By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — The dream started 15 months ago for Jeremy Hebert, sitting in his driveway.
Driving his son Owen back from a Jiu-Jitsu tournament, Hebert reflected on his son’s success over the course of a couple of years. Owen had a real knack for the sport and showed promise.
Only there was a problem– unfortunately, there are currently no high school jiu-jitsu teams or scholarship opportunities in Louisiana. Talking with his wife Linzie, they realized there was another route to take: high school wrestling.
“At the time, I thought there was no wrestling in North Louisiana,” Hebert said. “I didn’t even know it existed (in the Shreveport area). So, when I hit the driveway in November of that year, I started making phone calls with guys I knew in Shreveport. From there, we chartered a club and launched it with Triad Martial Arts as Triad Wrestling Club.
“We officially launched in January of 2024 — I probably had consistently five to ten kids show up to a practice; nothing very big. It was as organized as I could possibly get it at the time.”
After taking a small group of kids to a state meet in Baton Rouge in 2024 with a modicum of success, Triad Wrestling Club showed tremendous success just a year later with 11 wrestlers in the championships, including Owen being crowned state champion.
And for a family as committed to Ruston and Lincoln Parish as the Heberts, it became paramount to look at launching wrestling as an LHSAA sanctioned-sport at Ruston High.
“I had started conversations with RHS athletics director Jerrod Baugh and (Ruston High Principal Dan) Gressett earlier this year,” Hebert said. “We continued to contact each other, and after the state championship last weekend, I said I’d give them a week, and if I didn’t hear from them, I’d send an email on Sunday.”
And that dream because a reality just a day later on Monday when Ruston High announced that it would be adding wrestling to its varsity sports lineup. For Gressett, it’s the first time since he’s been principal that a new sport has been added to the school.
“It’s going to be a learning curve for us for sure,” Gressett said. “There are some roadblocks that you can run into when you add a new sport — first, can you sustain it? And I believe 100 percent that we can. Next — do you have space? We’re still working on some ideas for that. But if I didn’t think we could be successful at this, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I truly believe it’s something we can be successful at. We do have quite a bit of interest in it.”
Practice will begin officially on Oct. 1, 2025. From there, competitions will go from November into February. Gressett expects Ruston to be placed in a district with the same Shreveport/Bossier City area schools Hebert had been originally in contact with from the start.
For Hebert, one of the best parts about high school wrestling in Louisiana is that girls can participate, as well.
“It’s not just a boys’ sport,” Hebert said. “The team can be as big as we want, but we try to fill it in the weight classes (see below). And just like somebody who’s trying out for quarterback or running back, you might have three of four-deep at a position. So that’s why the bigger your wrestling room, the high the chances you’re going to have really talented wrestlers in the room.”
Louisiana High School Weight Classes (in pounds)
Boys: 106 pounds, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215, 285
Girls: 100 pounds, 107, 114, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 165, 185, 235
For now, Hebert will continue conversations with schools in the Shreveport area, and he will serve as the head coach for the inaugural season, said Gressett.
“Ideally, we’ll want someone in the long run that can also teach full time,” Gressett said. “We can’t do that without an established program, so I’ve asked Hebert to get the it off the ground and running. We really want an on-campus coach (for all our sports). It just makes things go a lot smoother.”
Hebert shared his appreciation to Ruston Junior High for allowing the club to practice at the school and said the high school team will be competing at Bobby James Memorial Gym near campus.
“It’s really cool that we can be in an historic place for everyday practice,” Hebert said in conclusion. “Nobody is using the gym right now, so I told Dan we’d make it nice. I’m already in the process of buying mats for the club. It’s an historic building, and there’s a lot of history.”
An interest meeting for parents and students will be held at a later date this school year.
