01. 01. 2020
Košice, USA (03.04-13.04.) Coach Mgr. Miroslav Jedlička dusted off his excellent contacts with Brian Bowker, the former coach of the Rancocas Valley club from New Jersey, by organizing a great camp in the USA again after many years. The majority of the trip was made up of pupils and cadets Filip Titka, Jakub and Matej Závacký, Matej Beneš, Martin Vangor, Karol Kondáš, but juniors Ľuboš Kundrát, Róbert Szatmári, Roman Peťák, Gabriel Tysz and seniors Matej Deák and Martin Sciranka also joined.
Coach M. Jedlička described the days in the United States as follows: "After arriving in NY, Brian picked us up. We drove to Lumberton, where we settled in the house of Tony Bowker (Brian's brother). On Saturday morning, we traveled to a tournament in Wildwood, where over 1000 wrestlers competed on 13 mats in folkstyle, and on two mats, our freestyle matches, which had the character of friendly encounters, took place. Some of our boys had up to 8 matches, such was the interest of the Americans to wrestle with us. We made a very good name for ourselves because a high percentage of the matches were victories.
On Sunday in Lumberton, we celebrated Easter. To my great joy, Brian's wife and children Kelly and Brian (Emily and Sean were in Europe) and my wife, daughter, and granddaughters came to visit us.
On Monday, we had a full-day trip around NY, accompanied by some Americans, and the main organizer was Johny Spanish (Goddoy). We returned to Lumberton late in the evening at 11 o'clock.
On Tuesday morning, we moved by car to the town of Pitman, where we had a joint training session led by the former coach of Jordan Burroughs, and after training, we stayed with families.
On Wednesday morning, we went on a 5-hour trip to Philadelphia, and after returning, we had another joint training session where I presented freestyle technique.
On Thursday, they took us to a company (a club sponsor) that sells lawnmowers, where the boys had the opportunity to ride them. Brian picked us up there and drove us north to Jersey, about 4 hours to the town of Totowa, where we had a joint training session at 7 p.m. and stayed in the hall of the Totalforce club.
On Friday morning, we went shopping at the Willowbrook shopping center, and at 4 p.m., another joint training session awaited us, where our Slovak friend Ján Kepič came to visit us.
On Saturday, Brian came for us and we moved to his place on Long Beach Island. Here the boys had the opportunity to swim in the sea, ride kayaks and bicycles. We visited a minigolf center. Brian prepared a barbecue for us and in the evening we returned to Lumberton.
On Sunday, we said goodbye to America, and at noon Brian drove us to the airport. A great help for me was the fact that my former competitor Pavol Sadecký was there with us, who basically acted as my interpreter, because my English is quite weak. Palko wanted to partially repay me for the fact that eleven years ago he was able to experience what our boys are experiencing now.
I firmly believe that next year we will be able to welcome Brian and his boys to Slovakia."