There is much to be learned in defeat.

Local wrestler Lucas Laquerre is well aware of this truism.

The 17 year old grade 12 student at Lively District Secondary School and representative of the Sudbury Golden Eagles is also well aware that setbacks are hardly the only form of development at his disposal.

Laquerre was recently selected by the Ontario Amateur Wrestling Association (OAWA) to be among a group of 11 young men from the province who will head to Kosice (Slovakia) early next month for the Olympic Hope international tournament and training camp.

One of the few pre-teens who looked forward to beginning wrestling in high-school, his father and cousin both have travelled this pathway, Laquerre took to the mats quickly, enjoying success on a local level and in the north.

But with his involvement expanding to include the more competitive club scene and meets in the much more advanced wrestling pockets of Ontario, the reality of the level of overall talent in the sport came to his attention, loud and clear.

“In losing you learn,” said Laquerre, who benefitted from a strong cardio base from his days of cross-country and track and R.H. Murray Public School and LDSS Intermediate, shelving his two-year ties to the Lively Hawks football program last year to fully dedicate himself to the sport in which he has claimed gold at both the city championships and NOSSA in each of the past three years.

“I don’t like to lose, but when you lose, you learn,” Laquerre continued. “This is how I am going to get better.”

The potential was obvious quite early on – at least in the eyes of high-school and club coach Kyle Donnelly. “Lucas had an incredible amount of energy – but perhaps didn’t have as much focus as he does today,” said Donnelly, a man equipped with an extensive grappling background (largely through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) who threw himself into a hotbed of wrestling by cracking the top-end Guelph Gryphons university roster as a walk-on athlete a few years ago.

“Lucas had that physical capacity to keep going – and he had the proper attitude as well. I thought that if he would stick to it and put his mind to it, things would go well for him.”

Within the SDSSAA ranks, Laquerre rose to prominence, even as he grew both physically and technically, wrestling at 47.5kg in grade 9, then on to 51kg and 61kg and now eyeing the 67.5kg division this winter.

He also learned before too long that there is a much wider world of wrestling that lies beyond the Sudbury and area mainstays of “The Boot” and the “Ron Preston City Championships”. “If you want to make that jump, you have to stay committed,” said Laquerre.

“You’ve got to wrestle five times a week; You’ve got to prioritize times to run; You’ve got to do a lot of things.”

And you have to learn to deal with the fact that those victories that perhaps came along more frequently within the nickel city high-school circuit were not nearly as prevalent when dealing with opponents who were competing on behalf of the Brock Wrestling Club or Team Impact Wrestling Club in Pickering or the like.

“I’m most proud of his resiliency and the effort he has put in,” said coach Donnelly. “It’s not the results – though they are impressive. Lucas has not only grown as a wrestler, he’s grown as a person. When he has been faced with challenges, he responds so well.”

In many ways, challenges are at the very root of the athletic pursuit which remains one of humanity's oldest forms of combat and military training. “You can have a plan going into a match, but you don’t know how it’s going to go,” said Laquerre. “When they (your opponents) react a different way, you need to adjust.”

Two weeks or so from now, an eight hour flight away, Lucas Laquerre and his Team Ontario brethren are sure to face a different way. “You don’t know this person, you don’t know their style, so you just go out there and wrestle,” said Laquerre. “Just go in and wrestle the best that you can.”

“You’re going to learn from the experience.”

There it is again, the mantra that Laquerre never lets leave his side. Even as the excitement of his first ever out of country trip creeps closer, he has looked into few if any of the sights located in the largest city in eastern Slovakia, home to some 230,000 people.

“The only thing I am thinking about is going there and wrestling,” said Laquerre. “I am so stoked about going there and getting better.”

Win or lose, that is most certainly going to happen.

(with the trip only partially funded, the Sudbury Golden Eagles have agreed to help facilitate any donation or sponsorship requests via email – gewrestlingclub@gmail.com – or by phone at (705) 698-9233)