Swiss Army Knife

Columbia Falls had pinned the first four Mission-Charlo wrestlers, and Manuel Ammann was on his back against the Wildcats’ Cody Walters.

The Swiss exchange student trailed 10-0, and the Bulldogs’ bench was quieter than the subalpine forest after a fresh snow in the Swiss Alps. Everything pointed toward yet another pin.

But Ammann fought off his back. And then he did it again. He got a takedown. And another. When the horn blew at the end of the third, Ammann had battled back to make it a 10-6 decision, and he was seconds away from scoring again.

“He basically came from getting pounded on and finished the other match pounding on the other kid even though he lost,” said Lyle Cronk, the Bulldogs’ coach. “It really energized our team.”

The Bulldogs went on to beat Polson for seventh place in their next dual. Ammann pinned his opponent.

“For Manuel, it’s that perseverance, not quitting when he’s on his back,” Cronk said. “…That attitude can make up for a lot of technical mistakes, especially in the third period.”

And technical mistakes abound for first-time wrestlers, but that doesn’t seem to bother the 16-year-old Swiss.

“The beginning really was hard, but the most important thing is never to give up,” Ammann said. “In practice, all the time I push myself, and I have a good team. All of them, they help me.”

Teammates said Ammann has a natural aptitude for the sport.

“He picks moves up super fast,” said senior Jacen Petersen. “He’ll go out and try them and get them right pretty much the first time. … In practice, he works really hard. He’s always passing us when we’re running laps, so you have to work hard just to keep up with him.”

That work ethic has rubbed off on the rest of the Bulldog squad, too. Petersen said the coaching staff have used Ammann’s match with Walters as an example many times in practice.

“It’s actually pretty electrifying,” teammate Morgan Schultz added. “He doesn’t know the technique. It’s expected because it’s a completely new experience to him—wrestling, being in a new country, everything—but he just wrestles tough and gets out there and tries every move he possibly can. It’s just an inspiration to the team.”

Much of that toughness comes from his competitive spirit, Cronk hypothesized.

“He does a lot of things remarkably well just right out of the gate,” Cronk said. “The unique thing about wrestling is that you can have a huge advantage just by the desire that you have, the level of competitiveness that you bring into the match and the amount of effort that you’re going to put forth.”

Not every transition to life in the United States has gone as smoothly as his wrestling season, though. Ammann hails from Roggwil, Aargau, a canton in German-speaking Switzerland. He said the language barrier was tough to overcome, but that he’s enjoying his year abroad on the whole.

I miss my family, but not that it’s hurt,” Ammann said. “School is a bit different. I had a little trouble with grades, but now it’s OK, just with the language. I decided to make this an experience, and I’m here in Charlo and I’m happy.”

He added that his host family—the Smiths of Charlo—have been great, and that he keeps up with his family in Switzerland via Skype.

Sports aren’t exactly new to Ammann. He played football for Charlo’s state-semifinal team this season, and he enjoys playing team handball and volleyball back at home. He likes playing hockey, ice skating and running in his free time.

“Because I have played sports in America, I feel at home,” Ammann said. “Sports are a part of my life.”

That competitive nature hasn’t gone unnoticed with the Mission-Charlo coaching staff.

“He brought all of those things in spades to the first day, Cronk said. “He was competitive, had a hard work ethic and had a lot of desire. … The thing I like about Manuel is, for instance, when we run sprints, he has the desire to win sprints. He’s a good athlete, too. But he has a desire to win, and that’s really one of the key things.”

Teammate Ethan Goss said it well.

“He’s got heart,” Goss said. “He’s got more heart than any of us.”