Jason Casey
Sweet Home wrestlers got a taste of foreign competition Sunday night in a 35-match dual meet pitting a team from South Africa with Valley all-stars, including several Sweet Home wrestlers.
The night was full of smiles, goodwill – and talent on the mats.
“We have a long-standing cultural exchange program that we have been doing with South Africa for many years,” said Head Wrestling Coach Steve Thorpe. “South Africa is coming here, we sent a team that I coached in 2015, they came here in 2014, we sent a team in 2012, they came here in 2010, they sent a team in 2009.
“I mean it has been going on, but the first exchange with South Africa was they came here to wrestle in 1974, I believe it was 1974.
The teams exchanged flags that were signed by coaches and wrestlers.
“The South Africans coming here is awesome I went there when I was a freshman,” said senior Rickey Yunke. “I actually wrestled the kid I just did in another one. That kid beat me when I was there, and it’s an incredible experience to go there and wrestle them and have them come here and wrestle them.”
Marissa Kurtz won her match with a pin.
“For me, it’s good to wrestle kids that are not around you, and it’s good to branch out and get to know what other people do,” said Kurtz. “She was really aggressive, so I just snapped her down, and she tried to arm spin but it didn’t work, and I caught her on her back.”
Thorpe said things went “absolutely wonderful.
“I think we had 36 matches in an evening in October. The only thing that woulda made it better was another two or three matches. Our friends didn’t travel here for 32 hours on a plane and in vans to wrestle a match. They want to come here and wrestle as many matches as they can, and my main goal was to make sure that they got that and I believe they did.”
The evening’s matches were about evenly split between freestyle and Greco.
South African Coach Tobie Alberts was looking for competition as well as getting his wrestlers a chance to see more of the world.
“When you are born you have to fight to get your first breath,” said Alberts. “So we are very competitive. If we lose, we try to fix it for the next competition. Winning isn’t always everything, it’s a learning curve for some of these wrestlers we just want to be good competition and give our best.
“We would like to thank the USA wrestling and Coach Mike (Simons of Thurston) and his cultural exchange program for the opportunity to be here it’s something that we really need. Like I said we always visit foreign countries with foreign languages and there’s no understanding.”
Food seemed to be the favorite attraction for some of the South African kids.
Marchiel Grobler, one of the two largest of the visiting wrestlers, noted that he thought Subway had very nice food, and Mariska Van Tonder said she loved nachos – they don’t have them in South Africa, she said.
“It’s just a great event,” said Lebanon Wrestling Coach Michael Cox, who brought two of his wrestlers to the event. “It was nice that we could work together with Sweet Home. Usually, we get them, or they get them this was the first time that Steve and I worked together, and part of that is pure numbers they brought most kids then most teams bring.
“But I’ve been in Lebanon for 12 years now, and he’s been in Sweet Home for about a century I think so it’s good to work together.”