Sports have always been a huge part of Lisa Nye’s life.

Currently the head cross-country coach at Bend High School, Nye, 41, was a multisport star (as Lisa Karnopp) at Mountain View High and an elite-level distance runner at the University of Oregon before becoming one of the nation’s top steeplechase and trail runners in her 20s and 30s. Still a runner, she is also the mother of two active school-age children and a proud supporter of the Lava Bears in just about any athletic activity.

Maybe it should come as no surprise, then, that when Nye and her family spent six months in Hungary last year as part of an international teaching exchange program, sports played an integral role in her family’s stay.

“What’s important in your life, wherever you are, it follows you,” says Nye, whose Lava Bears host the Oxford Classic on Friday. “You seek it out and have that commonality with people.”

Last summer, Nye, her husband Brad, and their kids Merle, 14, and Olive, 7, took off for the adventure of a lifetime. The family spent six months in the Hungarian town of Kaposvar — a city of some 70,000 residents located about a four-hour drive south of Vienna, Austria — after Lisa was selected to participate in a Fulbright teaching exchange for the first half of the 2011-12 school year.

“I’d done a little bit of traveling with my family before, but for the most part all my travels were as an athlete,” Nye says. “My experiences were almost all about going to a high-pressure event and worrying about being ready to compete.”

A history teacher in Bend High’s International Baccalaureate program, Nye was excited about the chance to not just travel abroad but to live and teach in another country. She wanted to, “expand my internationalism,” as she put it. She had no idea, though, how big a role sports would play in that process.

For starters, the Nyes were shocked at how little English was spoken in their adopted hometown.

They traveled frequently throughout their stay in Hungary, and when they were in Germany, Romania and Austria, finding locals with some basic English skills was fairly easy. In Kaposvar, not so much.

“Our biggest immersion experience was with Merle’s basketball team,” Nye recalls. “We showed up for the first day of practice in August, and none of the kids spoke English. We don’t speak Magyar, the Hungarian language. The coach spoke some English, so we were really lucky.”

Merle, who ended up learning more Hungarian than anyone else in his family in large part because of his basketball experience, got by with hand signals and head shakes for most of the season.

“It made me think about my life in Bend,” Nye says. “I’ve never had an experience like that, but I’ve had students that do. … I gained a new appreciation for kids that aren’t native-English speakers.”

The entire Eastern European club sport experience took Nye and her family by surprise. When they went to cheer on Merle at his first basketball game, they were the only family in the gym.

“The coach thought it was really interesting we wanted to go watch all the games,” Nye says with a laugh. “We’re used to playing COBO (Central Oregon Basketball Organization) here, where it’s real social and all the parents go to all the games. It’s a different approach over there. The kids get on a bus Saturday morning, go to the game, and come back with the coach.

“The coach was pretty cute about it,” Nye adds. “He got to the point where he’d tell us where the game was and how to get there because he realized we were going to go to every game and we were the only parents that needed directions. For us, immersionwise, it was one of our greatest experiences.”

While Merle played basketball and the rest of the family found a local track that provided a sense of community each evening at about 5 o’clock, the Nyes were surprised by how much they missed being involved with fall sports back home.

“My husband would stay up late following Duck games on the computer and the rest of us would be following how Bend High was doing,” Nye says. “We missed football more than we anticipated. … That’s fall for us.”

Maybe the most important relationship the Nyes developed while overseas was with a neighboring family. Away from all family and friends in a place where you don’t speak the language can be overwhelming. Thankfully for the Nyes, they bonded with an extended family over basketball and tennis. One son-in-law in the family, Nye recalls, was a Croatian Olympic basketball player, and another was a high-level Hungarian tennis player.

“What those people did for us was amazing,” Nye says. “They welcomed us, they took care of us. … We bonded over that appreciation for basketball and tennis.”

Since coming back to the U.S. in January, Nye says the biggest thing she has taken away from her Hungarian teaching adventure is how fortunate she is to be in a country, a region, a state and a town she loves.

“I grew up in Bend, lived in Eugene, lived in Portland for five years and moved back to Bend,” Nye says. “My idea of roughing it was living in Eugene.

“To go somewhere that was really humid and flat and that had a lot of air pollution, I didn’t appreciate how important it was to live somewhere amazing,” she adds. “I just have such a great appreciation for where I’m at now.”

LOOKING BACK

Athlete of the week: Summit forward Hadlie Plummer recorded two assists in the Storm’s 3-1 girls soccer victory over Bend High on Thursday. Summit is 5-0-2 and sits atop the most recent OSAA Class 5A state rankings.

Game of the week: Ridgeview notched the third win of its inaugural football season on Friday, blitzing Burns in the first half en route to a 49-22 nonconference home victory. Quarterback David Lacock and receiver Jack Bowman connected for three touchdown passes to lead the Ravens.

LOOKING AHEAD

Tuesday

Mountain View at Summit boys soccer, 6 p.m.: Both the Storm (5-1-1 overall) and the Cougars (3-3-1) enter this Class 5A Intermountain Conference match on three-game winning streaks. The winner will be in control of the 5A IMC race.

Thursday

Crook County at Summit volleyball, 6:30 p.m.: The reigning Class 4A state champions play at the defending 5A state champs’ gym in what has become one of the best volleyball rivalries in the state. University of Portland-bound Makayla Lindburg leads the Cowgirls against the Storm’s Laney Hayes, who has committed to play at Boise State.

Friday

Oxford Classic cross-country meet at Bend’s Drake Park, 1 p.m.: The premier cross-country race in Central Oregon will showcase teams from around Oregon as well as from California, Idaho and Nevada. The elite boys and girls races are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.

Summit at Bend football, 7 p.m.: Both teams are hoping to make a run at the state playoffs with a strong second half of the season. Bend (1-4) is coming off a 36-6 loss at Hermiston, and the Storm (2-3) look to rebound after last week’s 50-0 defeat at Redmond.