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| The trip of a lifetime |
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| JC athletes venture to Brisbane, Australia |
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 | | Submitted photo | | Ryan Brunner, left, and a friend from New Zealand pet a kangaroo at the Brisbane zoo during his trip trip to Australia. |
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By Gary Lindberg
Five Jefferson County athletes spent part of last month on what they all described as "the trip of a lifetime" to Brisbane, on Australia's east coast.
Krista Haugen of Madras and Justine Lofting of Culver played volleyball, Andrew Flu of Madras and Atcitty Begay of Warm Springs ran cross country races while Ryan Brunner of Madras wrestled. Down Under Sports, based in Utah, coordinated all of the trips.
All of the trips were 10-12 days with a side trip to Hawaii lasting two or three days. Following is a look at each athlete's trips.
Krista Haugen
After a day of beach volleyball, Krista Haugen felt different during a two-day indoor volleyball tournament.
"I felt like I was really jumping when I was indoors," said Haugen, a Madras High grad who will play volleyball at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Wash., this fall. "Maybe it was using different muscles, but I was jumping higher."
Haugen was part of an Oregon team, along with Justine Lofting of Culver, which won the beach volleyball tourney in Brisbane and finished third in the indoor tourney.
"We took home the gold, and the bronze," Haugen said.
On the beach, Haugen said her team played 20 matches with the first one to 15 winning. Just four played on the sandy court at a time, setting up in a diamond formation.
"I did a lot of hitting and blocking," said Haugen, a middle hitter during her MHS career. "The front row person was also supposed to be the setter. I got it done, but I'm used to hitting."
She was also covering a lot of ground -- rather sand. The playing dimensions were approximately the same as a regulation court.
"We had to communicate a lot more and move around a lot faster," Haugen said.
It was Haugen's first real beach volleyball experience.
"It was awesome and fun," Haugen said. "I liked to dive in the sand. I also discovered you just had to jump straight up, that the approach I use inside doesn't work."
That approach worked inside where the Oregon team played 10 matches in two days. Most of those matches were contested on a running clock, rather than needing to win three games by scoring 25 points. In one match, Oregon won 86-19.
Away from the court, Haugen kept busy by visiting a wildlife park and a rain forest. She saw a seven-foot kangaroo.
"The guide said they can grow bigger, that this was a little one," Haugen said. "He said they're also really dangerous in the wild."
At Brisbane, Haugen experienced Australian cuisine. At breakfast, a popular choice was what she called "spaghetti on toast. Their bacon was also different. It wasn't cooked the way we do and cut differently. Most of their food was plain; it had hardly any seasoning."
At a coffee shop, Haugen ordered what she thought was a scone, but instead it was a large buttermilk biscuit.
Listening to the Australian language was also memorable for Haugen.
"I loved listening to them talk," Haugen said. "It was interesting to listen to their slang and different words. Sometimes they would cuss to be funny and then apologize for doing that."
On the way back to the U.S., the Oregon volleyball team spent a couple of days in Hawaii. The visit included a trip to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.
"First we watched a movie, then went out to the Arizona memorial," Haugen said. "It was way better than studying about it in school. It was a good experience."
So was the entire trip, Haugen said.
"It was the trip of a lifetime," Haugen said.
Ryan Brunner
Six wrestling matches in one day was just fine for Ryan Brunner.
The Madras High junior competed in a pair of freestyle wrestling tournaments in Australia. One was in a gym and another on the beach.
"We were wrestling in the sand," Brunner said. "Sure, I got sand in my hair, but it was worth it."
On the beach, Brunner finished second among nine wrestlers in his weight class, losing only to an opponent from Michigan. He also competed in a team tournament, losing only one match, again to the same wrestler from Michigan.
Brunner's team included a trio of Oregon wrestlers along with others from Nebraska and Montana. That team finished third among seven teams.
"We were the smallest team, with just eight wrestlers," Brunner said. "Some teams had as many as 30 wrestlers."
All of the matches used freestyle rules, slightly different from the collegiate style used in high school wrestling.
"It was a little different from what I'm used to," Brunner said. "There's more throws in freestyle. I also saw some moves I hadn't seen before. I learned a lot in those matches."
Away from the wrestling matches, Brunner found plenty to do. He visited a zoo and an amusement park, Dreamworld, where he rode a rollercoaster known as Cyclone which is 13 stories high.
Brunner and all of the athletes were visiting Australia in the southern hemisphere's winter season.
"It was about 65 degrees, but it was still nice," Brunner said. "If I ever go again, I'll go during their summertime."
One difference was how the cars "drove on the wrong side of the road," Brunner said.
The cuisine was mostly similar. Brunner didn't find a couple of his favorite condiments -- ketchup or ranch dressing.
He did try a kangaroo burger. Brunner said it tasted similar to venison.
Prices were expensive though. A regular-sized soda cost $3.50 to $4. Although Brunner didn't need to buy gas, that would have cost $6.80 a gallon. In Australia, gas is sold by the liter with the price at $1.90.
Brunner also spent three days in Hawaii where he met up with Madras cross country runners Atcitty Begay and Andrew Flu.
"It was good to see some familiar faces," Brunner said. "It was hot in Hawaii though, 90 or above."
In Hawaii, Brunner went snorkeling in the Pacific. He was impressed by how much he could see in what was his first-ever snorkeling adventure.
Andrew Flu
The Madras senior went to Australia to run, but he also went surfing.
