DRAPER — Shame almost kept Mark Byrge in his seat.
But after listening to BYU offensive lineman Ryker Mathews tell the heartbreaking story of losing his father at age 6, the American Fork man couldn’t stay silent.
So the former baseball coach, who was once lobbied to have the American Fork alum on his Little League All-Star 11-and-under baseball team, rose from the plastic chair where he sat with the other prison inmates and asked Mathews if he remembered him. Mathews acknowledged his former coach, and the two exchanged kind words before the LDS fireside hosted by the Utah State Prison featuring the BYU football team continued with other questions, other testimonies.