HELENA — For the first time in roughly 10 years, members of the Helena Wrestling Club have the opportunity to travel outside of the United States for competition.
Wrestlers and a coach from the Helena Wrestling Club (HWC) are joining Team Montana, a group of wrestlers across the Treasure State competing in Germany this summer.
"I was actually part of this club when I was younger," said Chet O'Shea, the president and coach for the HWC.
He is going to Germany with three of his wrestlers, the most that have ever been selected from Helena.
"When you get selected to go, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," O'Shea said.
The selection process looks at the placements of high school wrestlers from Montana over the years.
Capital High's Taylor Lay and Mariska Harris and Helena High's Brady Gehring earned the opportunity.
Gehring is a sophomore who has been wrestling since he was 4 years old.
"I felt like if I didn't go, I'd be missing out on something," Gehring said.
This year is the first that girls have been allowed to travel to Germany with Team Montana.
"I'm excited to see how different Germany is," said Lay.
She brought home Helena's first girls' wrestling state championshipin 2023.
"I think it's a pretty cool opportunity to travel a lot of the country to wrestle," Lay said.
Team Montana will be in Germany July 23 through Aug. 11 and will wrestle against three different German clubs.
"A lot of the coaches over there are great Olympic coaches. Hopefully, the kids will be able to learn something and take some different styles and moves away from it," said O'Shea.
In addition to wrestling against international teams, wrestlers will stay with German host families.
They will visit the Black Forest, Europa Park, the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, cathedrals, castles and the Mercedes-Benz Museum.
"We get to go and explore things normal tourists would not also be able to do," O'Shea said.
Each attendee will pay $2,600 for airfare, a training camp before the trip and team gear.
Wrestlers will also need roughly $400 in spending money.
HWC hopes to raise $12,000 in donations and sponsorships to help fund the trip and will be holding a fundraiser at Safeway on May 18. There will be a grillout, and the proceeds will go to fund the trip.
You can find additional ways to support HWC here.