Being in the ocean on a surf board was a first-time experience for the cross country runner who's lived in Chicago and then Madras. He had a two-hour lesson and then had another 90 minutes to try to surf in the Pacific Ocean near Brisbane on Australia's east coast.
"It seemed interesting and fun," Flu said. "At first, I fell over a lot. It took time for me to feel comfortable, but I was still falling over. If I had the chance to go surfing again, I would."
Flu said the waves were about waist or chest high, not "anything like what you see in the movies."
Flu was part of an Oregon-Idaho cross country team which competed against seven other U.S. teams and international teams. He was involved in two races, both 5,000 meters.
In an international race, Flu finished seventh but an official time wasn't posted. In an All-American race, Flu was 19th. As a team, Oregon-Idaho finished fourth in the All-American race.
"Everyone seemed to run slow; the hot weather was a reason," Flu said.
The competitors ran on basically flat, grassy courses for two laps. Between 150 and 200 runners were involved in each race with runners from nearly every state.
"It seemed like I was running at Seaside (Invitational, in Seaside), one of the bigger races we run at Madras," Flu said.
The Oregon-Idaho team first met in Hawaii, training for several days. The team consisted of 13 guys and three girls, "mostly from small towns like Madras. I made a lot of friends. Even though we were together for 10 days, it seems like I've known them for a lot longer."
Once in Australia, the team trained for several more days with the races on the seventh and ninth days.
That gave Flu plenty of time to explore Australia. In addition to surfing, he spent time "just walking around Brisbane."
He encountered street performers -- magicians, some acting like statues or performing stunts.
Flu experienced a bit of a language barrier. He found the Australian accent hard to understand, especially in one restaurant.
"We told them what we wanted and they didn't understand what we were saying," Flu said. "They asked us `Is this what you want. Are you sure you want this? You don't want this.' No, we told them we want this."
Overall, Flu found Australian people "very nice and friendly. If I had the chance to go back, I would."
Attcity Begay
Begay has run in a lot of races, but never one in which the course changed while he was running.
That's what Begay and former Madras High teammate Andrew Flu encountered during the first of two 5,000-meter races at Brisbane.
"They kept changing the course. Then as we were running, they changed it again," Begay said.
That was the international race. Begay and Flu were part of a team made up of runners from Oregon and Idaho. The team finished fourth out of eight teams.
Begay was uncertain of where he finished among more than 150 runners. Both races were run on grassy courses.
"It seemed like we were running on a football field," said Begay, who will be attending Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, to run on the cross country team. "For me, it was a little harder. I like to run on dirt."
Begay did more than running while in Australia and Hawaii. The team first met in Hawaii to train for several days and then went to Australia.
When Begay toured Brisbane, his appearance was a natural conversation starter. Begay has long hair in Native American tradition.
"I had more questions about my hair," Begay said. "People asked me if I was Native American. Then we'd get on with our conversation."
Begay visited a bird sanctuary, the Dreamworld amusement park and did "a lot of walking around." He said it was comfortable T-shirt weather even if it was winter in Australia.
"It was a little humid right at the beach, but very comfortable," Begay said. "It would get dark faster at night."
Some of the typical tourist ventures were part of Begay's trip to Australia. He saw kangaroos, but wasn't sure how tall they really were since they were hunched over.
He also went shopping for souvenirs, buying boomerangs and "anything which said Australia on it."
In Hawaii, Begay and Flu met up with Ryan Brunner as they stayed in the same hotel. Brunner had returned from Australia while Begay and Flu were training before going to Australia.
They visited the Pearl Harbor memorial, which Begay called "smaller than I imagined it would be." They watched a 20-minute video about Pearl Harbor before taking a boat to the USS Arizona Memorial.
"We could still see oil spilling out even if it happened more than 60 years ago," Begay said. "It's little tiny drops. They come up small and spread out. It was much more interesting than listening about it at school."
Justine Lofting
Once Justine Lofting arrived in Australia, she had to shop.
When the Culver High senior landed in Brisbane, her bag didn't. Lofting was going to participate in volleyball tournaments. Her bag was lost for what turned out to be one day. So Lofting was given $100 by the airline to spend on clothes.
Not that Lofting was disappointed.
"I'm a girl, I have to think about shopping," Lofting said.
She did buy clothes, along with souvenirs, such as boomerangs for her family and friends. The hotel where the volleyball team stayed was near shopping areas.
A warning to anyone shopping in Australia -- it's expensive. A Snickers bar costs $2.50 and a box of cereal is $8.
Lofting found one desert worth the price. It was a cookie called timpan with crispy fudge on the outside and in the middle.
"That's the most delicious cookie I've ever eaten," Lofting said. "I and a friend from California bought about eight boxes and spent the night eating them."
Lofting's volleyball experience was divided into one day of beach volleyball and two days of indoor volleyball. Lofting was on the same team as Madras High grad Krista Haugen, which won the beach tourney and finished third in the indoor tourney. It was Lofting's first beach volleyball experience.
"It was so much fun," Lofting said. "I did a lot of diving. I also learned you can't do a normal hitting approach like you would on a gym floor since the sand is heavy on your feet."
To recover from beach volleyball, Lofting said she spent "a whole day in a hot tub."
The volleyball players spent nine days in Australia and two days in Hawaii. The Oregon team took part in a luau where Lofting tasted poi.
"It was very weird," she said. "It didn't have any flavor and a strange texture. It felt like worms."
She also "laid on the beach." Lofting did go exploring along a beach and was able to find oysters. The one oyster she opened up had a pearl.
While on the island, she had that pearl put on a ring as a souvenir for herself. |
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