TheMat.com: Cal Poly Wrestlers Come Together to Provide Relief for Fire Victims in Southern California

10/30/2007
Craig Sesker USA Wrestling

Sammie Henson was talking with a friend last week about what they could do to help the victims of the massive fires that had spread through Southern California.

Henson’s friend, Aaron Steed, the president of Meathead Movers, Inc., in San Luis Obispo, Calif., was planning to load up a number of his trucks and have his workers drive them down to San Diego to deliver supplies to the fire victims.

Henson, a past World champion and Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling, immediately offered his assistance to Steed. Now an assistant coach at Cal Poly University, Henson said his wrestlers could help load supplies into the nine trucks that would head down to San Diego.

“Aaron asked me for five guys,” Henson said. “I said, ‘Forget that, I’m bringing our whole team down here.”

Last Friday, Henson and 35 of his Cal Poly wrestlers spent about three hours loading food, water and clothing into nine trucks. The items were donated by people from the community of San Luis Obispo, Calif.

“It was awesome to be able to help out with this,” Henson said. “It was great to see our guys come together as a team and really work together to help the fire victims. I think it brought our team closer together. It’s nice to be able to help those people down there.”

Steed donated the trucks and the drivers to deliver the supplies from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. Around 100,000 pounds of emergency supplies were donated by people in San Luis Obispo, which is located on the Central Coast of California.

“Aaron’s a great guy, and it’s really impressive what he’s doing to help these people by donating all his time and resources to this,” Henson said. “And the people from our community really came through with everything they donated. It was a great team effort by everyone.”

Henson said the supplies are scheduled to be delivered to San Diego sometime this week. He said football players from the San Diego Chargers may be among those who would be helping unload supplies from the trucks.

Simpson joins coaching staff at Cal Poly

Aaron Simpson has been hired as a volunteer assistant coach at Cal Poly University.

Simpson previously served as the top assistant at Arizona State. He was a two-time All-American wrestler for the Sun Devils.