Mark Pope’s biggest win came after the final horn vs. Oklahoma with daughter's return home from El Salvador mission trip

The final horn had just gone off with the band wrapping up the fight song and exit music playing with Big Blue Nation filing out of Rupp Arena following Kentucky’s 16-point win over Oklahoma when Mark Pope took the microphone, telling fans he couldn’t stick around for his postgame radio show. Then he gave a brief intro at the podium for his press conference before handing it over to assistant coach Jason Hart — UK toboggan on and all, ready to take on the cold on his way to the car.

“It’s 22 minutes ’til Avery lands,” he said. “I’m out, guys.”

His daughter, Avery Pope, left on a mission trip to El Salvador back in the fall of 2024. After 15 long months with only single weekly phone calls connecting her to her family back home, she returned to Lexington, landing quite literally minutes after Wednesday’s late-night battle went final.

And you better believe Dad wasn’t gonna miss it for anything.

Lee Anne Pope and their two other daughters, Shay and Ella, left Rupp early to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. The second-year coach got there right on time, too, thanks to the help of local law enforcement and LEX security.

“So everything was legal,” Pope joked on Friday — no speeding or parking up on curbs. “We had some help from our friends in the police. Lee and the girls actually left — I think they left before the game was over. And then we had some help from airport security. It was magical and awesome and brilliant.

“I’m so grateful there were so many people that just helped us make that happen. It was really special for our family.”

It’s not a totally new experience for the Popes — Ella was a missionary herself, Pope said — but that doesn’t make the distance and time spent apart any easier. They had their phone calls and letters to function as special treats, but for the most part, it was about Avery’s own individual faith walk and totally selfless desire to serve for well over a year and do it thousands of miles away.

It’s a commitment you can’t make halfway, and proud wouldn’t begin to describe her old man’s feelings upon arrival.

“I don’t know if it’s the greatest blessing in the world, but one of the great blessings in the world is watching your children inspire you,” Pope told KSR. “You think about the tangible commitment — she walked away from college, she walked away from her tennis career to go spend — I guess it’s almost 17 months now — to just consecrate that time. That’s a big word, and that really means something.

“It actually means something to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to step away from my life for 17, give or take, months, and I’m going to give it to God, and I’m going to try and go serve people, and that’s the only agenda I’m going to have.'”

Their interactions were limited in the meantime, but every vocal or written exchange gave him a new outlook on everything. He got to live vicariously through Avery as she met new people who are so different, yet similar, and grow and serve within a community so far away from home physically, yet so close in her heart.

“Along the way, we were blessed that we could talk to her one time a week. It was limited. We get these phone calls back, and she’s sending us these letters that have changed my life and the way I look at life. They actually changed the way I look at life. And she had a chance to serve all the people around her and have this incredible experience in El Salvador, which is a place that’s incredibly different than where we are. All people essentially are the same, but people that come from a very different space.

“I mean, what a blessing to watch our children become the people that we admire the most in the world. It just is everything good about what a family is.”

Wednesday evening was funny in the sense that they were so excited to finally reconnect physically after so much time apart that no one wanted to go to sleep. The Popes just giddily huddled around until the early hours of Thursday morning, sharing stories and visiting as a complete unit again — his fourth daughter, Layla, being the lone exception as a dancer for the Utah Jazz in the heart of the NBA season.

The short-term exhaustion may have been real the next day, but the long-term core memory is something he’ll forever cherish.

“To have her back — this is a big change for her too, right? But it’s been really special,” Pope continued. “Lee and I, we got her — it was really sweet to just meet her at the airport and then coming home … I don’t know what time it was, two o’clock in the morning? We’re just sitting there — Layla couldn’t be there, but everybody else was there, and it’s just like, you don’t want to go to bed because you just want to stare at each other. It’s the best, it’s the best.”

A piece of his heart had been gone for over a year now, making him proud serving as a missionary. All this time later, Avery is back, and the Popes are whole once more.

“I’m blessed with the most extraordinary partner in the world, Lee Anne,” he continued. “And she’s raised these four unbelievable girls. It’s awesome.”

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