AD Tom Holmoe’s Regret: A Secret Resurfaces
It was a quiet, unassuming Monday afternoon at the BYU athletic offices when the phone rang. Tom Holmoe, the athletic director, had just finished reviewing a stack of emails and was about to head into a meeting with his team. But something about the call unsettled him.
“Tom,” the voice on the other end was crisp, urgent. “We’ve got a problem. Something from Kalani’s past has surfaced.”
Holmoe felt a chill run down his spine. Kalani Sitake, the head football coach at Brigham Young University, had been his choice—his bold gamble—after years of searching for the right man to lead the Cougars. Sitake was a beloved figure on the campus, a local hero who had played for BYU, with a pedigree that made him stand out. Holmoe had put his faith in Kalani, offering him not just the job, but a contract extension, hoping to build a legacy of stability and success. But now, as the voice on the phone spoke, Holmoe wondered if his gamble had been a mistake.
“Explain,” Holmoe’s voice was tight, his mind already racing.
“The extension. The one you gave him last year. It’s tied to something we’ve just uncovered. A connection between Sitake and a past incident—one we can’t ignore.”
The details that followed were like a punch to the gut. Holmoe had known Kalani to be a man of integrity, a figure who had worked hard to cultivate a strong image. But the past is a tricky thing. A hidden chapter, one that involved a scandal from Kalani’s early coaching days, had resurfaced. Allegations, whispers, and rumors—things Holmoe thought were buried, locked away in the shadows of time—were now threatening to tear down everything he had worked to build.
At first, Holmoe had brushed it off. “It’s just rumors,” he thought. But now, with investigative journalists digging into the past, the story was gaining traction. The weight of this discovery was more than Holmoe had ever anticipated. A lie was no longer a lie if enough people believed it.
Holmoe thought back to when he had sat in that room, across from Kalani, when he offered the coach the contract extension. The smile on Kalani’s face had been genuine. It was clear that Kalani loved BYU, loved his players, and loved being part of the team. But what if that connection had been manipulated? What if Holmoe had been too trusting, too blinded by his loyalty to the coach?
He could already feel the walls closing in. The media was ready to pounce, eager to create a story, to expose the darkness behind the hero. Holmoe had built his career on clean, sharp decisions, but now he was staring at a potential disaster—one that might cost him everything.
“Do we have confirmation of the details?” Holmoe asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Not yet,” came the reply. “But it’s only a matter of time.”
The regret hit him like a freight train. He’d trusted Kalani, given him the benefit of the doubt when others had whispered behind his back. Now, it seemed he might have been wrong. The contract extension, once a symbol of Holmoe’s unwavering support, now felt like a noose tightening around both of their necks.
The questions piled up. How deep did this go? Was this just a passing mistake, a relic of a younger, less aware Kalani? Or had it been something more insidious, something that had shaped the coach in ways Holmoe had never fully understood? The regret gnawed at him, gnawing at his gut.
As he stared out of his office window, watching the late afternoon sun dip behind the mountains, Holmoe knew that his next steps would define his career. He could ignore the past and stand by Kalani, but the fallout would be catastrophic. Or he could act swiftly, cut ties before the story broke and salvaged what little reputation he had left.
For the first time in his career, Holmoe doubted himself. The path forward was clouded, uncertain. But one thing was painfully clear: he regretted ever giving Kalani Sitake that contract extension. What he had once seen as a promise for the future now felt like a ticking time bomb.
