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BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy holds out the ball as he scores on a 17-yard interception return during the fourth quarter of the Poinsettia Bowl against San Diego State on Dec. 20, 2012, in San Diego.

FILE, Associated Press

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Brigham Young University middle blocker Amy Boswell (10) celebrates her score during the volleyball match Friday, Aug. 26, 2016 at BYU's Smith Fieldhouse in Provo. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald

Isaac Hale, Daily Herald

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Jason Buck, former BYU and NFL lineman, talks on the sideline as the sun glistens on his Superbowl ring during practice on Alumni Day at BYU Friday, April 4, 2014. MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald

Mark Johnston

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Tom Brookens (left) of the Detroit Tigers dives safely back to first base ahead of the tag by Wally Joyner of the California Angels during the fourth inning at Anaheim Stadium on Thursday, May 5, 1988. Brookens was caught between first and second on a pitchout but returned to first safely.

Bob Galbraith, AP Photo

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Olympic bound bobsled racer, Shauna Rohbock poses for a portrait at Olympic Park in Park City, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. PATRICK SMITH/Daily Herald

PATRICK SMITH

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The five athletes BYU is inducting into its Athletics Hall of Fame this weekend – Kyle Van Noy (football), Amy Boswell Usevitch (volleyball), Wally Joyner (baseball), Shauna Rohbock (soccer, track) and Jason Buck (football) all have unique stories.

Some parts are well known, and others are new to the public.

Here are a few of them.

KYLE VAN NOY

Van Noy has forged a 12-year career in the NFL and starts his 13th on Sunday after signing as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings. He’s won two Super Bowl rings (with the Patriots) and made the Pro Bowl at the age of 33. Van Noy has started 115 games and locked 561 tackles, 57 sacks, 14 forced fumbles, 10 fumble recoveries and four interceptions.

He will be in Provo on Friday for the Athletics Hall of Fame festivities but won’t be at the stadium for Saturday’s halftime ceremony honoring the five inductees. He’ll be back in Minnesota preparing for a game against the Green Bay Packers.

“I believe in the village mentality,” Van Noy said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Herald. “One person isn’t just raised by their parents. That village ended up being BYU for me.”

Van Noy said he’s proud to rep BYU in the NFL and pays close attention to former Cougars in the league, including those that came before him such as linebacker Rob Morris with the Colts. Then there’s a player he calls his “little bro,” San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, and one of the NFL’s top receivers in the Rams’ Puca Nacua.

“It’s awesome we’ve created this new generation of BYU players,” Van Noy said.

The question that stumped Van Noy for a few minutes was, “What do you want your legacy at BYU to be?”

“The legacy is I wanted to leave the place better than when I started there,” he said. “I feel like I tried to do my best.”

His message to BYU fans: “Thank you so much. Thanks for embracing a young man that messed up in college. You gave me an opportunity to play hard at a school that gave me a second chance. I’m grateful for all the fans over all the years seeing me at the grocery store or the airport, and Disneyland or Disney World, overseas, anywhere. I miss playing in front of a fan base so passionate that showed so much love for me. They are the best football fans in the world. They had my back, treated me like royalty and continue to do so. My family felt that, too.”

Van Noy told an interesting story about a connection with one of his fellow inductees.”When I first got into the NFL (with the Detroit Lions), Wally Joyner was the hitting coach for the Tigers,” Van Noy related. “After I got drafted I hit him up and he was really cool. He was a person I could have a conversation with. He invited me to a game. He and his wife (Lesley) were awesome with me.”

Van Noy and his wife, Marissa, were married in 2014 and have two children.

AMY BOSWELL USEVITCH

When BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago called Usevitch to tell her she was being inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, she responded this way: “Are you sure?”

Santiago related that she had been a unanimous choice.

Usevitch was a terrific women’s volleyball player for BYU, an AVCA All-American who helped lead the Cougars to four straight Sweet 16’s and a national championship match in 2014.

But she was also the definition of a student-athlete. She finished with a 3.87 GPA in nursing with a minor in gerontology. The very fact that she graduated with a nursing degree while competing at the highest level of college volleyball is actually astonishing.

Usevitch, who lives in Springville, said she ran into a former nursing advisor at stake conference recently. The advisor told Usevitch that there has been no other BYU athlete from a team sport that has earned a nursing degree since she graduated in 2016.

