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World Warriors: Local wrestlers set to travel to New Zealand to compete


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June 9, 2011

 

WORLD WARRIORS: Local wrestlers set to travel to New Zealand to compete

By MATT KOESTERS

Matt.Koesters@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Thu Jun 09, 2011, 12:13 AM EDT

 

JEFFERSONVILLE ? Wrestling is the language of the world.

 

Every country in the world has its own style of wrestling. From Japan, where judo teaches the use of leverage to down a foe, to the Russian sport of sambo, to Switzerland where combatants wear special attire to give opponents something to grasp as they attempt throws and trips, the basic idea of combining strength and technique to overcome an opponent is universal.

 

This Saturday, Jeffersonville and Indiana State Wrestling Association coach Danny Struck will lead a contingent of wrestlers from around the state to New Zealand, where his grapplers will take in the culture and tangle with the locals in two dual meets and a tournament during the 11-day trip.

 

?I try to tell the kids that we?re going to experience the world through wrestling, and wrestling is just an avenue for us to teach them about the world,? said Struck, who also teaches world history at Jeff. ?One of the things we talk about a lot is the world is our home ? not just Jeffersonville ? and the more comfortable we can get in the whole world, the more successful they?re going to be in the world, the better the world will be.?

 

To be eligible, wrestlers had to submit letters of recommendation and write letters of their own making their case for why they should be permitted on the trip. In the selection process, sportsmanship and an eagerness to learn trumped talent, Struck said.

 

?They have to be able to defend themselves wrestling,? Struck said, ?but mostly, it was who is going to be the best representatives for Indiana for these trips.?

 

Area wrestlers selected to go include Jeffersonville?s Brandon Brown, Jacob Everett, Jordan Hammel and David Fridley, New Albany?s Austin Jamison and New Washington?s Brady Meenach. The six local boys will join wrestlers from Jasper, Brown County and the South Bend area ? 14, all told ? for the experience of a lifetime.

 

Struck, Jeff assistant coach Zach Harper and Penn coach Tom Dolly will guide the boys on their journey as they visit three separate cities on the trip.

 

Two of the boys, Everett and Hammel, will go directly from their graduation ceremonies to the airport where they will embark on the 26-hour journey to the island country off the coast of Australia.

 

For Everett, it?s his second international wrestling trip in as many years. Everett traveled to Mongolia last summer to experience the culture of the third-world Asian country.

 

?When I heard we were going to New Zealand, I was like, ?I can?t pass that up,?? Everett said. ?I want to have as much fun if not more fun in New Zealand.?

 

The lesson Struck is trying to help his kids learn is one that Everett has already grasped.

 

?I want to learn how to give more to the people that don?t have enough,? Everett said. ?I hope I can learn how to do that, because in Mongolia, it was a poor country, and this is a stable country. I hope to learn more about how to give back to the community.?

 

Struck doesn?t anticipate his kids will see the same level of poverty the wrestlers on last year?s trip witnessed in Mongolia (he said his kids came back with empty backpacks after giving away their gear to the local grapplers), but he hopes they?ll learn something, all the same.

 

?We want them to see how a New Zealander lives, not how they would live if they traveled in New Zealand,? Struck said.

 

To that end, each of the wrestlers will stay with a New Zealander family for three nights in each city  they visit. On the agenda are Aukland, Hamilton and Roturua.

 

?For this trip, once a week I?ve been sending them a PowerPoint where they read information (about New Zealand), and there?ll be 10 questions,? Struck said. ?So they?ve been studying about New Zealand.?

 

Some wrestlers have been doing their own research. New Washington?s Meenach ? who has never traveled by plane before ? has been studying up on the local flora and fauna.

 

?There?s spiders over their called Aukland spiders,? Meenach said. ?They?ll jump ? they?re not poisonous, but they?ll jump on you. They?ve got kiwi birds that are native there. They have some of the biggest eels in the world. They have 17 breeds of penguins there that are native to that place.?

 

Meenach?s a little nervous ? especially about the prospect of swimming off the coast of the island.

 

?I don?t want to do anything that will make one of those animals mad while I?m over there,? he joked.

 

But Meenach has been doing his homework on the wrestling in New Zealand as well, and he hopes to take enough away that he?ll be a champion when he returns.

 

?I know they?re not as aggressive as we are,? Meenach said. ?There, they?re used to smooth wrestling. They?re going to think we?re kind of unsportsmanlike because we wrestle a little rougher than they do.

 

?In practice, I?m probably going to try their style just to learn it a little bit, and when it comes to the meet I?m going to go all out.?

 

?I don?t know what they do in New Zealand, but they?ll have their own spin on (wrestling),? Struck said. ?Grappling is a big thing there, and our kids might actually get thrown into a grappling tournament, because that?s what they call wrestling.?

 

Struck will have his wrestlers busy from the start of the day to the end. With two-hour training sessions in the morning and evening, the boys won?t have much room for rest, because the rest of the time will be spent immersing them in the culture of the country. No napping, no shut-eye.

 

?Even though they?re going to go wrestle ? they?re going to wrestle two dual meets and one tournament ? I?d be doing them an injustice if I didn?t say, ?Well, you better learn something while you?re there,?? Struck said. ?To me, that?s what it?s really about. Kids right now, they want to win, but I think when they get to my age, the winning (and) the losing won?t matter.?

 

 

 

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