JOE WIELE OF UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, a junior on the men’s soccer team, has been selected the SCAC Character and Community Male Student-Athlete of the Week for the period beginning January 23, 2017.
The SCAC honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.
Wiele is involved with a UD campus organization known as Best Buddies. He started helping out a year ago and his buddy is Chris Miguez. Miguez has autism, but loves music. He is the DJ for all of the Crusaders Best Buddy Events. Miguez also was selected to be a buddy ambassador, which means he can publicly speak on behalf of best buddies. Wiele can be seen alongside his buddy at all these events and just enjoys being around him. The two really clicked a year ago and have been friends since.
“He is a great friend of mine,” Wiele stated. “The club is really about being friends and bringing out these guys who may not do too much. I really love the club because they [the buddies] bring so much love and joy into this world, and it makes me feel so great. I see how happy they are, and they are a real inspiration, because they go through so many different challenges every single day.”
Wiele added when asked about a moment that sticks out for him, “The very first day I met Chris and he became my buddy. He was so happy and enthusiastic, and he immediately came up and gave me this great big hug and picked me up off the floor.”