THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, December 19, 2015

At a young age, St. Maries High senior Hayden Humphrey knew he was doing to play some sport in college.

First off, it was wrestling.

Once he toured the campus at NAIA Montana Western in Dillon, Mont., after his sophomore year of high school as part of a football camp, he was sold on that sport instead.

HUMPHREY RECENTLY signed to continue his football career at Montana Western.

“After my sophomore year, I started going to those camps with our high school team and everything,” Humphrey said. “I got familiar with the campus and decided right then and there that I wanted to play college football. I introduced myself to coach (B.J.) Robertson and just fell in love with the campus. The coach is an awesome guy and I’ve kept in touch with him.”

So much so, that Humphrey often messaged him about how games went for the Lumberjacks this season.

“He’s an awesome guy,” Humphrey said “I’d message him after our games through the NCSA (National Collegiate Scouting Association) website, and filled him in on how games were going. I’d fill him in on how the games were going, but he wasn’t just interested in me as a player, he took an interest with the entire team and our success. He’s a really nice guy and everything.”

However, earlier this week, Robertson — who coached at Montana Western for three seasons, leading the Bulldogs to a 7-3 record and No. 15 ranking in the NAIA — left the school to accept a job on former Post Falls coach Jeff Choate’s staff at Montana State. He’ll serve as assistant coach and director of high school relations.

“He called and talked to me about everything,” Humphrey said. “He told me that my scholarship was still going to be accepted and I understood why he’s leaving. Montana Western is a good place and fit for me.”

Humphrey (5-foot-7, 140 pounds), played both wide receiver and defensive back at St. Maries, but is being recruited to play receiver at Montana Western.

“At my height, I don’t think they’ll have any use for me at defensive back,” Humphrey said. “So I think I’ll be at receiver once I get there.”

WHILE HUMPHREY will admit there’s nothing fun about it, he’s as determined on the wrestling mat as on the football field.

So much so, that he’s approaching 100 wins for his high school career.

“I’ve been wrestling since I was 3 years old,” Humphrey said. “I started with a full season then, and have been doing it since I can remember. My entire family has done it. My dad wrestled, my uncle wrestled in college. Really, I owe a lot of my success in football to wrestling. It really made me push myself and made me realize that I could do things. Nobody but myself is going to push me, but to watch yourself progress so much, I’ve got a lot indebted to wrestling.”

After winning his first two matches at the 44th Tri-State Invitational on Friday at North Idaho College, Humphrey needs three more wins to go over the century mark.

“Coming in, I knew I had to have 25 a year to get there,” Humphrey said. “I wanted to be part of the 100-win club. I’ve worked hard and wanted to leave as good of a legacy. I wanted to be a four-time district champion, as well as place each year at state.”

Humphrey has won three straight district titles, the first in the 3A Intermountain League during the 2012-13 season. He missed out on placing at state as a sophomore.

Hayden is coached by his father, Dennis, on the Lumberjack wrestling team. He finished as runner-up during the state 2A meet at 132 pounds as a junior and was sixth as a freshman in the 3A tournament.

“Sometimes, we butt heads, but for the most part, we get along really good,” Hayden said. “We help each other a lot. We’re so young after graduating nine seniors from last year’s team, he’ll sit me down and we’ll talk about what he’s seeing and what I’m seeing. We’ll help each other out and talk to each other about things that are going on. He’s coached me since I was little and there’s not much he’ll need to tell me during a match because he know what I’m thinking.

Humphrey is the lone St. Maries wrestler competing at Tri-State this year, his third year competing at the event.

“It’s definitely an insane tournament,” Humphrey said. “It’s something else as far as the toughest tournament I’ve been around. There’s a lot of good wrestlers, good competition and I’ve just got to take it one at a time.”

As far as goals for this weekend, it’s simple for Humphrey — make it to the second day.

“I’m looking at it as an improvement,” Humphrey said. “I need to have some realistic goals. I hope to place or at least just have a good tournament.”

Just in — he’s done just that — winning his first match by technical fall and the second by pin to improve to 97-36 in his career.

He wrestled Tonasket’s Trevor Peterson in the quarterfinals late Friday, losing in the quarterfinal round.

He’ll be back in action this morning, with three wins giving him 100 — and third in the tournament.

AS A young kid, Humphrey remembers going to football games in 2005,’06 and ‘07 when the Lumberjacks were not contending for the postseason. Instead, they went a combined 1-24 during that span.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be part of this community right now,” Humphrey said. “In third grade, my dad and a bunch of other coaches wanted to change the culture down here. I remember going to the games back then, and we just didn’t have the teams and depth to compete. They told themselves we need to change this and get them going. Our bunch started playing together in fourth grade in football, just stuck together and our parents taught us the simple things and establishing some things to build on. Chase (Truscott), he’s the emotional leader of the football team, and the thing that impressed me was that we pushed each other so much. We’ll get on each other’s nerves and almost have brawls on the football field. But we’re all brothers on the field and it sucks we didn’t get things done this year.”

St. Maries finished the season 8-2, losing in the state 2A quarterfinals to Aberdeen. The Lumberjacks’ other loss was to Grangeville, which beat Aberdeen in the state championship game.

“St. Maries isn’t going to be a joke in football anymore,” Humphrey said. “They’re good and going to continue to build that program.”

No matter what sport it might be, Humphrey’s going to compete to his full extent.

No joke.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.