Memoirs from the Mount: BYU QB Bear Bachmeier is a constant reminder of my 'best two years'

Welcome to Memoirs from the Mount, a weekly adventure through the twisting catacombs of my consciousness. From the solitary peak of Mount Fuji to the cascading slopes of Mount Timpanogos, I'm sending a telegram of my perspective on current events surrounding BYU athletics.

Last week's Memoirs: Please, BYU Football, come play out here in Japan

I wasn't especially proud of how last week's edition of Memoirs turned out. It wasn't terrible or anything, but I felt like it lacked a lot of the heart and personality that this series was designed for, despite the subject matter being incredibly personal by nature (pleading to follow in Oregon's duck prints and take BYU football to my home in the Land of the Rising Sun).

For a moment, I considered dumping everything that went into why that article was intentionally lackluster, all the external factors and reasons why I would rush it out, but it's as simple as this: I have to write many more articles every month if I want to prepare myself for a potential full-time role, rather than the contract position this job affords me at the moment.

And with a higher quantity, I became a bit complacent; I was comfortable just seeing the article count go up without caring so much about the content of the piece itself. My new resolution is to avoid falling into that trap again.

Enough about all that, though. I don't want to bore you with irrelevant information before even beginning the article. I can tell we understand each other through the wonders of the worldwide web.

Bear Bachmeier is Thai. That rules.

BYU football fans learned plenty about Bear Bachmeier last season, and the Bachmeier family as a whole. For example, he comes from an accomplished football family. Hank Bachmeier, a former Boise State quarterback and Bear's older brother, was spotted in LaVell Edwards Stadium not as an adversary, but as a supporter of the royal and white. Tiger, obviously, was a receiver at Stanford before joining Bear on his migration over to the Beehive State last year.

We learned of the Bachmeier brothers' musical abilities as Bear and Tiger teamed up to play music for local retirement communities. We've seen how he interacts with the media, with fans, and everyone he comes in contact with since moving to Provo. He's been a fantastic representative of Kalani Sitake's program and the university alike.

We learned that he's always worn the number 47 since his peewee days, citing a fullback's mentality once you cross the line of scrimmage. He's beefy and unafraid to throw his weight around for any would-be tacklers in his immediate vicinity. He's mature, poised, and incredibly intelligent, having learned the Cougars' offense after joining the team post-spring and claiming the starting job from McCae Hillstead, who has since transferred back up to Logan and won the QB1 job for Bronco Mendenhall's program. And with apologies to everyone's favorite backup, Treyson Bourguet, it was always going to come down to the other two (hope to see you take some more snaps this season, brother). Bear continues to show us who he is as a football player and as a person day after day.

Ok, I'm done kissing up to Bear now. The introduction is out of the way, and now I really want to talk about what matters most here.

To me, the most notable detail about these parts' new QB1 is his heritage. Bear Bachmeier is the first Asian-American starting quarterback in BYU football history, and he's not just any kind of Asian -- he's Thai.

This gets me so pumped up.

I've shared this a few times on social media and in the odd article, but I served as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (since you're reading an article on a BYU blog, I feel secure in assuming you've heard of it), and my original assignment was to the Thailand, Bangkok Mission.

At the time of my calling, I knew absolutely nothing about Thailand. I wouldn't be able to point to it on a map, I had no idea what the language sounded like or even looked like. One brief stop to Google Translate confirmed my greatest fear: I was screwed.

The language looks like it's written in noodles. The words and sounds are absolutely nothing like I've grown comfortable with in English, and my three years of high school Chinese classes would help me 0% as I struggled to work my tongue into the necessary knots that the Thai language demands.

And if speaking didn't obliterate my tongue, the food likely would. Everything in Thailand is spicy. "ไม่เผ็ดไม่อร่อย" they would say. I would say the same if the giant muscle in my mouth wasn't disintegrating. Just a day in the country, however, and I knew that I would absolutely love my time there.

I did.

The hurried rushes home brought on by impending gastrointestinal doom, the long bike rides through the jungle, the death-defying efforts to cross the street, and even chowing down a delicious breakfast from a food cart called -- I kid you not -- KKK Burger. Racism never tasted so good, my friends.

I was unfortunate enough to be a missionary in the year 2020, however, and consequently had my international time cut short, but my love of the Thai nation has never dwindled. Last summer, I was able to return to my old mission -- this time swapping a name tag for my wife -- and I was shocked to discover how much of my language skills I had retained since leaving over five years prior.

I wrote the first two editions of Memoirs from the Mount while in Thailand last year. Who could have foreseen these articles becoming such an institution in journalism today?

Hopefully you could detect the sarcasm in that last statement.

Bear shared that his favorite food is his mom's Gai Jiao, a common Thai meal, and I would pay an inordinate sum of money to get my hands on a plate of that.

Needless to say (yet I still somehow feel the need to say it) seeing a Thai quarterback lead the charge for BYU football is incredibly impactful for me. It reminds me of one of my life's greatest adventures, and makes me feel that much more tied to what happens out there on the 120-yard field of LaVell Edwards Stadium.

When given the chance to speak on his heritage, Bear shared the following via his account on X:

"I think it's a very special opportunity to kind of be an inspiration to the youth all around, but especially the youth in Southeast Asia and Thailand. Just being that kind of hero for them to look up to. All I wanted to be growing up was Jeremy Lin.

"There's a lot of things bigger than football, and I think I could be a really good inspiration to those kids. I'm thinking about doing a football camp in Thailand. I've actually never been; I'm trying to get more immersed in the culture and learn the language right now.

"I actually get a lot of DMs [from kids looking up to me] thanking me for representing them. It just warms the heart, it's very special."

If you want to hang in Thailand, Bear, or need someone to help with football camps, hit me up.

I realize this article was just so much about me, when the topic was Bear Bachmeier, but this is why I want to do these Memoirs articles. I feel it's important for fans to share their perspectives and share the reason why they continue to support, even in down years, even when they can't afford to go to a game in person, and even when they're thousands of miles away from campus.

BYU football and Thailand are two sections of my heart that I thought would never touch. So thank you to the Bachmeiers for representing both of those sides so well.

Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and college sports since 2024.

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