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Navy linebacker Marcus Bleazard, a returned Latter-day Saint missionary, is interviewed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on September 5, 2024. Screenshot from Navy Football YouTube, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.
By Trent Toone, Church News
As the college football season was getting underway in early September, a reporter asked Navy linebacker Marcus Bleazard about his experience of leaving for two years to serve a mission in Guatemala City, Guatemala, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It was awesome. It’s something that I’ll never regret,” Bleazard said in a September 5 interview posted on YouTube. “It’s something that definitely changed me for the better and really opened my eyes and heart to the things I needed to have happen in my life.”
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Marcus Bleazard is a sophomore linebacker for the Navy Midshipmen and a returned missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Photo by Phil Hoffmann, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.Bleazard is a sophomore from Kennesaw, Georgia — and the Stilesboro Ward of the Power Springs Georgia Stake — and is majoring in quantitative economics. He is one of many Latter-day Saint young men and women who have voluntarily sacrificed opportunities in sports, education or otherwise to serve others around the world.
Bleazard’s teammate, offensive lineman Creedyn Foulger, also served in the Colombia Medellin Mission.
The BYU football team has 55 players on its 2024 roster who have served full-time missions in 32 countries and speak 14 different languages, according to a BYU news release.
As a freshman in 2021, Bleazard suffered an elbow injury but recovered to play in Navy’s final three games that year. He then opted to serve a mission (2022-23) and leave the Naval Academy, which was then coached by Latter-day Saint Ken Niumatalolo.
Despite two years away, Bleazard’s efforts to maintain a level of fitness impressed coaches. He consistently exercised for 30 minutes each morning, doing push ups, sit ups and other exercises. Bleazard said he even made a barbell out of cement and a metal pipe.
His efforts to work and learn knocked off the rust quickly when he returned, said Brenten Wimberly, an assistant coach at Navy who works with the linebackers.
“He’s definitely dedicated 100%,” Wimberly said in the video interview. “[He is] a vocal leader, but not only being a vocal leader, but showing people how to do things. Part of that goes back to his work ethic in Guatemala. ... He asks questions, he yearns for knowledge. He goes out on the field and communicates with his teammates and he cheers them on. Also, he’s trying to find a way to push himself to get better.
Bleazard, who has developed a reputation as a forceful hitter, has played in all four games this season, with his best game coming in a 41-18 win over the University of Alabama at Birmingham in which he had four tackles.
Navy is 4-0 going into its game with Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 5.
R. Nathan Stevenson, who serves as bishop of Bleazard’s Stilesboro Ward in Georgia, has watched the young man find success while consistently choosing the more difficult road — playing college football at the Naval Academy (“not your standard college experience,” he said), choosing to postpone school and football for a mission, learning Spanish, jumping into workouts the day after he returned home so he can play this fall, signing up for a difficult class schedule that includes physics, calculus and microeconomics, and making time to attend the temple.
“What impresses me most about Marcus is his willingness to choose to do hard things,” Stevenson said. “I believe he has a testimony that ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me’” (Philippians 4:13).
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