Love, Marriage
& Football
by Jerry Thompson
On this year’s team there are four
married couples The four players
I talked with are unanimous in their
opinion that their “better halves”
have been an asset to them both on
and off the field. The following is
a brief look at their relationships.
Kevin Mitchell
and Melanie Mitchell:
Kevin and Melanie are high school
sweethearts who dated for 6 years before
their marriage June 14, 2003 in Orange,
California. Melanie is also an athlete
and played a couple of years ago on
the Oregon volleyball team. What
attracted Kevin to his wife? “Not only
is she attractive physically but she has
a kind heart,” Kevin said. Mitchell,
the “old school” linebacker said that he
and Melanie enjoy doing everything and
anything together. “We just enjoy each
other’s company.” Kevin proposed to
Melanie at their apartment the first week
of September last year before the Fresno
State week. They really didn’t consider
waiting until Kevin finished football.
“It’s something we both wanted to
do and I don’t believe in waiting for
something to be over-if you wait too
long you can miss out on opportunities,”
Kevin explained. Kevin plans on
becoming a policeman after his playing
days are over and pointed out that they
had a memorable wedding reception:
“The cops showed up, it was a party,
a little rowdy at a family friend’s house
with a big back yard and gazebo. We had
about 200 people there, dancing and
a dee jay. We went from 6:30 at night
until 3 in the morning. The cops showed
up at 2 or 2:30. It was a good time!”
“Melanie’s dad is a football coach
so he knows all about what goes on in
football and they (her parents) like me,”
Kevin said. Melanie also understands the
dangers and injuries in football and has
been with Kevin through 2 surgeries. On
married life: “It’s great, it’s been real nice.
It’s a new chapter in my life. Not a whole
lot has changed because we’ve been
together for so long. I try to separate my
personal and football life.” Kevin said
they do not intend to have any children
for awhile until he gets a good job.
Jason and Rebekah Fife:
The Fife’s dated for 2 1 / 2 years
and Jason said they thought about
waiting until his college football career
was over. “I really tried to fight it in my
mind and heart. She never really said
anything about it but I realized this
was the woman I was going to marry
so why wait?” Jason cooked up a great
proposal idea a couple of weeks before
Christmas last year, but the timing and
execution almost backfired: “I told her
I had this really cool present for her.
She always complained that I didn’t
ever have any pictures to give her.
So I called my mom and she sent
a bunch of pictures. I made a scrapbook
of me growing up and playing football
and baseball and my friends and me
and my sister and family and then I had
pictures of us. Then at the end I had
a wedding themed page with no picture
on it all. All I had was the date which
would be to remember the date of the
engagement. It was funny because the
night before we had a conversation
about it and she was kind of asking
her so we kind of have an
understanding, it’s fun.” Unfortu-
nately in fall camp a couple of weeks
ago Josh suffered an arm injury
and he will miss this entire season.
It looks like his playing days are
over. How’s married life for Josh?
“It’s going perfect! I think it’s helped
me in life and football.”
me about marriage and I wanted to
get away from the subject because
I didn’t want to ruin it. And so I got
her in a really foul mood by saying,
‘I think if we talk about marriage right
now it’d ruin everything!’ Bad thing
to say! She was very upset. So the
next day when I showed her the
scrapbook she thought I was making
J A SO N &
RE B EK A H FI F E
R YA N &
A N DR EA L O FT IN
fun of her and she got even more
angry. So I said “no,no,no-no,no!”
and I dropped to one knee and
automatically her face was like what
are you doing?” Jason had to explain
the comment from the night before
and she accepted his proposal.
Jason said that Rebekah does
worry about him getting hurt all the
time. When I got my concussion during
the spring game when Haloti hit me
she was fretting over me for weeks
worrying about side effects.
So how are the newlyweds?
“It’s great. She keeps me balanced
and calm. She can be as stubborn as
I am at times which when I need it is
great. When I don’t it’s frustrating, but
hey we fight through it and she’s great.
She’s my rock.”
Josh and Betsy Rogers:
They met after the 2000 Holiday
Bowl as she was moving to Eugene
with her family because her brother,
Kurtis Doerr was punting here. “So
I met her at a New Year’s Eve party
with a bunch of other friends. I met
her there and we’ve been together
from then on.” I asked Josh if it was
love at first sight? “Yea definitely.
I don’t know if it was for her but
it was for me!” Josh and Betsy dated
for just under a year before he proposed.
“I told her I was stressed out and
wanted to get away for a weekend
so I took her to Bandon and went
to a little resort and kind of popped
it on her there.” They were married
on July 6th, 2002.
Josh said that Betsy had no
reservations about marrying a football
player. “She’s my motivation, she
keeps me going. She’s always
pushing me to do better and
I always want to do my best for
Ryan and Andrea Loftin:
They met April 14th of 2001at a LDS
church in Eugene. “Andrea had moved
back from Los Angeles before we met and
I had just got back off my mission. I had
a friend from church ‘smooth over the
ice’ or pave the way.” Ryan said he made
the initiative by having his friend sit with
her in front of him at church and then
had the both of them look back at Ryan!
“I was sitting there just looking around,
kind of nonchalant. It was interesting
how that worked out but after that it
was clicking right when we met.”
They dated for a little over a year.
“Once we knew we were in love with
each other we didn’t want to mess it up
or let it slip away so we held on tight.”
Ryan’s proposal was quite romantic.
“I made a scrapbook actually of our
whole relationship, photographs that
were taken over trips that we took, just
different places to show her in the scrap-
book where we’d been and what we’d
been through. We were over in Alton
Baker Park on the bridge that goes over
the river and I gave it to her at night
under the lights up there and
I handed it to her on February 15th.
She was expecting maybe a little some-
thing on Valentine’s Day, but I kind of
threw her off by not really giving her
anything for Valentine’s Day so she
was kind of wondering what was going
on. So on the 15th she wasn’t really
expecting anything with just kind of an
O.K. Valentine’s and then on the 15th
I gave that to her on the bridge and
got down on my knee and asked me to
marry me out there. And it was terrific
too because nobody was around.”
They got married June 14th, 2002.
Ryan credits Andrea with giving
him a whole new outlook on life.
“Everything was revolving around
football and my career and she gave me
a new perspective on life that there
are more important things out there
and that there’s a deeper love for an
individual or anything than I’ve ever
felt before. So, when I go home I try
not to bring anything from the field or
practice and try to enjoy all the time
I have with her. Especially at times in
fall camp, that’s when you really find
out how much you love the person,
when you don’t get to go home and
spend very much time together you
do start to miss them. She tells me
to go out there and have as much fun
as possible no matter what happens or
what I’m feeling like, she just wants
me to have fun.”
Ryan said that marriage has caused
him to be a “little more focused on
what I have to do out here,actually.”
“There’s a whole lot less things to worry
about when you’re married.” Andrea
works full time, Ryan brings home the
rent check and she “brings home the
dough for everything else.” Andrea was
pregnant for about 6 weeks but she had
a miscarriage. “We were disappointed
because we were excited about having
a baby. We’re excited about having a
family one day and she’s going to be
a great mom. It just wasn’t meant to
be at that time. Football is going great
for me, I couldn’t be happier.”
Ducks I llustrated
AUGUST 28, 2003 9