Tiger Athletic Missions Experience Blog

Day 9 Blog
Tyler McLeroy
Freshman (Tyler, Texas)

Nick Bozzuto
Junior (Greenwich, Conn.)

Friday, January 11, 2019

The ETBU Hockey team spent their final day of the Tiger Athletic Mission Experience (TAME) trip to Slovakia in Banská Bystrica, which is located in Central Slovakia, about 2 hours east of Bratislava. Friday's recap comes from Tyler McLeroy, a freshmen from Cypress, Texas, and Nick Bozzuto, a junior from Greenwich, Connecticut.

"Starting off this morning was extra special because the team and staff were able to reflect and share anything they wanted from the past week. This was a really powerful time as the guys shared some really impactful experiences from our trip and many of us mentioned being grateful and blessed for the opportunity.  I loved hearing from my teammates and how they were affected by their different interactions, experiences and service opportunities over the past nine days.

After the morning debriefing, we headed to Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, to have lunch at the local hockey rink restaurant, prior to our final game against Matej Bel University (MBU), which was the 2018 European University Hockey League champion.  After lunch, we took a quick tour of downtown and were able to see a few Word War II historical sites.

In the game tonight, we did not get the result we wanted against a very good hockey team, the best college team in Europe, but I am still proud of the effort the guys showed.

After the game we had dinner with the players from MBU at the same rink restaurant from and we were able to give all the players a Bible, which they were very excited about.  I really felt like we did a good job showing them the Love of Christ today and we all thoroughly enjoyed the day," McLeroy said.

Bozzuto added, "This week was a great experience. It was an eye opener to see how ungrateful we can be sometimes despite our many blessings, especially considering what we witnessed this week.  This week also helped me realize that going outside my comfort zone can be a positive to not only other people, but myself as well."

The team will have a very early morning and long day of travel on Saturday, as they depart the hotel at 3:30 AM for their flight back to Texas, where they land at 3:45 PM Dallas time. Thank you for your support, both prayerfully and financially, for the team during this life altering trip to Slovakia. The Lord moved mightily in the hearts of the people we encountered, but also in the lives of the ETBU Hockey players