BYU senior defensive back D’Angelo Mandell had a special request after practice on Monday for all the Cougar fans coming to LaVell Edwards Stadium for the Alumni Game (6:30 p.m. on Thursday) and Team Meet & Greet afterwards:

“Bring diapers!” Mandell said. “Let’s get it popping. As many diapers as everyone can bring, I think that’d be great.”

No, Mandell isn’t looking to help teammates with little ones at home. He has a much bigger goal in mind as he has organized this Diaper Drive for refugees.

“Like a month and a half ago, I went to this place called Lifting Hands international,” Mandell said. “It’s a refugee center and I went there to go help my friend’s aunt. She was bringing like beanies and stuff like that in a package. I went in there and the lady was showing me pictures how they live like day to day. Obviously everyone’s lives are different, but for the most part, we got it better than they do. After seeing that they don’t have everyday things like diapers, tents, clothes, stuff like that, in my head I was like, ‘well, we’ve got a big BYU fan base. So let’s get some diapers going.'”

As he thought about the best way to collect the donations, he realized the Alumni Game would be a good start since it would provide a central location.

“Bring Huggies, Pampers, my mom bought Kirkland brand at Costco, whatever,” Mandell said. “Bring them all.”

This is just another example of a BYU athlete hoping to use the platform of being a college football player to bring about some good in the world.

“Honestly, I think it means a lot,” Mandell said. “I don’t think people really know about stuff like that that often. Obviously people want to help and do things but people don’t know about stuff like that on a day-to-day basis. I think something like this is important. I want people to go and donate whenever they can. Hopefully this (the Diaper Drive) is going to be an annual thing.”

Other athletes have sent messages regarding other things that are important to them.

BYU junior fullback Masen Wake drew attention when he wore an undershirt that had a message about the importance of family and remembering his mother (who died when he was 8-years-old), something that still means a lot to him.

“It’s super cool being on this platform, to be able to share things that you want, to be that example you always want to be,” Wake said. “I think my grandma reminds me every Sunday that it’s crazy how many little kids are looking up to us. You just take that in perspective and you’ve got to watch everything you do. You want to be the example that all the parents who have all those kids want you to be. But it’s just kind of crazy. It’s cool to be able to share messages and your beliefs.”

He credited Cougar head coach Kalani Sitake for emphasizing the need to be a good person in life to each member of the team, beyond what they do on the football field.

“He loves us as football players but he loves us like we’re sons,” Wake said. “He just wants to set us up for life. He wants to mold us into great fathers and great husbands and great sons. It’s more than football and that’s what really caught my eye when Kalani was recruiting me. He truly cares about who you are off the field.”

He said he doesn’t know how other programs handle that aspect of things but said he feels BYU puts extra emphasis on it and that it makes everyone feel like family.

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