Sophomore wrestler Shay Warren took two years off after his freshman year to serve on a mission in Mexico City for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After an invigorating trip, the grappler is training vigorously in order to once again compete for the Crimson in the 133 lb. class.
On paper, Shay Warren is only a sophomore. But sometimes, the facts can lie.
In many ways, he’s the oldest guy on the men’s wrestling team, having endured more than many seniors. That’s because Warren took two years off to live in Mexico City while on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Ever since a younger age, I had decided I wanted to serve a mission for the Church,” the Ogden, Utah native says. “It’s something that helped me out a lot in my life and brought me a lot of happiness, and I wanted other people to have the same opportunity.”
Even before he stepped foot on Harvard’s campus, Warren had made it clear to Harvard coach Jay Weiss that he would be taking two years off after his freshman season.
“Obviously, who am I [to stop him]?” Weiss asks. “And I was like, ‘Think about it. In two years, we’ll pretty much get another recruit with three years to go, which is huge.’”
So, after wrestling his rookie year at Harvard, Warren temporarily hung up his singlet and headed to Provo, Utah for a 10-week training session. Once he finished that, it was off to Mexico. But even the ever-faithful Warren had his doubts.
“It’s kind of a scary thing, leaving your family…for two years completely and not seeing them and not knowing anybody,” Warren admits. “But I knew it’d be okay.”
At the start, things were rough for the wrestler, especially since he did not know the language.
“You kind of feel lonely if you can’t communicate with anyone, and you’re in a different country eating new food, living in new places,” he adds. “But with time I got over that.”
Eventually, Warren came to love the capital. Perhaps more importantly, he began to love its people and see past the myth of rampant violence that pervades the common view of Mexico.
“I always felt safe,” Warren says. “I really saw a lot of good people, a lot of people who were willing to help and willing to lend a hand, which at first might have been a little surprising just because of all the things I had heard about Mexico City before going.”
The Leverett House resident’s schedule was packed, with up to 10 hours each day of missionary work. Warren, who was always joined by a companion in his efforts, would talk to anyone who the pair felt could benefit from hearing the Church’s message, be it people in the streets or individuals who had set up a meeting. And it was this work that Warren found most rewarding.
In one of his favorite tales from his two years in Mexico, Warren tells the story of a man named Edgar. Though Edgar had a solid job and a good family, he still was not satisfied with life. That’s where the wrestler stepped in.
“We started teaching him about Christ and how we need also a spiritual fulfillment…a spiritual side in a relationship with God,” Warren recalls.
The results were profound.
“You could see the happiness come into his life…he was just so much happier with his family, and his work, and all the things that he was doing,” Warren adds. “Those are the most rewarding experiences.”
The missionary work did not always go that smoothly. Some rejected the messages of the LDS church, even when, in Warren’s eyes, they knew they could benefit from the teaching.
“[Seeing people] not making changes in their life that would bring them a lot more happiness because of… fear of change,” Warren explains, frustrated, “was kind of hard.”
After nearly two years of intense work, it was time for the missionary to come home. And after feeling so concerned at the outset of his journey, he returned satisfied that he had learned as much from the citizens of Mexico City as he had taught them.
“Even if someone’s made a lot of mistakes, or if their life’s torn apart, they can change that and completely turn things around,” Warren notes.
The experience, to put it plainly, gave the wrestler a new outlook on life.
“Things are going to work out if I have the right perspective on life and know how important my family is, my friends, good relationships, [and] those types of things,” the sophomore says. “So it gave me a better perspective, I think, on life.”
After touching down in the U.S. in August of this year, it was quickly back to Cambridge. After a two-year delay, it was finally time to become a sophomore. What’s more, Warren would get a chance to rejoin the wrestling team.
“I missed wrestling while I was in Mexico City, so it was good to be back on the mat,” Warren says. “I’m really, really looking forward to the first competition.”
Despite being gone from the team for two years, the second-year grappler hardly missed a beat. He quickly began getting back into shape, training rigorously to regain the 15 pounds he had lost. And though Warren knew very few of the wrestlers on the squad, he became an integral component of the team almost instantly.
“He was welcomed back with open arms,” sophomore co-captain Walter Peppelman says. “He’s really got great things to say and great things to add both on and off the mat.”
Importantly, Warren shores up a hole at the 133 lb. class that the Crimson has had trouble filling the past few years.
“It is going to make a big difference,” Weiss says of Warren’s return to the wrestling scene. “He makes the wrestlers around him better as well.”
Despite the anticipation surrounding Warren’s return, he has yet to compete in his first match, as the first two contests of the year have fallen on Sunday, the day of the Mormon Sabbath. While Warren had wrestled on Sundays before his mission, he refuses to do so after his two-year trip.
“That’s part of…what my mission changed in me,” Warren explains. “[It] made me see what was really important for me, and not wrestling on Sundays to me shows where my dedication is.”
“I know the thing that’s going to be the most important in my life is my faith, and I want to put that before anything else,” he adds.
