A strong core value of the University of New Mexico women’s soccer program is to appreciate what the game has given to them and be selfless in returning the favor. 
Katie Hinman, left, and Brooke Webster
A pair of Lobo seniors who recently wrapped up their UNM playing career did just that in early January as Brooke Webster and Katie Hinman traveled to Nicaragua to teach the game they love to the youth in Nicaragua.
The duo from Jan. 8-15 traveled to the Central American nation with Soccer Without Borders, an organization whose mission is to use soccer as a vehicle for positive change – providing under-served youth with a tool kit to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion and personal success.
There, Webster and Hinman – along with 15 other volunteers who also played college soccer – helped girls improve their game during the course of the week, a program that has been in place just short of a decade there. At the end of the week, the volunteers played a match against the Nicaraguan National Team.
“It was an experience that’s forever going to help me slow down and appreciate everything I have,” said Hinman, who graduated after the fall semester. “With me going into my career now, it’s another piece that’s helped prepare me for the future.”
The two Lobos discovered this opportunity via an email with information about Soccer Without Borders from their head coach Heather Dyche while they were on their final road trip of the season at San Diego State (a match they won in overtime thanks to a Webster penalty kick).
Both were interested, though Webster, from Huntington Beach, California, and Hinman, a Mission Viejo, California native, didn’t realize they both were applying to volunteer for the organization.
“I was talking with Katie about that I might be going to Nicaragua with Soccer Without Borders and she was like, ‘What? Me too!'” Webster said. “We were stoked when we both knew we applied.”
Both were accepted into the program, and while their trip to get to Nicaragua was delayed by a half day due to a myriad of travel issues out of their control (delays and cancellations that left them having to stay in Miami overnight), they both arrived Jan. 8.
During the week, Webster, Hinman, the rest of the volunteers – who stayed with host families that were associated with the Soccer Without Borders program – and five to eight local coaches were tasked with improving the play of 80-100 girls while having fun doing so at the camp.
“I was shocked with how many girls showed up,” Hinman said. “The city wasn’t that big. Almost 100 girls within walking distance came. I looked at them and wondered if they weren’t doing this, what would they be doing with their summer break? I felt how important it was for them to have structure and a bond with us. Even if we weren’t playing soccer, I could see we could impact these girls in a way.”
The group walks to their camp session.
Everyone met at the Soccer Without Borders (called Futbol Sin Fronteras locally) headquarters Tres Pisos and then from there would walk roughly a mile – with all their soccer gear and equipment needed for the camp – to a soccer field with more dirt than grass.
“There was so much perspective in that walk because from our locker room at UNM to the field it’s maybe a quarter mile and we complain about having to carry the ball bags,” Webster said. “But these girls are so excited to be playing they don’t care how much gear they are carrying a mile to just go play soccer on this field of dirt with some grass.”
There, the group would go through drills – and while both Webster and Hinman admit they are far from fluent in Spanish and it did make it somewhat difficult to communicate – the game of soccer has its own language and they were able to break through.
“Language can be such a barrier, but soccer is the one unifying thing,” Webster said. “You can play pass with kids even if you don’t know the same language.”
Following the morning sessions, everyone walked back and the girls went home while the volunteer coaches had lunch and prepared for an afternoon session – which generally was team bonding activities throughout Tres Pisos.
After the afternoon sessions, the volunteer coaches had dinner and would have an opportunity to explore the town square while also visiting with their host families.
The group of volunteer coaches were actually split into three groups during the week with one of those groups each day going to an area a 15-minute walk away – a place where they are trying to develop another group (they have approximately a dozen players).
That’s where Webster said she had one of her most memorable moments of the trip. During a competition of dribbling through cones and shooting, she had her group try to come up with a team name and a cheer. Then the group did a playful stare down of the other group – only to have the group do it back at them.
“It was something that I probably took away from Heather because she’ll have us do cheers or the way she coaches little kids,” Webster said. “… I was able to take away some of those coaching techniques to create a more fun practice environment and enjoy the competition.”
Near the end of the week the 17 volunteers, all college soccer players, took on the Nicaraguan Women’s National Team in front of the girls they coached during the week (they were bussed to the event) as well as the head of the national program for Nicaragua.
The volunteers had a 1-0 advantage before a late goal by Nicaragua led to a tie – which was a great result for the Nicaraguan team.
“One of the co-founders of the (SWB) program said that the tie for them was one of the biggest deals for them,” Hinman said. “It showed how much the Soccer Without Borders program is working as their level of play has progressed.”
Dyche said she’s pleased to see her players giving back to the game that has given them so much.
“I am really proud that Brooke and Katie realize the importance of giving back,” Dyche said. “We all talk about how soccer can be an important teacher of life lessons, but when you get the opportunity to work with players that really have nothing, you truly realize the value of this game. When you can provide these young women with some joy and a little bit of hope, it is a really powerful thing.
“As a program, we want to make sure that we are grateful for the opportunities that soccer affords us, and recognize that we have a responsibility to give back.”
While Hinman is off beginning her career in Southern California and taking the experience she had in Nicaragua with her to her new job, Webster is finishing her final year of school and set to graduate in the spring with a degree in community health and psychology. She said the experience has motivated her into a future career path.
“I realized in terms in what I want to do with my life – I always said I don’t want a 9-5, cubicle job – I want to work with people,” Webster said. “… After talking and meeting with a lot of different people, I realize that it just makes sense to put sport and community health work together. That lets you do something like Soccer Without Borders. I attribute so much of who I am to soccer so to be able to give back through soccer just makes sense.
“That’s something I’ve taken away. I have stronger clarity about the impact one can have through soccer and how people’s lives are so significantly changed through sport.”
