Oslund Opened Heart; Never Looked Back

Click here to read the feature story on BYU freshman All-American Marc Oslund.

Frank and Lynn Tusieseina greeted Marc Oslund the same as any other guy who showed up for a date with their daughter.

They handed him a copy of "For the Strength of Youth."

The booklet clearly communicated the family's Mormon values to the teenage boys who walked through the door of their Redondo Beach, Calif., home.

It had quite an effect.

"They would usually run away as fast as they could," Lynn Tusieseina said. "Not this kid."

Instead, the star quarterback and pitcher at West High in Torrance took those values and ran with them. Since then, Oslund has joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, played baseball at BYU and accepted a call to serve a full-time mission in Raleigh, N.C.

His conversion was the convergence of several elements -- some sustaining, some trying. There was a loving home life and his own upbeat personality. There was the influence of church members like the Tusieseinas. And there was the injury that tore up his knee and dashed his plans to play football at San Diego State.

Oslund, however, couldn't be happier with the direction it took him.

"I would not trade where I'm at right now for anything," he said.

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When Lynn Tusieseina first met Oslund, he came off as confident, charismatic and a little scary-looking. But she soon learned there was something different about this guy.

She once asked who his best friends were. Oslund's answer? His parents.

"You don't create a kid like that unless there's some really good parents in the background," Tusieseina said.

Oslund is quick to express love for his family and credits his parents with forging his character. While he's mostly self-effacing, friends and teammates offer glowing assessments of his personality, which they describe as enthusiastic, positive and selfless.

"Marc's one of the most genuine and pure-hearted guys I've ever met," said Thomas Bills, a senior on the Cougar baseball team. "It's very, very rare to find anyone like Marc."

He's also an unflinching optimist. Oslund, who was a freshman all-American in 2009, recently told BYU pitching coach Bobby Applegate to book a hotel room in Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series in 2011 -- because "we're going to be there," he said.

"People feed off positivity," Applegate said. "He has a great way of turning negatives into positives."

Justin Su'a, a former BYU baseball player who is now an LDS seminary teacher at Mountain View High in Orem, Utah, says Oslund is a person who "chooses to be happy" and tries to extend that feeling to others. He's always had a "magnetic personality."

"He just loves life and he loves people," Su'a said.

After befriending the Tusieseinas, Oslund began attending LDS services and became inquisitive about the gospel. But he remained skeptical. His father was an inactive member of the church, and Oslund knew very little about the faith.

"I only knew what the world knew," he said.

Still, Tusieseina saw something click when they gave Oslund that "For the Strength of Youth" booklet. She knew he held many of the same convictions.

"He just soaked it up like a sponge," she said.

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With a college scholarship and a promising senior year ahead of him, Oslund was warming up during a light, no-contact practice in 2007 when he took a bad step.

It all buckled under him.

"My knee was gone," he said.

The posterior cruciate ligament tear essentially ended Oslund's football career, but he counts the freakish injury as a blessing.

"It was probably just Heavenly Father flicking my knee a little bit," he said.

Such perspective took time to set in, however. While Oslund knew he could fall back on baseball, he genuinely loved playing the pressure-filled quarterback position. After his injury, the football scholarship offers dried up.

"I wasn't happy," Oslund said. The contrast with his usual demeanor "really hit home."

During that time, he began to reflect on his friendship with the Tusieseinas, who had since moved to Alpine, Utah. When Oslund dated Faith Tusieseina during their junior year, he became impressed with how happy the family was.

"I wondered, 'Why, what is it?'" he said. "The thing that really hit home was the love that the Tusieseinas had for their family. ... I just loved being around them."

Oslund had also befriended Faith's cousin, Travis Su'a, younger brother of Justin and a fellow member of the West baseball team. The two would talk religion while shagging fly balls in the outfield.

The cumulative effect of these LDS examples had made an impression.

One weekend, the injured and despondent quarterback flew to Utah to watch Faith play a volleyball match for Lone Peak High. While attending church with the family the next day, Oslund had a defining moment. For the first time, he felt a sincere desire to know whether the church was true.

"My heart opened just slightly," he said, "and that little tiny bit was enough for the spirit to rush in."

Oslund returned to California, took the missionary discussions and was baptized in December 2007. He later decided to attend BYU on a partial scholarship, though he was being looked at by college baseball giant Fullerton.

"Since that day, I have not looked back," he said. "It's just been the greatest, greatest blessing I've had in my life.

"It happened so perfectly. Within a matter of a month, my life changed from being a quarterback at San Diego State to being a pitcher at BYU and a member of the church."

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As a pitcher, Oslund doesn't think he has the best stuff -- just a good attitude. As a member of the church, he doesn't think he has great gospel knowledge -- just a strong testimony.

"That's pretty much all I have," he said.

In both areas, he's proving that it's enough.

During his first season, Oslund had a 7-1 record with a 2.49 earned-run average. He was named to the all-conference tournament team after throwing a complete-game, 5-1 victory over New Mexico.

In addition to a slider and curveball, Oslund throws a fastball in the range of 87 to 90 miles per hour. That's not what distinguishes him.

"What makes him most effective is he likes to compete, he likes to be challenged," Applegate said. "I think his mental attitude is what makes him better than his stuff."

The Cougars relied heavily on the freshman, and Oslund had the confidence of the team. Bills said it's easy to gauge how much players trust a pitcher by their reaction when he enters the game.

"Every time Marc was in, you could take a sigh of relief," he said.

Oslund was counted on for his optimism, as well.

"Whenever we needed a big win, coach would ask him to say the prayer before the game," Bills said.

Oslund didn't hesitate to apply his faith to baseball. He often said silent prayers while on the mound and read his pocket-size copy of the Book of Mormon between innings when he pitched. Scriptural stories, such as the account of Helaman's warriors, help "put my mind in a right spot," Oslund said.

"I haven't seen a guy more hungry to read the word as he is," Applegate said. "This kid is just on fire for the LDS Church."

Oslund doesn't buy the assertion that God doesn't care about sports.

"If you care about something, God cares about it, because he cares about you," he said.

Oslund will enter the Missionary Training Center in early August, and his approach to pitching parallels that of his upcoming service. He concedes that his depth of scriptural and doctrinal knowledge is limited, but he does have something he can rely on.

"I have a testimony," he said. "And I just want people to feel the happiness that I feel. ... All I want is for them to understand that it could be the greatest thing that could happen to them."

Oslund doesn't know what the future holds beyond his mission, but is committing to doing "what the Lord wants." He's unsure whether that includes professional baseball.

"If I get drafted, I get drafted," he said. "If I don't, there's a reason for it."

He and Faith, who now plays volleyball for Utah Valley University, are no longer dating, but Oslund remains close to the family. Frank Tusieseina ordained him to the office of elder, and Oslund opened his mission call at the family's Alpine home -- with his parents listening from California via phone.

"Other than my own family, they're the people that mean the most to me," he said.

Lynn Tusieseina doesn't know what to expect from Oslund in the future, but she suspects it will be something "amazing."

"I keep thinking he's going to do something interesting someday," she said. "He's just one in a million."