Lehigh University Athletics
Trenge wears red, white, blue and brown
9/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Wrestling
Nationally ranked sophomore wrestler Jon Trenge knows what it’s like to don a red, white and blue singlet and represent the most powerful nation in the world in international competition. But while Trenge expects to hear the rousing chants of "U-S-A!" in his homeland, he recently came to understand that the United States is often cheered by its so-called foes as well.
In August of 2001, Trenge was one of a select group of wrestlers chosen to compete in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in the Fila Junior Freestyle World Championships. Little did he know that in a month’s time, the United States would sustain an unprecedented terrorist attack on September 11th, and Tashkent, once a part of the Soviet Union and thus a bitter rival, would become a strategic military outpost for the United States.
Yet in August Trenge was simply amused that his presence in the former Soviet nation drew a mixed reaction from the country’s inhabitants.
"In some aspects, you’re walking around with a bulls eye on your back, and in others, it’s like having a crown on your head," says Trenge. "Some people are like, ‘Wow … Americans, that’s what they really look like,’ and others are just like, ‘Oh, there’s an American.’"
Upon returning from Uzbekistan, Trenge came to the realization that wrestling in that part of the world is taken pretty seriously, and it receives a lot of attention. "Wrestling over there is kind of like NFL football is here," he points out. At the same time, he says, wrestlers from Uzbekistan and the Middle East treated the American wrestlers with the utmost respect, and the U.S. athletes reciprocated in kind.
Post-September 11th, Trenge maintains that the vast majority of the people he met are not like those who are dominating present-day news coverage. "What we’re seeing on the news are just the radicals, and they don’t accept other people’s beliefs," the sophomore explains. "But I think that those are the only people who cause a problem. I didn’t see any people like that when I was over there."
Lehigh head coach Greg Strobel has spent a lot of time competing and coaching in wrestling tournaments across the globe, most recently coaching the United States’ Olympic team in Sydney, Australia last summer. Strobel has experienced many different cultures during his travels, and he agrees with Trenge’s assessment. "Sport kind of transcends all that in a way, especially wrestling. Wrestling is like an international language, and it’s almost as if you’re a part of a fraternity – an international fraternity," Strobel says.
Assistant coach Kerry McCoy has wrestled in many different nations as well, and the 2000 Olympian was in Iran this past summer. The fact that the wrestlers were from the United States had no negative effect, in fact - McCoy says - the opposite was true. "We got there at 3 [o’clock] in the morning and there were a thousand people in the airport to see the American wrestlers," McCoy recalls. "This was the first time American athletes had competed there in over 20 years."
As far as other political and cultural activities in that region of the world, McCoy, a former NCAA heavyweight champion, believes that Americans need to make an effort to understand others, and why they hold the views that they do. "You have to step back and see what their problems are with us and why they feel the way that they do, and I think that’s the biggest thing," McCoy explains.
With the success he’s had in his career, Trenge has apparently done a good job of blocking out other potential distractions. Trenge says that when he’s out on the mat, nothing else matters. Despite recent events, he also says without hesitation that he would return to that part of the world to wrestle, even in today’s dramatically different climate. "Wrestlers are wrestlers," Trenge maintains. "I would still go there to wrestle."
The events of September 11th and beyond have significantly changed our world and the way we think and go about our lives. At a time when war threatens to tear nations and people apart, Trenge understands that the international camaraderie of sports, especially the ancient tradition of wrestling, has the ability to bring us back together.
