There’s just something about visiting Europe that seems to make people, upon hearing you’re going, an amalgamation of excited for you and secretly envious they aren’t going, too.
As well it should. Trips of that nature provide life-long memories and exposure to all kinds of cultures.
Getting to go overseas to not only see the sights but compete against fellow high school athletes in the sport you love likely amplifies those memories and exposure.
It’s a trip Matthew Lavengood won’t soon forget.
Lavengood, a state-qualifying wrestler last season for Durango High School, made a trip to Germany in June as part of a select team made up mostly of Colorado wrestlers, seeing the sights and getting a chance to test his skills on the mat against competition from another country, another continent.
The junior-to-be was asked to be a part of the team after being spotted at the prestigious Warrior Classic tournament in Grand Junction. The international team was coached by Mark and Matt Schmidt, the former of which is a member of the Colorado chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
“(Mark Schmidt) had international teams before, so we were at the Warrior tournament where Matthew was wrestling in the championship, and he asked if Matthew would be interested in going to Germany,” Lavengood’s father, Steve, said.
So, on June 3, Lavengood left for Germany with a stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland, before landing, then driving to Rimbach, in southeast Germany, to start his jjourney. The trip included stops in such places as Bayreuth, Munich and Jena.
The team essentially practiced daily throughout the trip and wrestled four dual meets. In those four events, Lavengood, wrestling at 55 kilograms (about 125 pounds, up from 113 last season), compiled a 3-1 record. Not too shabby considering that in Germany, they wrestle freestyle as opposed to the folkstyle wrestling used at the high school level in the United States.
In other words, there was a bit of an adjustment for Lavengood. And not just stylistically; one of his matches even landed on television in Munich.
“They do a lot more throws than what most kids in America do,” Lavengood said. “They would mostly focus on throws and points rather than just simple stuff.”
He even picked up a few helpful bits to help him this offseason and into next season at DHS.
But, beyond the wrestling, there were cultural lessons to learn and a multitude of sights to see – ruins, old castles and the like. The wrestlers stayed with host families in each town, and, fortunately for Lavengood, almost all of his host families were competent English speakers. But the experience of living with people from a different culture and even spending a day at school in Germany was eye-opening.
“They would stay in the same class, and their teachers would rotate in and out,” he said. “And their grade level compared to our grade level, they’re much more advanced than us. I was with a kid, and he said he was a freshman, and it was stuff that I would be doing, and I’m going to be a junior.”
Nothing, perhaps, was more jarring than a trip the team took to Buchenwald, a concentration camp where an estimated 56,565 people died at the hands of the Nazis during World War II before its liberation in April 1945. The camp was the first liberated by U.S. soldiers.
“It was an eerie feeling,” Lavengood said. “Mainly the whole place was leveled except for some of the buildings. And some of the stuff was just kind of disturbing.
“Matthew’s word to me was ‘powerful,’” Steve Lavengood said.
It was an experience none of the kids who took part likely ever will forget. And, as expected, the time spent overseas built up a level of camaraderie between a group of kids that hardly knew each other before setting off on their European vacation.
“It was pretty fun. It was just fun being with kids at that level of wrestling,” Lavengood said. “It’s just way different from here.”
rowens@durangoherald.com
