Hoops coach Sherri Coale recalls ‘powerful’ mission trip to Haiti

Sherri Coale, women’s basketball coach for the University of Oklahoma and a member of the Westside Church of Christ in Norman, Okla., participated in a May mission trip to Haiti.
Members of Coale’s squad also participated, as did players for the Sooner’s football team. Coale has been recognized by the United Nations for her relief efforts in Haiti since the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.
Coale talked about the mission trip at a publicity event in Dallas recently. Barry Tramel, a longtime sports columnist for The Oklahoman, blogs about the event:

Sherri Coale says she will carry the image with her forever. A little Haitian boy, named DeSong, sitting atop Ben Habern’s shoulders, asleep, with the boy’s head resting on Habern’s head.
“We scream at ‘em when they drop a pass or miss a tackle,” Coale said. “And we clap real hard when they go to the national championship game.
“But to see those guys take off their shirt and wipe a snotty nose or wet it with a water bottle to wash some little feet, it was really an incredible thing to watch those guys, representing not just the University of Oklahoma, but themselves and their families…
“Publicly, I want to say ‘thank you.’”

Read the full post, and check out our recent Dialogue with Coale.