March 28, 2024

Colby Vranes, awaiting his mission in life

This archived article was written by: Shelly Gledhill

Coming to CEU seemed like a good situation for Colby Vranes.
He has been planning on going on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and didn’t want to start out at a four-year school and then have to go back.
By coming to the College of Eastern Utah, he has been able to play a great deal of time as a freshman, most likely more than if he were at a four-year university.
Also by starting here, he will have more options on where to go to school to continue his basketball career when he gets home from his mission. In fact, Vranes has turned in his mission papers and expects to receive his call either this week or the next. He hopes to leave late May or early June to begin to serve.
Vranes was born and raised in Taylorsville, Utah and comes from a very close family. Not only is he close with his immediate family, but his extended family as well. “I can just call up a cousin and hang out. One cousin from California is in Provo going to school and will come down and get me and we’ll go up to a movie or something. It’s really cool.”
He gets together with all of his family at least once a month, usually twice. “We have a lot of family parties, often for no reason. One Sunday each month we will get together at an aunt’s house and celebrate all of the birthdays for that month that day.”
His great-great-grandparents immigrated to Utah from Croatia in the early 1900s. He says that if the last name is Vranes, they are most likely related. Danny Vranes is his dad’s cousin and was drafted to the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA. Vranes says that it would be nice to follow in his footsteps and play for the NBA one day.
Vranes has been playing basketball ever since he can remember. His four older brothers were an influence on him when it came to playing the game and his parents (Mike and Sally) have always been there to support him. “They go to every game since I can remember. ”
Soccer is another sport that he enjoyed playing while growing up. When it wasn’t basketball, it was soccer.
He enjoys hanging out and doing whatever is in the moment. “Whatever is going on is fine with me, it doesn’t really matter.
Often you can find the basketball players hanging out together playing some sort of video game on someone’s Playstation.
Vranes looks up to his dad a great deal and says that everybody calls him “the motivator.” “Everything he says is motivational. If you look in my room, there are quotes everywhere. He is a very motivational guy and positive about everything.” One of his favorite quotes is “I’m not what I ought to be, I’m not what I want to be, but I’m better than I used to be.”
“I like it because you are always striving to be better than what you were. You are never in the same place as you were the day before.”
Although Vranes does not know where he will end up going to school after his mission,and he isn’t sure exactly what he “wants to be when he grows up,” he says that he is interested in the medical field, but he does not want to be a doctor, “because that’s just too much.” He thinks that he would enjoy being a physical therapist or an athletic trainer, something with sports medicine.
Vranes has enjoyed his time playing basketball at CEU and looks forward to this weekend when they travel to Salt Lake Community College. “I think that they [SLCC] are very beatable and we’re ready to play them and win. We need some momentum going into the region tournament.”
His parents have come down to almost every game at CEU as well as some of the away games. They will without a doubt be at his games this weekend.
Actually, Vranes will have a lot of family at SLCC this weekend cheering him on. The more the merrier, so go to Salt Lake and cheer on your fellow Eagles.