Sweet Home hosted a German wrestling exchange team last week, in what Coach Steve Thorpe said was an “incredible” opportunity for the Husky wrestlers and the community.
The overnight stay included a day at Sweet Home High School for the visiting wrestlers and a visit by the German coaches to a steam logging mill at Monroe, led by Merritt Schilling.
The Germans, many of whom also shoot air rifles in competition, got a taste of larger caliber shooting, Thorpe said.
“We did a big pizza party on Thursday night and the next morning we had a big pancake breakfast with sausage and eggs. Then we broke out the big guns.
“They can’t own big guns, so they’ve never shot a .50 caliber muzzleloader.”
German Coach Ingo Forsthuber said the trip was “excellent.”
He said such exchanges haven’t been common for German wrestlers and it took a year and a half to put this one together. Interest in cultural exchanges has risen since the last Olympics, he said.
“I got in contact with Mike Simons. He’s very experienced and that was very helpful.”
Simons, who wrestled at South Albany and Oregon State University, is now coach at Thurston and is Oregon Wrestling Association’s cultural exchange director, who has organized exchanges with Russian, South African and Japanese teams in recent years, Thorpe said.
Forsthuber said the experience exceeded the Germans’ expectations, “which were not really big. We didn’t really have a clue about what would happen.”
They had an excellent time in Tillamook, their first stop, he said, visiting the cheese factory and the coast, and then spent a couple of days training at OSU before coming to Sweet Home.
Thorpe took them to Stayton on Friday and from there they went to Springfield, and were to move on to Salem, where they were scheduled to have a meet-and-greet with Gov. John Kitzhaber.
“This I just another incredible experience for our kids and for our community,” Thorpe said.
Forsthuber will lead the hosts for an Oregon team that will visit Germany in late July and early August, which will include Sweet Home’s Tyler Schilling.
“Coach Ingo is in a border state,” Thorpe said. “They’re going to go into France and Switzerland as well as Germany. They’ll be in the heart of their wrestling season at that time.”
The dual meet on Thursday, May 23, pitted Sweet Home wrestlers, along with several others from South Albany, Stayton and Scio, against the visitors in Greco-Roman and freestyle matches held under new rules just approved by FILA two weeks ago.
Wrestling’s governing body hopes the rule changes, designed to make matches more exciting and easier to understand, will get the sport back in the Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee’s executive board recommended in February that wrestling be removed from the 2020 Games.
The new rules include changing matches to two three-minute sessions instead of three two-minute periods, with cumulative scoring rather than the previous two-out-of-three system. Wrestling officials acknowledged the difficulty for spectators and athletes under the old system, when one wrestler could win the first period 5-0, lose the next two periods 1-0 and lose the match.
Many of Thursday night’s matches ended in technical falls on both sides.
Thorpe said Thursday was the first time some of his wrestlers had “ever wrestled a Greco or freestyle match in their life.” Greco-Roman and freestyle are the predominant styles used outside the United States, where high school and college wrestlers compete in folkstyle wrestling, which has different rules and scoring.
Forsthuber said his wrestlers “are not the best in Germany” and the goal was for them to wrestle hard and “enjoy themselves.” For most, this is their first trip abroad.
Thorpe said he particularly enjoyed the chance to watch Tyler Cowger of Sweet Home, fourth in last year’s U.S. national Greco tournament, face off with Philipp Spane, who placed third in Greco at the German National Tournament.
“We got to see All-American versus All-Germany,” he said.
Cowger won the 10-6 decision.
Thorpe said he also enjoyed seeing Colton Schilling win twice, both by technical falls, and Nate Melcher get one last victory.
“It’s neat for someone like Nate Melcher, who probably thought he’d wrestled his last high school match, get one last match and pin his opponent,” he said.
Valley All-Stars vs Germany Results
Timo Streule (G) pinned Kobe Olson (SHJH) 1:39.
Tyler Schilling (SH) dec. Jan Funk (G) 13-8.
Anthony Hardee (SH) TF Ulf Becker (G) 10-0, first period.
Colton Schilling (SH) TF Stefan Kilching (G) 7-0, first period.
Norman Muller dec. Travis Peterson (SH), 13-10.
Simon Schlossarek (G) TF Ty Kirkland (SH) 12-2, first period.
Jonas Durr (G) TF Brandon Whaley (S. Albany 10-0, first period.
Tyler Cowger (SH) dec. Philipp Spane (G) 10-6.
Cole Ashcraft (SH) pinned Thomas Hering (G) :49.
Marco Kreutler (G) dec. Trever Olson (SH) 16-13.
Patrick Kruetler (G) pinned Trey Summers (Stayton) 1:08.
Wade Paulus (SH) TF Marius Weisser (G), 7-0, first period.
Tyrel Miller (SH) pinned Timo Streule (G) 7-3, 1:37.
Jan Funk (G) TF Cooper Goguen (Stayton) 10-0, first period.
Justin Nicholson (SH) TF Ulf Becker (G) 9-1, 2:43.
Stefan Kilching (G) TF Anthony Hardee (SH) first period.
Levi Summers (S Albany) TF Norman Muller (G) 14-8, 2:31.
Colton Schilling (SH) TF Simon Schlossarek 9-0, first period.
Jonas Durr (G) TF Dylan Elder (SH) 13-5, second period.
Philipp Spane (G) TF Ben Tobey (Stayton) 12-2, first period.
Adrian Lopez (S. Albany) pinned Thomas Hering (G) :27.
Nat Melcher (SH) pinned Patrick Kreutler (G) 2:42.
Josh Parazoo (Scio) dec. Marius Weisser (G) 6-3, second period.