Cougar Pride

I truly love sharing about the wonderful families associated with the football players. The Heder's are amazing. See a little bit of information on their family below:

We had some funny experiences when we were taking our pictures with the Y flag. The lady at the Parthenon ran over to us and wouldn't let us take a picture with our flag, which was a bummer, even though I explained it was just a school flag. A group of Asian ladies came up and asked, "what is the Y" which made for a good discussion :)

The Heder's after the big win.

Austin when he was little.

Για σας! We are the Heder family and we are serving a mission in Greece. We have six children: twin boys, Trevor and Michael, both BYU grads who are married and gone on to graduate programs outside of Utah. Our son Brooks just returned from his mission in Jacksonville, Florida and is going to be Austin's roommate at BYU. Austin is a Junior and plays middle linebacker. We have two girls who are 14 and 17 years old, and are here with us in Greece. Marie will start high school and Alinda will do her senior year here at an American International School here in Athens.

BYU football has been a fun part of our lives for as long as we can remember.
I have many fond memories of putting on my BYU shirt, packing up a few treats and going down to Provo with my Dad to watch the games. I never dreamed I would someday have a son play on the team. We tried to create the same memories with our own children, and Austin has been Cougar Blue since he was two. Last Fall when my husband was called to be the President of the Greece Athens Mission I mentioned to President Uchtdorf when he issued our call that there was just one thing that was going to be really hard for my heart to miss--and that was watching my son Austin play his junior and senior year of football. ( I thought, " how could these 2 great things be happening at the same time.") He just smiled and told me, "the blessings will out-weigh the sacrifice." Of course they always do, and we were thrilled to have this missionary experience, and we will find a way to watch the games even if it is at 3:00 in the morning.

One of our scripture themes here in the mission is in D&C 128:22 and I feel it applies to our football players as well, "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause?
Go forward and not backward. "Courage, brethren; and on, on to the VICTORY!"

We are excited to cheer for BYU in this historic land, and in some of these pictures, along with our missionary badges we wore our BYU gear and its NIKE symbol. Nike is the Greek word for VICTORY!

Go Cougars !

Love, the Heder Family

P.S. If you run into Austin Heder at a game sometime (#42), give him a hug and tell him it is from his MOM and family!