Junior forward, BJ Pugmire drops some of his writing skills on the blog with his weekly look at the different aspects of the BYU soccer program.

In this weeks profile story, we will highlight a player who is playing in his first year with the Cougars, but has already had a very positive influence on the team. One interesting fact that many might not know about Kip Critchlow, is that he is the grandson of Dale Critchlow who plays the part of the old man in Napolean Dynamite that shoots the cow.

Kip is another Utah native on the team that was discovered by coach Chad Sackett while playing with the men’s league team Olympique Montreux out of Salt Lake.  He is the third of four children in his family and claims that he was a soccer player from the start.

“I don’t really remember ever playing other sports as a kid,” Critchlow said. “My oldest brother played soccer and I remember starting to play with him in the backyard, and then later on the playground and I just stuck with it.”

Growing up Critchlow played with the club team the Nighthawks who were the Utah state champs in 2004. In his junior season at Hillcrest High Kip was an honorable mention, all-state player.

Within the ranks of the team Kip is known as the man who can run forever and also one who can spit rhymes.

In preseason training the joke on the team and the sad reality for us, was that Kip was in a league of his own. We were separated into different groups based on our physical fitness and Kip literally had a group created just for him that no one else was worthy of.

In response to the question of how he became so fit, Kip said, “It’s all natural I guess, I have a lot of dreams where I run away from people so that might be it.”

As far as spitting rhymes (battling people with words and a beat) is concerned, I can remember sitting next to Kip on the bus home from Las Vegas and listening to him pick apart different players who thought they could battle him. My personal nickname for Kip is Deejay Critchflow.

“Kip has some pretty mad skills,” said freshman teammate Matt Rider jokingly. “But I’m not scared to battle him anytime any place.”

Kip said he enjoyed listening to rap growing up and then when his family bought their first Mac he learned to use garage band and started creating his own beats which helped him to progress.

As for now Kip is excited to finish off the season well and hopes to serve a mission in the near future. He has no idea what he wants to study, but hopes to learn Spanish on his mission and return and continue his studies. He said his favorite player is Zidane and loves the style of play Zidane had. Finally, Kip is rooting for the Netherlands Sunday in the World Cup Final!Tweet