Usevitch credited her coaches and the nursing department for coming up with a schedule where she could do both.

“There was a huge give-and-take on all sides, “she said. “There were so many miracles.”

Her husband, Matthew, finished medical school in Houston and after three years in North Carolina for residency they moved to Springville. Matthew Usevitch is doing a one-year sports medicine fellow for Intermountain Health and works with athletes from BYU, UVU and Utah State. They have four children, ranging from age seven to a 3-month old.

“I’ve already reconnected with a lot of people who helped me along the way,” Amy Usevitch said. “I’m home with my kids right now but I worked all through the COVID pandemic at an ICU in Houston. I’m looking forward to coming back and mingling with the other amazing athletes and administrators, and all the BYU legends.”

Usevitch said she still plays volleyball in a local rec league, though no word on whether she’s using her well-remembered “high knees” celebration for important points. She jokes with her mother that she’s mostly running around chasing her children with a messy bun on top of her head or sweaty from the day before.

Before she returned the call to the Daily Herald, she was getting fitted for a dress to wear to Friday’s dinner.

“It’ll be fun to get dressed up,” she said.

WALLY JOYNER

Joyner enjoyed a long career in the major leagues and was part of perhaps the best BYU baseball team to ever take the field. Coached by Gary Pullins, the 1983 Cougars earned a No. 1 ranking and included seven players who went on to play in the big leagues.

Joyner told a story this week during a radio interview on ESPN The Fan about how he showed up in the fall of 1980 from Atlanta, Ga., and had been recruited as a pitcher. After his second pitching opportunity, coaches pulled him aside and told him he was going to play first base, where he would stay throughout most of his major league career.

Another hotshot recruit, a shortstop, arrived from southern California the same year. After a couple of at-bats, Pullins pulled that player aside and told him they were going to make him a pitcher.

That player was Rick Aguilera. Both Joyner and Aguilera played 16 years in the majors, three as teammates.

That 1983 BYU team also included Cory Snyder, Kevin Towers, Peter Kendrick, Scott Nielson, Joey Whitmer and Gary Cooper, who all spent time in the major leagues.

“I’m a little biased, but I thought the 80’s where fantastic across the board at BYU,” Joyner said. “It was a wonderful time. My three years at BYU prepared me for a great career. I learned how to play the game the correct way.”

SHAUNA ROHBOCK

Rohbock was one of the most accomplished multi-sport athletes in BYU history as an All-American in both soccer and track from 1995-98. She went on to play professional soccer and earned a silver medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics as a bobsledder.

The 35 goals and 79 points she scored for Jennifer Rockwood and the Cougars soccer team in 1996 is perhaps the greatest individual season in school history.

Rohbock played soccer and basketball at Mountain View High School in Orem, also running track for legendary coach Dave Houle.

“I think Shauna was super athletic,” Houle said. “She was solid and she was focused. She had the tools and the perfect body for the sports she played. She had a great mentality and was really tough. If she would have been an MMA fighter, she would have won the world championship.”

Houle coached 30 years and won 68 state championships in basketball, track and cross country, so he gets asked many times “Who was the best athlete you ever coached?”

“It really hard to quantify,” Houle said. “I had national champions in track and cross country and Erin Thorn, who played 11 years in the pros, is the best basketball player I ever coached.

“For her moment, there was nobody better than Shauna in the state. She’s in the top two or three I ever coached based on everything. The day she stepped on the track, I thought, ‘This is someone really special.’ The hardest thing I had to do was pick just four events for her. She was one of a kind and a coach’s dream.”

JASON BUCK

Buck, a defensive end for Lavell Edwards and the Cougars, was an Outland Trophy winner in 1986. He was a first-round draft choice by the Cincinnati Bengals and went on to play seven seasons in the NFL. Buck won a Super Bowl ring with the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXIII.

He had humble beginnings, a skinny 6-and-a-half foot quarterback for tiny South Fremont High School in St. Anthony, Idaho. He went to Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) and was a junior college All-American there.

Buck has been very active in a variety of charities in Utah after his retirement and has also coached football and softball at stops around the Utah Valley.

Buck once said about his dedication and drive: “I swore an oath to myself that before I didn’t succeed, I would die. And I really meant it.”