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PROVO -- This week in Thursday's Hero, BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall and his team invited Holly Mendenhall's maternal step-grandmothger, Afton—"Grandma Great"—to take part in the team's practice. Grandma Great recently moved into a rest home, taking with her a picture of her husband and her BYU visor.
"She absolutely loves you guys and it will make her day to be with you today," Bronco Mendenhall said to his team. "Her name is Afton, but 'Grandma Great' is probably what she prefers to be called. She'll probably hug and kiss you and all that stuff too, but humor her, she's really fun."
"Grandma Great" was presented the flag that the team carries out before each game to sign. Each member of the team has previously signed the flag, showing their commitment to BYU and to being great on and off the field.
In conjunction with the practice, Afton had some words of advice for the team:
"I'd like to tell the team that if they go into the game afraid they're going to make a mistake, they're going to make a mistake. And if they go in thinking positive, they don't make a mistake. Whatever they do, they listen to their coach; coaches win games, not teams."
Grandma Great concluded her day at practice leading the team in their team chant: "1…2…3…4…Cougars!"
