Trip Preview: Countdown to Europe!

Luxembourg City

Hello, and welcome to this first blog entry chronicling the Lakeland College men’s basketball trip to Europe. I’m David Gallianetti, the college’s director of communications, and I have the good fortune to be traveling with the team and sharing with you the sights and sounds of Luxembourg, France, Germany and Belgium.

Our tour group of 60 people includes 15 players, our coaches, many family members and the college’s president, Dan Eck, and his wife, Christine.

Our flight leaves Saturday from Chicago, and we’ll arrive Sunday morning in Brussels, Belgium. After spending a half day in Brussels, we’ll take a bus to Luxembourg City which will be our base of operations for six nights. Throughout the week, we’ll visit various tourist attractions throughout the Grand Duchy. We have also been invited to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and we’ll be spending a day in Germany visiting Trier (Germany’s oldest city) and Saarburg.

For those unfamiliar with Luxembourg, it’s a tiny country bordered by Belgium, Germany and France. It’s about the size of Rhode Island, and its population is just over 500,000 people, making it smaller than Milwaukee. The country is known for producing steel. The steel in Miller Park is from Luxembourg, as was the steel in the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. In fact, Luxembourg donated the steel for Freedom Tower, which is now located on the Twin Towers site.

Luxembourg is seven hours ahead of Wisconsin, and I will be updating this blog at the end of each day so you can learn more about the team’s adventures. Feel free to share the link with others: http://lakelandmuskieseurope2014.blogspot.com. There is a chance for you to leave comments and ask questions.

In addition to plenty of sightseeing, the Muskies will be playing three games. Ironically, Lakeland will face a Sheboygan native in one of the games! Lakeland will play Luxembourg’s Musel Pikes, a team that includes Sheboygan native Trent Wurtz, who’s in his third year with the Musel Pikes. Lakeland will also play Luxembourg’s national teams (under 18 years of age). Trent, who played college ball at George Mason and Indiana State, was instrumental in organizing the games, and we’re looking forward to seeing him.

This is the second international trip for the Lakeland men’s basketball program in four years. The Muskies went to Prague in the Czech Republic in 2011. The NCAA allows programs to take international trips every three years. For the student-athletes, being immersed in another culture truly transforms the way they see their world. The players who went to Prague in 2011 still talk fondly about that experience.

Our trip is being led by the Luxembourg American Cultural Society (LACS), which is based in Belgium, Wis., 20 minutes south of Lakeland’s campus. Kevin Wester, their executive director, will be leading our group. Kevin’s ancestors, like many families living in the Ozaukee County area, descended from Luxembourg immigrants, and his knowledge of the country and its history is going to be a treat for all of us.

Why Luxembourg? This trip is part of Lakeland’s growing relationship with the country. Lakeland has worked closely with the LACS since 2010 on projects related to student internships and business development activities between the U.S. and Luxembourg. In February 2012, Associate Professor of Economics Scott Niederjohn and then-Senior Vice President Dan Eck were invited by the University of Luxembourg to visit and explore opportunities to work together. Lakeland and the university have since signed a formal sister school agreement. Lakeland Trustee Deb Ansay, a 1978 Lakeland graduate and active supporter of the Luxembourg American Cultural Society, has been instrumental in creating these opportunities for Lakeland.

Last fall, Niederjohn taught at the University of Luxembourg as part of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. This semester, a Lakeland student, Paige Gerber, is studying at the University of Luxembourg, and this fall a Luxembourg student will be studying at Lakeland.

That’s more than enough information for now! I’ll plan to post a new blog entry when we arrive and get settled Sunday night. Until then, Schéinen Dag nach (have a good day)!