey is dedicated to Todd's memory and Barbara's on-going recovery.
McCutcheon is staying in touch with his team by texting, but there's no word yet on when or if he'll return to coach them during the Olympics.
