OKLAHOMA CITY – OCU Head Women’s Wrestling Coach Nicole Tyson journeyed on a mission trip with a few of the OCU women’s wrestlers to use teamwork for the greater good.
The trip to El Salvador has been in the works ever since Coach Tyson arrived at OCU in 2019. It's something she has always been wanting to do with her team since 2017 which was the first time Coach Tyson herself went to El Salvador. “This has been a 7-year long dream of mine, and I'm so thankful it finally happened!” said Tyson.
A few of the Stars Women wrestlers which included Avery Ashley, Morgan Mackey, and Destiny Campbell joined their coach as well Tyson’s husband David Tyson, and her uncle this past spring break.
The squad had to fundraise to pay the way for them to go and it was estimated that they needed to raise $1,000 each. “I prayed and God helped us raise even more in a short amount of time” Tyson says. “We were able to raise $6,085 in total. God used the extra money to purchase food for some locals in El Salvador and Honduras.”
On the first day of the trip, the group went to a church service and afterward, the pastors passed out food and soap to 62 families in El Salvador. The next day they drove back to San Salvador and joined Coach Alexander Natividad for an after-school wrestling clinic. The OCU girls received donated wrestling shoes from the OCU men's wrestling team and from Dwayne De Nolf who coaches at Yukon High School. De Nolf also donated two sets of singlets. After the clinic, the team gave all the wrestling shoes and singlets to coach Natividad. His athletes were excited! The OCU girls also brought extra wrestling t-shirts and handed those out to the coach and his athletes.
The following day they drove to Manguerra. In the city, they helped with the construction of Little Hands of Hope's new building. Little Hands of Hope is a safe haven for many local children where they can go while their parents are at work. They are mentored, taught about Jesus, and fed while under their care.
On their fourth day in El Salvador, they hiked up into the mountains of Honduras. The team began to make the very difficult hike, which typically takes groups two or more hours, however, the team was able to make it in an hour and 15 minutes. Once they arrived, they brought the same amount of food for the 62 families earlier in the week, for 28 families in the mountains. It is not easy for these people to get food. They were driven 45 minutes down to the river then hiked the 1h15m up to the church.
On the last day in Meanguera, the group spent time helping with the construction of the new building of Little Hands of Hope again. Once they finished up spring break with a day on the beach before they took a red-eye back to the States.
Nicole Tyson mentioned “one of the things that I love about this trip is that everyone going stays at our local friend's houses. There is no AC, sometimes no toilet, showers are out of a bucket, and the roosters crow all night long. The wrestlers even learned how to wash their clothes like the locals without a washing machine. Even though our girls were stripped of their normal luxuries, I was still told that this was the best Spring Break they'd ever been on! I asked the girls what stood out most during this trip, and their responses warmed my heart. They commented on how thankful and joyful the El Salvadorian people were even though they did not have much. I think it inspired the girls and they returned home with a new mindset.”