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Laie, Hawaii • An avid Brigham Young University fan while growing up in West Jordan and playing soccer at Copper Hills High School, Mark Davis figured he would never wear red in his college career. He also thought he would never represent BYU, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the soccer field, either, let alone learn how to surf.

But at BYU-Hawaii, an NCAA Division II school operated by the LDS Church here on Oahu's North Shore, Davis has done all three — and proudly.

"This is the best-kept secret in the country," Davis said last December, after describing a recent home soccer match played on a small patch of land west of campus between towering, vine-covered rock cliffs and Hawaii's famous North Shore waves, all while bursts of fire, war chants and drum rolls emanate from the adjacent Polynesian Cultural Center, one of the state's main tourist attractions.

About to become an assistant men's soccer coach, Davis has been an entrepreneurship and sports marketing major and has helped run the athletic department's marketing efforts, so he's adept at selling the place he's thrived at for the past couple of years. But it hardly takes any work. And get this:

"I surf almost every day," Davis says, nodding toward the beach just across Kamehameha Highway. "Me and a teammate, Kevin Fronk, wake up, check the surf report, go to Doctrine & Covenants [Mormon scripture] class and then go surf. On Wednesdays, we go twice."

None of the hundreds of athletes at BYU-Provo — as the Seasiders call their sister school in Utah — can say that, Davis believes, while maintaining that BYUH's 180 or so student-athletes "cheer like crazy" for the Cougars, save the rare meetings between the schools.

Last November, the Cougars pounded the crimson-clad Seasiders in a pair of basketball matchups, with the BYU women winning 88-27 in BYUH's 4,500-seat Cannon Activities Center and the BYU men winning 73-52 in Provo.

"They put us in our place," Davis says with a laugh. "But the athletic program here is still awesome. Overall, it is one of the best D-II universities for sports in the country."

BYUH's women's tennis team was ranked No. 1 in Division II but lost 5-2 to Armstrong Atlantic State in the national championship match Saturday.

School officials say BYUH is also the No. 1 school in the country in terms of selectivity, turning away a greater percentage of applicants — given its relatively tiny enrollment of 2,673 students — than any college in the country.

And school leaders claim BYUH is one of the most diverse institutions of higher learning in the United States, with more than half of its students hailing from outside the U.S. and literally dozens of languages spoken on campus every day.

"This is a unique place," said softball coach, assistant athletic director and sports information director Scott Lowe. "We have students from more than 70 countries. Can any other school in the country say that?"

Flags from most of those countries line the circular driveway in front of the campus, giving the place a United Nations feel. Church officials' vision for the school that opened in 1955 was for it to be mostly for non-U.S. students.

The school made headlines recently when students elected its first non-Mormon student body president, a Muslim who came to BYUH a few years ago to play on the men's basketball team but did not have his scholarship renewed this past year. Lebanese-born Mustapha El Akkari gained some of his popularity as the guy at the end of the bench that everybody wants to see get in the game.

About one-third of BYUH's athletes are from Utah, Lowe estimates. Davis, who began his college soccer career at Iowa Western Community College after a church mission in Mexico, said eight of 22 men's soccer players are from his home state.

Another Utah athlete is volleyball captain Losaline Fakaosi-Pula, a former prep all-stater at Salt Lake City's Highland High. She said the only drawback about going to school so far away to play sports is that her family can't watch her play, except in the rare instances that BYUH women's volleyball games are shown on BYUtv. But a lot of her extended family members live in Hawaii, and she married a fellow BYUH student from Kahuku High, a state football power that also wears red.

"It feels a lot like home," said the recent graduate.

Lowe, Davis and Fakaosi-Pula say the community that stretches from the town of Kahuku in the north to Hauula several miles south supports and values the Seasider athletic programs. But athletics are not nearly the priority here as they are in Provo. The Cannon Center has been filled just once in school history — for a men's basketball regional championship game a few years ago.

When the Seasiders talk about making a road trip, they really mean it. Not only are most of their conference games and events on the mainland, the trips usually last up to 10 days and include at least four games or more.

"It's a lot of travel, but we are together so much that our teams grow really close," Davis said.

Nearly 40 percent of BYUH's students work at the Polynesian Cultural Center, a number that includes dozens of athletes. Davis said at most schools athletes are the campus celebrities, "but at this place, it is the sexy Samoan dudes who dance at the PCC, then the surfing stars and then the athletes."

BYU-Hawaii students adhere to the same honor code as students at NCAA Division I BYU and BYU-Idaho, which does not have intercollegiate sports.

Coaches such as Lowe use the Internet, word of mouth and the school's church ties to attract players. He has 10 tuition-only scholarships to divide between 22 players.

The coach said a recent audit showed BYU-Hawaii spends about two-thirds of what the average non-football-playing D-II school in the country spends on athletics.

"We are really getting a lot more for our money than a lot of places," Lowe said.

And it is hard to beat the scenery — or the surfing. About BYU-Hawaii

• Owned and operated by the LDS Church, the school competes at the NCAA Division II level in 11 sports: men's and women's cross-country, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, men's golf and women's softball and volleyball. —

BYU-Hawaii athletics

• The Seasiders compete in the 10-member Pacific West Conference (PacWest) against schools in Hawaii, California and Utah (Dixie State). Three more schools will join the league next year.

• The Seasiders' men's basketball team, coached by athletic director Ken Wagner, played for the D-II national championship in 2011, losing 71-68 to Bellarmine in the championship game in Springfield, Mass.

• BYU-Hawaii men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball teams play in the 4,500-seat George Q. Cannon Activities Center on campus.

• BYUH's women's tennis team is ranked No. 1 in the nation in Division II.