COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019 | 3B
Africa from B1
PHOTO C/O CHRISTINA AND ADELLE KENT
Kent (front left) with the other wrestlers and coaches of the Oregon contingent
that visited South Africa earlier this month.
skill was evident upon competing in various
locations in South Africa.
“For the most part, we wrestled in dual
meets, which is just two teams coming together
to play each other,” said Kent. “But we did have
one big tournament. It’s called the Big Five and
it’s one of the biggest tournaments in South
Africa … so we went there and it’s bigger than
their nationals. I think most of our weights
probably won and they were very upset that we
won.”
Unfortunately for Kent, though her trip was
comprised of taking in a new culture and ob-
serving her first international wrestling tour-
nament abroad, there was no wrestling. Earlier
this summer at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior
Nationals in Fargo, N.D. Kent suffered a knee
injury in the quarterfinals which, before mak-
ing the trip to Africa, was confirmed to be a
torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
While a torn ACL can be a debilitating inju-
ry for athletes in any sport, Kent and her moth-
er Christina remain hopeful of her recovery.
“We’re working on figuring out rehab so she
can maybe wrestle at the end of the season,”
said Christina Kent.
“We’re just kind of rolling with the punch-
es right now. Rehab, surgery, and I’m probably
going to be a manager for volleyball during the
fall,” added Adelle.
Nonetheless, the trip was a valuable experi-
ence for Kent even despite the injury, gaining
unique insight into the differences in wrestling
development - particularly for girls - all over
the world.
“It wasn’t as developed as it is here. The guys
had some good competition, but the girls wres-
tling just isn’t as developed.”
Christina Kent, an assistant coach for the
high school team, has also noticed this trend
throughout her years of experience in the wres-
tling world adding, “Girls wrestling in general
is still a developing sport and I feel in the U.S.
it’s starting to evolve into a much bigger sport,
but internationally, it’s still in its infancy.”
While Kent has travelled all over the U.S. for
wrestling tournaments, her first trip abroad
turned out to be an eye-opening experience
that went well beyond athletics. Whether it
was seeing bathroom prayer rooms during a
brief stop in Dubai before arriving in South
Africa, the decidedly reckless nature of taxi
drivers in a foreign country, staying with local
host families or a litany of new food experi-
ences, the whole trip was an eye-opener for
Kent.
“My first host family, it was in Cape Town,
so they call them ‘coast people’ and they spoke
one of those languages that clicks, Xhosa I
think is what it’s called. And it took me awhile
to figure out what language they were speak-
ing and they’d turn to us and speak English
and then turn around and speak Xhosa again
with each other … but I got lucky and I had
really good experiences with all my host
families,” said Kent.
As a first time international traveler, Kent
saw both the similarities and differences that
define humanity and its myriad cultures and
customs.
“It’s a very community-oriented country.
So here our homes are kind of our homes and
we stay in our homes and no one else comes
over, but there you have people over for bar-
becues - they call them ‘braais’ - every night.
Your friends just kind of walk into your house
and are like, ‘Hey, we’re here!’, and they’re all
kind of like one family, I guess.”
This may be a different way of doing things
than many Americans are used to, but Chris-
tina Kent emphasized that there were similar-
ities there as well.
“Our house is kind of a revolving door, we
have a lot of people come over. It’s very invit-
ing and welcoming so I don’t think that would
be too much of a culture shock for her,” added
Christina.
When asked about her most memorable
experience in South Africa, however, Adelle
alluded to the power of travel that goes far be-
yond recreation and souvenirs.
“Probably going through the informal settle-
ments. So the government kind of kicked ev-
eryone out of their houses to take the land …
so these people went and built all these houses
stacked on top of each other and they’re just
one-room houses,” said Kent. “And we just saw
kids running around in the street … these were
kids I saw at wrestling practice the night before
and they seemed like normal kids … but then
we get there and see their house and it’s just a
little shack, like sheet metal, so that was proba-
bly the most memorable experience of the trip.”
While this trip likely wraps up an incredibly
busy few months for Kent - who has been home
in Cottage Grove for only a matter of days this
summer - her experiences in South Africa will
surely help her for years to come in her long-
term goal of becoming an Olympian.
PHOTO C/O CHRISTINA AND ADELLE KENT
Kent (right) and some of her fellow wres-
tlers with a statue of Nelson Mandela.
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