[BostonCard]

Stanford LDS mission recruits by class in the Harbaugh/Shaw era (certainly possible I'm missing somebody):

2009: Taysom Hill
2010: Dallas Lloyd
2011: None
2012: Brandon Fanaika
2013: Sean Barton
2014: None
2015: Gabe Reid, Houston Heimuli
2016: Simi Fehoko, Tangaloa Kaufusi
2017: Levani Damuni (Sione Lund did not take a mission)
2018: Tanner McKee
2019: None
2020: Scotty Edwards
2021: None

2022: None

Mission destinations: American Samoa (Reid), Australia (Hill), Benin (Barton), Brazil (McKee), Chile (Lloyd), New Zealand (Damuni), South Africa (Edwards), South Korea (Fehoko), Taiwan (Kaufusi), United States (Fanaika, Heimuli)

A majority of them were assigned to so-called first world/global North countries. Barton is the only one who was assigned to a country in the bottom 50 for malnutrition. Reid, McKee, and Lloyd are the only other ones assigned to places even in the bottom 100 for malnutrition, and to put that into perspective Lloyd's location is less plagued by malnutrition than France is. Stanford players have been more likely to be sent to garden spots than to third world countries. I realize the post was cavalier/partially tongue in cheek but it borders on offensive/ugly. 

In terms of the issue of using LDS players as a way to get more age without necessarily having as many fifth years, my read of our history with LDS recruits is that they are no more or less effective/reliable than our other recruits. We shouldn't discriminate against them because they do a church mission, nor are they a secret weapon.

Note that even within a country, there is going to be a wide variety of economic deprivation.  Brazil is a middle income country, but there are areas of desperate poverty (favelas in the big cities, underivested rural areas in the north of the country.  I believe that McKee posted about his conditions, and the were pretty spartan, and I think there was legitimate concern that he would come back far from a football weight.

That being said, your post is spot on.  I think we’ve generally, but not universally, done well with LDS recruits who go on missions.  There are a couple of duds, some very solid contributors, and some stars (including, hopefully, McKee).

BC

[BostonCard]

Stanford LDS mission recruits by class in the Harbaugh/Shaw era (certainly possible I'm missing somebody):

2009: Taysom Hill
2010: Dallas Lloyd
2011: None
2012: Brandon Fanaika
2013: Sean Barton
2014: None
2015: Gabe Reid, Houston Heimuli
2016: Simi Fehoko, Tangaloa Kaufusi
2017: Levani Damuni (Sione Lund did not take a mission)
2018: Tanner McKee
2019: None
2020: Scotty Edwards
2021: None

2022: None

Mission destinations: American Samoa (Reid), Australia (Hill), Benin (Barton), Brazil (McKee), Chile (Lloyd), New Zealand (Damuni), South Africa (Edwards), South Korea (Fehoko), Taiwan (Kaufusi), United States (Fanaika, Heimuli)

A majority of them were assigned to so-called first world/global North countries. Barton is the only one who was assigned to a country in the bottom 50 for malnutrition. Reid, McKee, and Lloyd are the only other ones assigned to places even in the bottom 100 for malnutrition, and to put that into perspective Lloyd's location is less plagued by malnutrition than France is. Stanford players have been more likely to be sent to garden spots than to third world countries. I realize the post was cavalier/partially tongue in cheek but it borders on offensive/ugly. 

In terms of the issue of using LDS players as a way to get more age without necessarily having as many fifth years, my read of our history with LDS recruits is that they are no more or less effective/reliable than our other recruits. We shouldn't discriminate against them because they do a church mission, nor are they a secret weapon.

Note that even within a country, there is going to be a wide variety of economic deprivation.  Brazil is a middle income country, but there are areas of desperate poverty (favelas in the big cities, underivested rural areas in the north of the country.  I believe that McKee posted about his conditions, and the were pretty spartan, and I think there was legitimate concern that he would come back far from a football weight.

That being said, your post is spot on.  I think we’ve generally, but not universally, done well with LDS recruits who go on missions.  There are a couple of duds, some very solid contributors, and some stars (including, hopefully, McKee).

BC