Friday, September 9, 2011

Modern Heroes #3: Brandon Davies

Brandon Davies is a basketball player from BYU.  At the end of the season this past winter Brandon Davis voluntarily told the school that he had broken the rules that he signed when he came to BYU.  He broke the honor code.  BYU was having its best season ever and was just 4 or 5 games away from the end of the season.  They were ranked #3 in the country and had a chance to really do great in the NCAA tournament.  The school didn't let themselves off the hook for this basketball player who was a starter.  They suspended him from the team.
When the world found out they couldn't believe that the school suspended one of their best basketball players when they were that close to a possible run at the championship.  BYU kept themselves to the honor code and did what was right, and what they would have done, for other students as well.  Brandon was suspended and not allowed to play.  They did decide to let him attend the games and let him sit with the team in his street clothes. 

Because of this action the honor code at BYU became big news.  Lots of news and sportscasters disagreed with the university for suspending him but they respected the university anyway because they stood strong with their rules.  Much ado was made about BYU standing by their own honor code when many other universities ignore, sweep under the carpet or wait to discipline students until after the big game or season. 

Brandon is a modern hero not for what he did to get suspended but for what he has done since.  He didn't go public and rail against the university.  Instead he followed the strict guidelines for his potential reinstatement.  He wasn't even guaranteed that they would accept him back at BYU.  But he went through the process and in essence repented of his actions and has recently been reinstated and now can practice with the basketball team as they prepare for their upcoming season.  Brandon is a hero for taking responsibility and going through the difficult process of making things right.  The whole time accepting that he might not be allowed back.  Hurrah for honor:  honor of the school that does the right thing at an inconvenient time and honor of Brandon Davies for sticking to his values and making it right.   


You can read more about it here http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700175462/Jay-Evensen-Brandon-Davies-should-have-been-story-of-the-week.html  and here http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/howard-110901/brandon-davies-return-byu-rare-positive-story-college-sports


Update: Click here for the very latest article about Brandon. 

1 comment:

  1. jaimeSeptember 11, 2011 at 7:42 PM

    davies is definitely a hero in my book for doing the right thing - especially because it was the hard thing too and meant putting a lot of time, heart, and effort into making things right. thanks for highlighting someone who was a hero in a little less traditional way than we'd typically think :) yay for heroes of every kind!! especially the ones like davies who even after making a less-than-heroic decision, decided that wasn't the route he wanted to go and decided to do the heroic thing by taking responsibility and making changes to make things right :)

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