Quite the humble Husker

It was very early into his wrestling career that things changed for Ridge Lovett on the mat.

“I was probably 5, and remember I was doing good in the match,” Lovett said. “And then, boom, I was on my back. I got off the mat and my dad was just laughing. He just told me ‘it’s starting to get tougher buddy.’ Kids were doing different moves and it was then when I knew I was going to have to get better.”

Ridge’s father, Lonnie — a Lakeland High graduate — coached him from an early age.

“I was a wrestler in high school, and it was the only other sport I did,” Lonnie Lovett said. “I would have coached him how to do other sports if I knew how. When he was 18-months old, and I was coaching Team Real Life (a club wrestling team based in Post Falls), Ridge would come in to practices with me all the time. He used to wrestle with a Teddy bear just so he could participate like the other kids.”

As Ridge continued to improve, other coaches began to notice.

“My wife, who is not from a wrestling family — and I’ve coached over 100 kids in our Team Real Life — asked if he was really good,” Lonnie Lovett said. “I didn’t know that he was special until he was 9. We were at a tournament and a coach from the Tri-Cities came up to me and asked if he was my son. He said he was something special and doing things on the mat that nobody else was doing. And it’s hard to see that when you’re coaching your son, because I saw the things that he wasn’t doing right. So right then, I put Ridge with some other coaches and just sat back and became a dad. And it was the best thing for him.”

Enter Post Falls coach Pete Reardon.

“As a wrestler, he’s always been really good,” Reardon said. “I’ve known him since he was born, but I’ve known him really well since he was 6. I’ve seen him progress a lot of years, and he was a good little kids wrestler. That being said, there comes a time when it’s like a lot of little guy wrestlers, or kids that are good, don’t necessarily make the transition and compete at a high level at the next level. And it’s extremely hard to do. To move to the next level and be someone that can compete at the national stage, it’s remarkable that he’s been able to compete at that level for that long. I’ve never had an athlete that competes at that level, and at all age groups like that.”

So, why wrestling?

“I was just the best at it and it made sense to me,” Lovett said. “I’d always been good at wrestling. I was good at other sports too, but it wasn’t the same as wrestling. I just had fun with it and my dad wrestled in high school. When I was younger, I didn’t understand why other kids in my school didn’t wrestle. I’d ask my friends, and they’d say they didn’t want to. But for me, it has always been my life.”

Sooner than later, Lovett began opening eyes around the nation.

“When I was in intermediate and won the national triple crown (freestyle, folkstyle Greco-Roman championships), I knew that wrestling was my sport,” Lovett said. “I loved to play baseball, football, cross country and did triathlons and duathlons. But I wrestle year-round now. I never stop.”

Lovett has won 14 national championships at either the freestyle, folkstyle or Greco-Roman level.

That wasn’t always the case however.

“When I was little, we didn’t practice as much,” Lovett said. “We’d go two days and week, and back then, it was fun. For bigger tournaments, we’d go three days, maybe four. Going to all these big tournaments, it was the same kids I’d be facing, so I’ve always been familiar with the top competition.”

During the summer of 2017, Lovett qualified for the United States team in a competition against the best of the best around the world.

“I was home for maybe a week,” Lovett said. “I’d never trained 365 days before. I went from preseason, to high school, to club, and the freestyle/Greco circuit to the World Team trials. I feel like it made me a lot better doing three training sessions a day. That really put me on the map for colleges, and winning in Fargo.”

And while he’s wrestled in a lot of big matches around the globe, Lovett added that his toughest competition has been right in his own city.

“My toughest match might be in the practice room,” Lovett said. “I know everything that they’re going to do, and they know everything I’m going to do. It just makes things harder, and you’ve got to get creative. I’ve wrestled kids like Jordan Decatur in the finals at Fargo and Beka Guruli at Worlds, and those kids are really good. But I don’t think those matches pushed me like it does in the wrestling room to my breaking point.”

As a team last February, Post Falls ran away with a state 5A championship with a classification record 338.5 points. Lovett was one of seven state champions on that weekend for the Trojans, who were one off tying a classification record of eight champions set by Pocatello.

