Lyle Hitt’s most special experiences this year have not all come on the football field.The LSU senior offensive guard took a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic in May, and he said spending five days with the natives and treating them for various ailments helped him put his own life in perspective.”We went to Santo Domingo and set up medical clinics in different villages,” Hitt said. “The trip left a big impact on my life.”Hitt and his two brothers, Mason, 21, and Tucker, 16, signed up for the trip through Crossroads Community Church, a Baptist church in Ruston where Mason Hitt plays defensive tackle at Louisiana Tech.Lyle Hitt said about 80 people attended each clinic for treatment, and he said he sensed the impact all the clinical workers had on the residents’ lives.”It’s one of those things where you don’t know what you have until you see something like that,” Lyle Hitt said. “Despite their poverty … us coming over there just meant the world to them.”What the Hitt brothers saw was Dominicans afflicted with a myriad of illnesses, including malnourishment, sinus colds and occasionally more serious injuries such as broken bones.”Some of them had been there for a month or so, and they just couldn’t get help,” Lyle Hitt said. “We even found a tumor on a person.”Mason Hitt said it was “eye-opening” to be immersed in the culture and living conditions of the Dominican Republic.”For every kind of sugar cane they harvested, they’d get about $2,” Mason Hitt said. “Once I saw this little boy made a kite out of this plastic grocery bag he found. It was sad he couldn’t go to the store and buy one.”Mason Hitt said seeing the smiles on the patients’ faces made the work worth it for him, Lyle and Tucker.”Having air conditioning in those houses is like us buying a car that flies in space — it doesn’t happen,” he said. “Knowing we had a hand in helping these people was truly an amazing thing.”Lyle Hitt said he plans to pursue a career in medicine and likely go to nursing school. He said the mission trip benefited him not just morally, but also intellectually in his understanding of the medical field. Lyle Hitt said he has gained valuable experiences playing football at LSU, but being involved in faith-based activities off the field truly enriches his life.”It’s imperative to get a well-rounded understanding of athletics, take academics seriously and be active in other groups,” Lyle Hitt said. “You can mix with different people and places and not just get trapped in your comfort zone so you can understand who you are.”On the field, Lyle Hitt switched from defensive tackle to offensive guard as a redshirt freshman, a change junior offensive tackle Joseph Barksdale also went through as a freshman. “It’s hard, especially when you played a position in high school, and you’re learning a whole new way of playing football,” Barksdale said. “[The offensive line] is the most unified position on the team. You’re a wall, so you definitely have to work together so nobody gets through the wall.”Barksdale said Lyle Hitt “lights a fire under the offense,” and the two linemen are good friends away from football.”I was at Lyle’s house a couple of weeks ago,” Barksdale said. “His parents cooked really good pastalaya.”Senior running back Charles Scott described Lyle Hitt as a “laid-back guy and a great leader.””He’s not a guy that whoops and hollers — he leads by example,” Scott said. “Lyle came in and hit the ground running to learn all he could as fast as he could.”–Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]