High school football player passes up scholarship for Mormon mission

Recommended by Trent Toone, Deseret News

Published: Monday, Dec. 17 2012 10:59 a.m. MST

South Pointe's Alex Simms (70) runs on the field with the team at the beginning of a game earlier this season. Simms has decided to serve an LDS mission.

Andy Burriss, Heraldonline.com

Enlarge photo»

Summary

South Pointe High offensive lineman Alex Simms is passing on scholarship offers so he can serve an LDS mission in Canada.

Our take: In this article, Andrew Dys, a columnist for the Heraldonline.com, talks about the decision of a high school football player in South Carolina who has declined college football scholarship offers to serve a 2-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Every football player in today’s annual Shrine Bowl all-star game in Spartanburg is among the best anywhere.

Most of the 88 top players from South Carolina and North Carolina will get scholarship offers for college and sign letters of intent to play on the famed grassy-quadrangles of football factories where the game is not just a game but a culture.

South Pointe offensive lineman Alex Simms and his family opened up a letter of a different sort last Friday — an old-fashioned, snail-mail envelope that held his immediate future.

The letter contained a location for where Simms would go, but not to play football. The letter is a rite of passage in Mormon households. Opening the letter is a thrill and thought about for years.

Read more about Alex Simms on heraldonline.com.

Comments