2 Latter-day Saint football coaches will go head-to-head as BYU faces Navy for the first time in 30 years

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Two prominent Latter-day Saint football coaches will seek to lead their teams to victory on the gridiron on September 7 at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Kalani Sitake coaches for BYU and Ken Niumatalolo for Navy. And while the men may live on different sides of the country and will soon compete against each other, they also have much in common.

►You may also like: 'The Savior is the head coach': How a challenging football season brought Ken Niumatalolo closer to Christ

Church News writes that both men are fun-loving, family-centered, returned missionaries, and ultra-competitive former college players. They also both have a rich Polynesian heritage. 

Members may recognize Niumatalolo from when he was featured the Church-produced documentary, “Meet the Mormons.” Of him, Sitake said in a BYU statement, “Ken (Nuimatalolo) is a great football coach and a personal friend who I have known since I was young and always admired both as a person and as a coach. We are looking forward to the matchup.”

According to Church News, this will be the third time in history that BYU and Navy have competed. The first was in 1978 when the Navy came away victors. In the second meeting in 1989, BYU took the win.

Read more at Church News.

►You may also like: Embracing the man behind the mask: How being Cosmo the Cougar led one man to accept God's will—and himself

Lead image: Getty Images. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News.
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