College often allows students the opportunity to travel abroad and study, but few have the chance to compete abroad.

Former Albert Lea standouts Ben Berhow and Ben Woodside both traveled to a foreign land to compete in their sports.

Berhow, who wrestles as a heavyweight at the University of Minnesota, participated in the Junior Pan American Games in Cuenca, Ecuador, June 20-22, taking home a bronze medal in freestyle and finishing sixth in Greco-Roman. Berhow came home with a new perspective on life after his experience.

“It’s crazy how people look at you,” Berhow said of being in Ecuador.

Berhow said he saw posters saying, “No U.S.A.” on his trip and it was interesting to see how other parts of the world viewed the U.S.

Berhow didn’t have much time to think about making the trip abroad. When he was asked if he wanted to wrestle in the games, he had a day to make his decision.

“It helped that I had a teammate there,” Berhow said. “If you’d ask me a week earlier I would have said, ‘Heck no.’”

Brent Eidenschink joined Berhow on the trip and the pair helped the U.S. win the team championship in the freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions.

The competition remained an unknown for Berhow until he arrived in Ecuador.

“I knew the Cubans would be tough,” Berhow said. “It was definitely a different style of wrestling.”

Berhow has stepped up into the heavyweight spot for the Gophers, a spot vacated by All-American and two-time NCAA champion Cole Konrad. Konrad who was a rock for Minnesota, giving his team a win every time a dual was on the line.

Konrad and Berhow have had many talks over the last two years and Berhow has learned a lot from Konrad.

“A lot of what I picked up was mental attitude,” Berhow said. “He took me aside and taught me how to approach a match mentally.”

Part of the mental approach Berhow has taken involves him not putting pressure on himself. Competing in the Big Ten Berhow faced All-Americans consistently and it was easy for him to feel pressure, especially in a spot the team had relied on for the last two years.

“I came out with no pressure and tried to put myself in a position to win,” Berhow said of his redshirt freshman year. “I didn’t get hammered by anyone.”

Berhow made the Junior Pan American Games after finishing second in the World Junior competition and would have liked to make the world team this year.

“I’m still mad I couldn’t make the world team,” Berhow said.

Woodside, a point guard at North Dakota State, traveled to Taiwan July 10 as part of the Athletes in Action team for the U.S. in the Jones Cup tournament. The Athletes in Action team was joined by Jordan, Australia, Qatar, Jordan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Taiwan.

Woodside and teammate Brett Winkleman made the team, which was formed over the course of a couple of weeks, and competed against national teams that have played together for several years.

“It was a great experience,” Woodside said. “It was life-changing and really opened our eyes.”

As part of the trip Woodside and his teammates spent time at an orphanage and held basketball clinics.

It was an action-packed trip for Woodside as the team competed in nine games over nine days and often had 15-hour days.

Woodside and Winkleman helped lead the team to the championship game against Jordan. After leading by as much as 18 points, Jordan came back to tie the game with 11.7 seconds left. Woodside was fouled with .7 seconds remaining and had a chance to win the game at the line. He sank his first free throw, but the second attempt rattled around the rim before falling off. Jordan took control in overtime, but Woodside had one last opportunity with a three pointer at the end of the game that didn’t fall.

Woodside became an important contributor for the Athletes in Action team as he scored 26 in the semifinals and Winkleman chipped in 31 to lead the team past Qatar 97-90.

The experience in Taiwan gave Woodside a different perspective.

“What opened my eyes was how lucky we are,” Woodside said of his first trip abroad.

He was surprised of the amount of mopeds around Taiwan and the fact that he didn’t see a front yard or a house.

It’s hard for Woodside, who holds the Albert Lea school record in points, assists and steals, to rank the trip on his list of basketball accomplishments, because that list also includes knocking off two top-15 ranked teams. Last season, Woodside helped the Bison in 64-60 win over No. 9-ranked Marquette. The year before NDSU beat Wisconsin at the Kohl Center 62-55 as Woodside led the team with 24 points.

“As an overall trip it is No. 1,” Woodside said. “I don’t know if there is a game that beats when we beat Wisconsin.”