Lessons learned for Lovett over summer

You’ll have to pardon Post Falls High junior Ridge Lovett for missing that first week of school.

He was a little preoccupied.

Sure, he was still getting an education. But he was also enjoying the summer of his life.

LOVETT QUALIFIED for the USA Wrestling Cadet national team in Greco-Roman wrestling, where he was invited to compete in the world championships Sept. 4-10 in Athens, Greece.

“I was just excited to learn,” Lovett said. “I wasn’t quite sure how the wrestling was going to go. I’ve never competed internationally before, or wrestled anyone from beyond the states, so it was going to be a new experience.”

Lovett finished seventh in the 119-pound class, going 2-1 in the tournament. He could have advanced to the consolation round, but the wrestler that beat him lost his semifinal match, eliminating Lovett from the tournament.

“I wasn’t really nervous about competing,” Lovett said. “I was just going into it like it was any other tournament and trying to keep my mind right.”

But folks, this wasn’t quite the Tri-State Invitational or state high school championships, which Lovett has won in back-to-back years.

“It was just a whole new style of wrestling,” Lovett said. “The style was different. The fans were different. It was just new. I learned to stick to my game plan really. When I did that, things went really well and it was going my way. When I went away from the game plan, it didn’t work out.”

BUT IT wasn’t just wrestling for Lovett. He was able to fit in some sightseeing in his down time.

“We went to the Acropolis and drove around on a bus and looked at the original Olympic Stadium,” Lovett said. “Afterward, we went to Santorini and stayed in a villa and just hung out there and relaxed.”

Not a bad way to spend a summer for a kid from North Idaho, right?

“When we started out wrestling as kids, it was just about having fun and messing around with your friends,” Lovett said. “To get to see all this is pretty surreal.”

And to say the summer was a whirlwind for Lovett is an understatement.

“I was home for 10 days between when school got out to when I came back (Tuesday),” Lovett said. “After we got out of school, we drove to Wendell and started training with coach (Ivan) Delchev. I was home for 10 days after wrestling in Fargo (for the Cadet freestyle nationals), then left to go back to Wendell to train more.”

While in Wendell, Lovett lived with Dan and Brooke Mauger, whose son Kase also competed on the Cadet national team in Greece at 92 pounds.

“After getting home, it felt a little different not being with them,” Lovett said. “They became my second family this summer.”

Lovett was also helped out by Twin Falls High wrestler Braeden Dickinson, who trained with Lovett all summer in preparation for the world championships.

“He basically gave up his entire summer to help me train,” Lovett said. “Kase was always there for me and helped me along the way. There were so many people that donated to our GoFundMe account, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. But a bunch of people stepped up to help out.”

And made it a summer Lovett won’t soon forget.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.