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MACOMB COUNTY — A recent two-week wrestling camp between the Vasteras Wrestling Club of Sweden and the Viking Roughneck Wrestling Club, which is made up of wrestlers across Oakland and Macomb counties, ended with tearful eyes and the exchange of social media information.
The clubs are all too familiar with each other as Roughnecks leader John Jeffire, a teacher at Chippewa Valley High School, and Vasteras leader, Christer Persson, have built a bond over the course of four decades.
“It goes back 45 years to 1979,” Jeffire said. “I was on a U.S. team that toured Denmark and Sweden, and that’s when I went to the city of Vasteras. We competed there and I met this guy, Christer Persson, who was the head of the Vasteras Club. In 1980-1981, I went over there for a year and trained with the Vasteras club, and Christer was my coach. Fast forward to now, I’ve brought four teams over to him and he’s brought four teams over to me over the decades. We’re still keeping this tradition alive.”
The tradition was alive and well from June 23 to July 7 as the Swedish wrestlers stayed with local host families and took part in various American cultural activities courtesy of the Viking Roughneck club. Of course, the wrestlers — the clubs had wrestlers from 9 to 22 years old — took their cultural differences to the mat. They last met in 2022 when the Roughnecks went to Sweden.
The first week of training took place at Chippewa Valley, with a competition taking place on June 28. Practices then shifted to Revolution Wrestling in Highland Township and Revolution Combat in Allen Park.
Throughout the two weeks, differences became similarities between the two clubs, but overcoming the obstacle of adjusting to each other’s wrestling styles was still difficult at times for both sides.
“They are predominantly Greco-Roman wrestlers, which holds from the waist up,” Jeffire said. “There’s no grabbing the legs or attacking the legs or tripping the legs. It’s significantly different. Freestyle is like our high school and collegiate ranks where you can attack the legs, but Greco is a whole other animal. They love Greco. They don’t care for freestyle, and they don’t wrestle folkstyle, which is what we do in high school here. When they come over here and we go over there, we not only have our cultural differences but our athletic differences. They kick our butts in Greco, and we have the upper hand in freestyle.”
Outside of wrestling, the Swedes were given a full tour of everything you’d hope to see in a two-week span in metro Detroit.
The Viking Roughneck Club treated their visitors to a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park and a United Shore Professional Baseball League game at Jimmy John’s Field, with classic hot dogs and hamburgers. They hosted a Fourth of July party, went to Mavrix in Shelby Township for chicken wings, went to downtown Detroit for the Peddle Bar, and many other activities.
“Wrestling is what ties us all together, but during the past two weeks we have also experienced true American hospitality,” said Karl Holmqvist, who took the trip to the U.S. alongside his daughter Astrid. “American families opened their homes to us and showed their culture. I’m returning back to Sweden with a lot of memories as well as friends that I hope to see again on our side of the pond.”
The similarity is wrestling — that’s what brings the two groups from across the globe together, but the importance stretches far beyond the sport.
Sure, the significance of having local wrestlers work the mat with wrestlers of different cultures is immeasurable, but the friendships and bonds are what make this tradition all the more special.
Jeffire said the impact showed itself when the groups took part in the Peddle Bar downtown on July 5.
“The driver allowed one of the Swedish girls to be the DJ, and I don’t know how you do it, but she had her iPhone with her, and she had a playlist with a combination of Swedish and American music,” Jeffire said. “It was just watching everyone enjoy the other culture’s music. From the laughter and the smiles you saw, you really had a good feeling about what this was accomplishing culturally for everyone involved.”
Aside from assimilating the American wrestler to Swedish music, the female wrestlers from the Vasteras club did much more than add a couple of songs to the Roughnecks’ playlist.
Girls wrestling finally seems to be taking off in Michigan, but its prominence in Sweden is far beyond what the local female wrestlers could imagine.
For local high schoolers, it can be difficult to train properly when you’re constantly going up against guys, but the Vasteras Wrestling Club brought four girls of their own over.
“As a girl wrestler, it’s often hard to find your place in a team, but with these kids I never had to do that,” Chippewa Valley sophomore Bridget Maas said. “It was such a great experience, learning so much about wrestling, culture, and friendship. I will never forget these past two weeks, and these friendships are forever.”
The Macomb/Oakland County wrestlers are already hoping that a trip to Sweden is in the cards for them, but Jeffire said his sole focus is keeping the tradition alive.
“I think of Vasteras as my second home and I think of the Vasteras Club as my club and something that I’ve been invested in from 1979 to now,” Jeffire said. “I feel a part of what they do. The great thing about social media today is I can find out what the wrestlers in Vasteras are doing, and they’re following us and our wrestlers here. It’s really cool. This week was the national championships in North Dakota, and we’ve been following the results for our kids that are out there, but the Swedes are following it, too, and the Swedes have been cheering our guys on and our guys are cheering them on at their meets halfway around the world. It’s amazing how small the world becomes when you get involved in something like this.”
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