When somebody refers to the “Relf boys,” baseball is usually the topic of conversation, as the quartet has made its mark on three of the universities in the region: Utah, BYU and UVU.
Tyler Relf is in his senior season as an outfielder for Utah and is having his best year to date. However, it wasn’t always in his plans to be a Ute. An infielder in high school, Relf originally wanted to play for BYU alongside his older brother Brandon. But the Cougars didn’t need another infielder, so Relf began to make plans to play at Southern Utah. He planned to move down South, but there was a problem. His girlfriend Katie was already going to the U.
So Relf came up with a new plan. He called Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg and asked if he had a chance to walk on. Kinneberg was more than accommodating and said he was on the team if he wanted a spot. Kinneberg told Relf the only reason the Utes didn’t recruit him was because they knew he had ties to BYU.
Little did Relf know that injuries would decimate Utah’s roster his freshman year, giving him the chance to start most of the season in the outfield and play against his older brother. They were always competitive with each other, and it showed in one particular game.
“I got on second base, and [Brandon] was supposed to hold me on,” Tyler Relf said. “So me and him were just cracking jokes, and I was talking crap to him a little bit, just to be funny. Then the umpire comes over, ‘Hey, hey, calm down guys, calm down.’ I told him it’s my brother it’s no big deal … so it was pretty fun playing him.”

That was the first time the brothers had been pitted against each other, as they were teammates for a season at Alta High School when Tyler was a freshman and Brandon a senior.
“It was fun to have [Tyler] on the same team,” Brandon Relf said. “It was a whole different dynamic [in college] and still fun to have him [on the field] and play him as in-state rivals.”
While Brandon Relf has a wife to support, kids to raise and a business to run and Tyler Relf will soon be looking at college baseball in the rearview mirror as his senior season comes to a close, there are two more talented Relfs who are coming down the pipeline for another rival school.
Ryan Relf is currently on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and plans to start his career at UVU as soon as he gets back. Their youngest brother Devin is also eyeing a spot on the UVU roster in the future.
With the way Tyler Relf has been playing against the Wolverines lately, they should be anxious to get a Relf on their side. In the teams’ first meeting this year, Tyler Relf hit a triple in the bottom of the 11th inning and scored the game-winning run on TJ Bennett’s walk-off single. On Tuesday night, he laid down a spectacular drag bunt in the eighth inning that capped the come-from-behind win for Utah. Last year, his RBI hit sealed a victory for the Utes and ended UVU’s historic 32-game winning streak.
“[UVU’s] Coach Madsen probably isn’t smiling at Tyler’s luck against them,” said the Relf’s father Peter. “I think Coach Madsen would rather have a Relf play for him than against him.”
Unlike their older brothers, Ryan and Devin Relf will serve LDS missions before spending any time playing college baseball. Tyler and Brandon Relf chose to play a year before their missions.
“I was hoping to see Ryan and Tyler going at it, but it’s just going to miss by one year,” Peter Relf said. “Now I’ll have boys that have had experience at all three Division I schools in Salt Lake County, and they’ve all been great — unique in their own way, but great.”
Peter Relf’s alma mater is BYU, but with Tyler Relf being his only son currently playing college baseball, he has abandoned his Cougar ties for the time being.
“I am actually 100 percent in the Utah camp,” Peter Relf said. “Everybody laughs at me, but I come wearing red from head to toe. It’s a little uncomfortable, but I actually enjoy it.“
Peter Relf has no problem cheering for any one of the rival schools as long as his boys are playing. He is a proud father with every reason to be. However, he says that none of his four sons are his favorite.
“I honestly don’t consider any of my boys any better or any worse than the other,” Peter Relf said. “My daughter wins out on that, just because she’s my only daughter. She had me wrapped around her finger pretty good.”