Deer in the Headlights is a chance board game played with dice and cards, where the goal is to be first to get rid of the cards in your hand each round. It is also the favorite board game of newlywed couple, Utah Utes basketball player Jeremy Olsen and Chelsey Schofield-Olsen of the Utes volleyball team.
Jeremy and Chelsey met at an annual athletic banquet atop Rice-Eccles Stadium. The banquet is designed for all student athletes at the University to enjoy a night together, with the athletes randomly assigned seats, so they don’t end up sitting next to their teammates. Jeremy and Chelsey just happened to be assigned to the same table.
“We hit it off,” Chelsey said.
So after the banquet, Jeremy did what any man would do in the modern times — he sent Chelsey a Facebook friend request.
“I was actually dating someone at the time, so I didn’t think anything of it,” Chelsey said.
Jeremy was bummed to find out Chelsey was off the market, but he bided his time and waited.
“So I kind of took the backseat until I saw the status update that she was no longer in a relationship,” Jeremy said.
The joys of 21st century dating.
After dating for 11 months, Jeremy and Chelsey went on a double date with Jeremy’s teammate and friend Dallin Bachynski and his girlfriend. They saw the movie “Frozen,” and followed it with a trip to Gallivan Plaza for ice skating.
It was Jeremy’s first time on a rink, but he had good reason for trying it out that night.
After skating for 40 minutes, Bachynski went over to the DJ and asked him to play Jeremy and Chelsey’s song. Halfway through the song, Jeremy took Chelsey to the middle of the rink and said, “People say I’m like Kristoff and you’re like Anna [from the movie “Frozen”].”
Chelsey responded by saying, “Yeah.”
“Do you know how at the end of the movie you see them ice skating, but you don’t really know how it ends?” Jeremy asked. “Well this is how I think it ended.”
Jeremy dropped to one knee, and Chelsey started screaming, “Yes, yes, yes!”
Chelsey never allowed Jeremy to formally ask her the question because she couldn’t contain her excitement.
On May 2, five months after their engagement, the couple married.
Both Jeremy and Chelsey say sports don’t get in the way of their marriage. They dated throughout each other’s seasons before and were even engaged during the 2013-14 basketball season. In fact, they say their schedules are quite the same and that they’re able to commute to and from school with each other. Chelsey says the only difference is that she goes to sleep a lot earlier and sleeps a lot more when volleyball is in season.
“Man, it’s great. I love it,” said Jeremy about watching his wife play. “I cheer for the whole team, but whenever she does something good, it feels extra good.”
The basketball star wasn’t very familiar with volleyball when he started dating Chelsey, saying the sport is non-existent in his home state of Georgia.
“I’ve actually grown to like volleyball a lot ever since I’ve been dating her,” Jeremy said. “When we first started dating I knew nothing about it. Now I feel like I can actually analyze what’s going on.”
When asked if he felt confident enough in his knowledege to let head volleyball coach Beth Launiere know what he thinks she should do, Jeremy laughed and said he stayed out of that. Chelsey, on the other hand, says that she tells men’s basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak to have Jeremy do more conditioning and running.
Now the couple just has to figure out which sport of their two respective sports is the ultimate team sport.
“In basketball you can take the ball from one hoop all the way to the other by yourself,” Chelsey said.
“Not if you are a big man, you gotta work together,” said the 6’11” center.
Another thing the couple has to figure out is what other board games to play besides Deer in the Headlights. Jeremy is trying to convince Chelsey that The Settlers of Catan is the best game out there.
@BenJasarevic