Dave Checketts is not a professionally trained clergyman. The former chairman of Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks is currently CEO of Legends Hospitality, the concessions and merchandise company he jointly owns with the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys.

But he's also a lay minister for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with oversight of 10 Mormon congregations in Fairfield County, Conn., including the one in Newtown.

Jabari and Ziggy.

Two great names. You might think they are reggae singers or hip-hop performers. But if you are a BYU sports fan, you know better.

Jabari Parker is considered the best high school basketball player since LeBron James. He made a recruiting visit to BYU last week.

Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah is a BYU football star from Africa, and he's projected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

I've gotten to know Jabari and Ziggy pretty well. Six months ago, I wrote the Sports Illustrated cover story on Jabari. This week in Sports Illustrated, I've written a feature on Ziggy.

This story is about overcoming.

Recently, I was in Utah, profiling Mike Leach, the head coach at Washington State University. His team kicked off the college football season on ESPN against Brigham Young University in Provo. They got beat, 30-6.

Tough start. But you can't keep a good man down.

The morning after the game, I visited an old friend. His name is Levi Antoine. He lives near the BYU campus.

Some may find some descriptions in this report disturbing.

BOSTON — In the 2009 NCAA championship game, Boston University scored two goals in the final 59.5 seconds and another in overtime to seal its fifth national Division I hockey title.

I'm running to Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love." I'm in San Francisco. Blue sky. Setting sun. Only the peaks of the Golden Gate Bridge are visible as the fog rolls in. Surreal.

Earlier, I spoke to about 2,000 Mormon college students at a conference in Oakland. They attend Stanford, Berkeley and a slew of Bay Area schools. Smart, hip and driven, they are aspiring musicians, journalists, lawyers, filmmakers, doctors, fashion designers and entrepreneurs. They applauded me. But I bow to them. If Mitt Romney ever figured out how to marshal their talents, this sonic youth movement could rock the vote.

Ken Hutchins was a 27-year-old police sergeant in Walpole, Mass., when two Mormon missionaries visited his home in 1968 and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. A few visits later they taught him what they termed "the pattern of prayer" – address Heavenly Father, speak from the heart, and close in the name of Jesus Christ. Hutchins, a protestant, had never prayed aloud. But at the missionaries' urging, he tried it and soon thereafter joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

That was forty-four years ago. Since then he has given hundreds of prayers from the heart in Mormon congregations throughout the greater Boston area as a bishop and later as a stake president. Next week, at Mitt Romney's invitation, the 71-year-old retired police chief from Walpole will give the opening prayer on the final day of the Republican National Convention.

"I am honored and stunned," Hutchins said in an interview from his home in Northboro, where he is recovering from chemotherapy treatment. He has active lymphoma. "I plan to be in good enough shape by next week to travel to Tampa and do what Mitt has asked."