“Last year was a really good time,” Lovett said. “Going to Minnesota (for The Clash wrestling tournament) was a crazy trip, and wrestling those super, super tough Minnesota teams. Plus, we took the Xbox, so the team was together almost the entire trip. We couldn’t go outside because it was negative degrees outside, so we just stayed in the hotel, playing Xbox, Mafia and really having a good time as a team.”

Lovett is seeking to become the second wrestler from North Idaho to cap an unbeaten high school career. Thus far, Lovett is 133-0, winning three state 5A titles. He has been part of two of three state team championships, with a runner-up finish in 2017. Jared Lawrence of Sandpoint is the last known wrestler from North Idaho to go unbeaten.

“I messaged him a few days ago, because I don’t know what his record is,” Lovett said. “I know Chris Owen was 125-0. It’s kind of a mystery, but (being undefeated) is the goal. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, things should fall into place. And our guys in the wrestling room want me to get that, so they’ve been pushing me as well.”

Coeur d’Alene athletic director Michael Randles coached Lawrence at Sandpoint High.

“I am a big fan of Lovett’s style,” Randles said. “Like Jared, he has uncanny body (kinesthetic) awareness. His technical knowledge and quickness allows him to transition into scoring opportunities from nearly every position.”

As far as staying focused on the next opponent, Lovett tries not to think too far into the future.

“Brayden (Huber) was saying it last year to treat each kid that you’re wrestling like he’s the toughest kid you’ve faced,” Lovett said. “If you do that the same for the match, and I do that almost 100 percent of the time, it should take care of itself.”

After each match, Lovett often gets himself prepared for whatever is next.

“I’ll get a quick cool down period,” Lovett said. “It helps me calm down a little bit, get my head right and get ready for the next match.”

Up next for Lovett is the annual Tri-State Invitational, where he will attempt to become the first wrestler from Post Falls — fourth overall — to win four consecutive Tri-State titles. Samuel Colbray of Hermiston, Lawrence and Dalton Young of Lakeside High in Nine Mile Falls also won four Tri-State titles.

Lovett signed with Nebraska in November to continue his wrestling career.

“The first one to call me might have been (assistant coach) Kendric (Maple),” Lovett said. “I might have talked to (head coach Mark) Manning and (assistant coach Bryan) Snyder right after that. After Fargo, I went on my official visit with them, stayed in the dorms and it was just awesome. I was able to go fishing with Colton McCrystal, and he was my practice partner on my visit. They let me go visit and watch practice, and it was a lot of fun.”

Oklahoma State, N.C. State, Purdue, Iowa State, Illinois, Oregon State and Utah Valley were also interested in Lovett.

“They’re all pretty far away, but the closest was Oregon State,” Lonnie Lovett said. “It didn’t really matter where he went because I was going to be getting on an airplane to go see him anyway. After his first night at Nebraska, it was the place he wanted to go. It was Nebraska from the word go. Because it was such a fit, there’s some comfort there. It’s always tough.”

There was even some Ivy League schools interested.

“I had visions of him going to an Ivy League school,” Lonnie Lovett said. “Harvard blew him up for two months. But after his visit, he was so sure that Nebraska was the place. I’m really happy for him.”

“It seems like a great fit for him,” Reardon said. “They’re a great institution for him to get an education. You’d be hard-pressed to find an athletic department better that has all the facilities, the resources, the money than theirs. Those Big Ten schools for wrestling, they’ve got those resources and all those things. And it’s a great coaching staff. Coach Manning is a great guy and they’ve got guys around his weight class for a workout partner. He’ll have those national team guys around there to train with as well, and it’s a great fit for him. He was thinking heavily about Oklahoma State and N.C. State, but when it came down to it, things just clicked the most at Nebraska.”

“He’s like a sponge,” Reardon said. “He’s a unique kid. And we’ve got a lot of great wrestlers and have a lot of great wrestlers. But he can soak up information a lot quicker than the average kid. He’s got great mat awareness and just has a killer instinct. With the tools he has, and the ability he has. And he’s a hard worker. To be a wrestler at the highest stage, you need to have those things. He’s grown a ton. On the mat, he’s very tough, but off the mat, he can also be a very, very caring kid. And he always has been. He’s a great kid, fun to be around.”