A Wedding Day to Remember
6/16/2018 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Baylor Bear Foundation
Ryan McGuyre remembers how difficult that first spring at Baylor was, how a young libero named Jana Brusek would sit in his office until she couldn't cry anymore.
"We had one practice where I was serving balls at her, and she was just shanking them all over the place," McGuyre said. "I told her, 'The whole focus of this is for you to say, regardless of where the ball goes, I've got this.' It was like eight minutes in, and she's just bawling and crying. . . . New coach, new ways, all that stuff. I brought smoothies one day, and she started tearing up. Jana has always worn her emotions on her sleeve."
Fast forward three years, and it was McGuyre that was getting emotional as Jana walked down the aisle as the bride to the song, "I Love You Lord."
I love you, Lord. And I lift my voice to worship you. Oh, my soul, rejoice! Take joy my King in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
"Jana was always the crier. I'm kind of one of those guys who can count on one hand (how many times I've cried)," McGuyre said. "But, I think I'm getting more sentimental in my old age. That was the last song we sang at worship night just before postseason. It holds a special place in my heart. When there was a tragedy in my life, that was my reassurance. And when we won that national championship in 2004, that was the last thing we did before we went out. It's tied to special events in my life."
McGuyre can add Jana's wedding to that list of special events in his life. He didn't just attend the ceremony at the Artifact Events Center in Chicago, Ryan was the presiding minister.
Take a minute to soak that in. The volleyball coach that once had her crying at every turn is the one that Jana and her fiancée Bailey Goyette picked to perform their June 2 wedding ceremony.
"Bailey and I wanted to have someone lead the ceremony who authentically loved Jesus and who knew us," Jana said. "We had talked about asking a few pastors from home, but we never felt settled. It wasn't until Bailey and I were talking with my roommates, Katie Staiger and Camryn Freiberg, that they said, 'Why don't you ask Coach Mac to do it? He would be perfect.'''
Sitting down in the same office where she had cried so many times before, Jana "reminisced on how his guidance had helped shape my faith and how his grace revealed more of Jesus to me."
"I thanked him for being the first spiritual leader I had ever seen live out sacrificial love," Jana said, "and then we asked him if he would consider performing our ceremony, which I think really shocked him. He said he would prayerfully consider it with (his wife) Jen and let us know."
Actually, his first response was, "Excuse me?"
"I did not say yes right away," he said. "One, I've never done this before. Two, I am not ordained and I don't even know what it's going to look like to do that. But then three, man, what an honor and craziness! I asked them a few times, 'Are you sure?' . . . That night, I was like, 'What an honor!' I told Jen, and she said, 'Oh, you should do it.' When I listen to her, things always go well. I should probably do that more often."
Once he opted in, Ryan sought the advice of his longtime mentor, Ron Harvey, who was the associate pastor at Magnolia Avenue Baptist Church when he coached at California Baptist. Harvey is the president and founder of Right Club Ministries, serving as a chaplain for PGA Tour caddies.
"He's been a traditional pastor, but he's had a heart for men who are golfers," Ryan said. "When I was coaching at Cal Baptist, he was the man who once a week would sit down with me . . . and we've stayed in touch ever since."
During the wedding planning process, Ryan met with the couple several times and had them over for dinner to watch his own wedding, "and just tried to get a grasp of what they might want in the ceremony," he said.
"Coach McGuyre always gives 100 percent effort, so we knew that he wouldn't just be throwing this together the night before," Jana said.
The other part of this journey is how drastically different the coach and player are.
When McGuyre took over as the head coach after Jana's freshman season, she was "not pleased, to say the least."
"He was very intense, had very high expectations and was sold out for Jesus," Jana said. "At the time, none of those appealed to me. I wanted to be comfortable, and he was very set on making us all uncomfortable . . . uncomfortable in our small skill sets, average strategy, and most importantly in our wavering faiths. He ended up being one of the greatest God-given gifts of my Baylor experience."
McGuyre was analytical, logical, "and I was running on straight emotion," Jana said.
"We spent a lot of time talking after practice and in the office about my anxieties and concerns," she said. "Although I was anxious and self-centered, he was generous with his time and patient - oh so patient! That was one of the first ways that Coach Mac began to show me the character of Jesus. He has been a faithful friend and mentor since before I knew Jesus and has never stopped encouraging and sharpening me since."
Ryan also got to watch Jana's journey with Bailey, a Baylor graduate who will start at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine this fall. At first, Jana was confused that Bailey "likes me, but he doesn't want to date me."
"Bailey has a similar testimony to Jana's. He recommitted his life at a summer camp in high school after exploring things that were putting him on the wrong road," Ryan said. "He said, 'I'm only going to date if it's with the intent to marry.' So, it took him a little longer. What he was doing was courting. And where some people would call that old-fashioned, it is for sure a timeless principle of how it's designed to work. They walked through that journey, and God was just so glorified, I feel, at the wedding, just because they did it according to His plan."
Jana said Bailey was "acting like an absolute goofball" the first time they met.
"He was wearing ridiculously long cut-off sweat pants, a sweater vest, and was asking the most bizarre questions," she said. "Like any other normal girl, I fell for him right away. . . . As we got to know each other, I got to experience both Bailey's seriousness and silliness.
"People say that the Holy Spirit sometimes places a pebble in your shoe, just to get you asking questions about who God is and why we are here. I like to think that Bailey was less of a pebble in my shoe and more of a boulder in my path that knocked me off my feet."
Not only did Ryan conduct the ceremony, three of Jana's former teammates were bridesmaids (Staiger, Freiberg and Hannah Fluegel) and "it was cool to see almost the entire volleyball team there," McGuyre said. Also making the trip to Chicago were Ashley Fritcher, Nicole Thomas, Marieke van der Mark, Taylor Marburger, Tara Wulf, Hannah Lockin, Braya Hunt and former Baylor volleyball teammates Daria Richards and Lexie Rawls.
"Several of them made the 18-hour drive from Waco to Chicago," Ryan said, "because they wanted to be part of the event. Jana was an incredible teammate. Encouragement was one of her greatest strengths."
Much more than the skill development and making back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, Baylor volleyball is character-building, Jana said.
"It is learning how to love sacrificially and count others more significant than yourself," she said, quoting Philippians 2:3. "I could not have dreamt of how influential this program would be on my life. I truly have learned how to work harder, serve better and love more deeply than I ever could have imagined.
"Baylor has helped prepare me to be a champion for life by providing a family atmosphere with great opportunity and mentorship."
Leaning on something he says every day about making this "the best volleyball experience ever," Ryan turned to Jana toward the end of the ceremony and shared a challenge:
"When you wake up tomorrow and look at Bailey, say, 'Hey, what kind of marriage are we going to have today? Let's see if we can go one degree better than that,''' he said.
While Bailey is starting medical school this fall, Jana said she is looking for teaching and volleyball coaching opportunities in the Chicago area "and then considering nursing school or other professions the following year."
"So, if any coaches in Chicago are reading this, I am ready and able to bring your program to the next level," she said.
Congratulations to Bailey and Jana Goyette on their blissful day and to coach Ryan McGuyre for the unbelievable privilege of being a part of it.
"You could not have picked a more perfect couple to marry," Ryan said. "It kind of captures what is so good about Baylor."
