Union County High School Is More Than a Kentucky Wrestling Force

The Union County wrestling team displays its championship hardware and placards at the Kentucky State Championships Feb.28, 2026. | Bob and Joe Photography

Union County, Kentucky High School wrestler Lucas Ricketts has a good life. He’s a highly successful student-athlete in a peaceful environment that’s inclusive of a community support system and awesome teammates. He’ll soon be on his way to North Carolina State, courtesy of a hard-earned scholarship. He even had his choices. It’s full-go for Lucas.

But is it? The answer is in the question. His life isn’t Lucas.

“You know, I like to be known for my accomplishments in wrestling, but I want to be known for the person I am and how I treat others,” Lucas said. “Really, that's what it is. Not to brag, but one of our teammates he's been in a rough situation, so he's moved in with me, and it really changed my life. He's taught me so much, and to come from not much, and to come from where I am, and to be able to help someone without much. It just fills my heart. So that's really what I want to be known for.”

One needs to be brave to eschew the trappings of conformity, insecurity and self-centeredness that plague us as teens. To be oneself and to allow for plenty of space when it comes to character development during these years isn’t usually a forethought.

However, it might be a forethought for the guys who fill the roster of the Union County High School wrestling team. Seemingly, these are the brave of Union County.

It takes some courage to commit to a season or more of wrestling. That’s probably the jumping-off point for mental and character growth.

“The mental aspect of wrestling is so important,” said Union County co-head coach Jarvis Elam, sitting with me during a break at the Kentucky State Duals in February. “A lot of people think that it's all physical, but in reality, and I don't mean to be biased, I've played a lot of sports growing up, but my personal opinion is that wrestling is one of the toughest sports out there.”

That’s most likely an understatement, and Elam’s attempt to be diplomatic to the participants and coaches of other sports.

Wrestling is epically demanding on the body and cognitively brutal. Elam really does concur. He quoted a legendary Iowa coach and grappler.

“Dan Gable says it best, man. ‘Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy.’ And that's something that I personally live by every day.”

Union County wrestling has major mat cred due to its rich history. Oh, and 14 Kentucky state titles in the past 20 seasons.

The Ervins Family Put the Braves on the Wrestling Map

It all begins with the Ervin family. To fully discuss their contributions to Union County wrestling would be to write a 2,000-word story in itself. Robert Ervin and his brothers, and their kids, put Braves wrestling on the national wrestling map, the family tallying 26 individual state championships and, in some form or fashion, have been a part of 17 state team titles.

Robert was the head coach of the Union County grapplers for more than a decade, beginning in 2012. However, he was involved with the program long before that. He was an assistant coach to Dennis Walls, who helmed the team for 21 seasons, amassing a 506 dual-meet record and notching state team titles in 2007 and 2008.

“I learned a lot of just how to run a program as far as the administrative part,” Robert said.

Robert fell in love with wrestling early and committed himself to it.

“I had two older brothers who were pretty good wrestlers,” he said. “We kind of want to just be like our brothers, right? So anyway, I fell in love with wrestling. I wasn't a very good athlete. I liked that you got success in wrestling if you put the effort in. I was one of those guys who worked really, really hard. I wanted to be good.”

And Robert was more than good. He became a two-time state champion in the early ‘80s, and that brought him to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. But the wrestling tab would soon come due in the form of injuries, and burnout began to settle in.

“I wrestled in college for a while. I had a lot of injuries, you know, typical,” Robert said. “So when I was done with wrestling, I said, ‘I’m sick of this sport. I need a break.’ And so my brothers and I started a construction company, telecommunications. And I did that for 20 years. But in the meantime, I had seven kids. One was a girl, and I had six boys. And then my brothers had a bunch of boys.

The kids would pull him back into the wrestling game, slowly and ambiguously. But his return, unbeknownst to him, was inevitable.

“Wrestling was as far away from the mind as possible,” Robert revealed. “My oldest boys were in about the fourth and fifth grade, and they decided they wanted to try it out. So we’d do it for about a month every year, and then we’d wrestle a couple tournaments, and we'd go do something else.”

Enter Walls. He was seeking some help in the program and reached out to Robert. Robert talked it over with his wife, and considering that his sons might want to wrestle in the Union County program one day, he agreed to help. However, Robert only committed to assisting with practices and wouldn’t be available to travel to any meets or tournaments.

“You know how that goes. You fall in love with the kids, and I never missed a tournament,” he said. “And now I drive the school bus and coach wrestling.”

Former Union County wrestling head coach Robert Ervin watches a Braves' match at the 2026 Kentucky State Duals. | Chris Adams

Robert said the largest nugget of knowledge he absorbed from the foremost coaches he was around was more conceptual rather than a body of technical facts. Attention to the small things. You know, you do a plethora of small things the right way, and the outcome equals the sum of all the parts.

“The one thing I learned from the really, really good coaches is it's more about doing the little things right. Just simple things. Like, every guy shakes hands after every practice, you shake their hand and make sure you say every guy's name positive one time in practice and just little bitty things like that.”

After the first Brave wrestler won a national title — in the late 2000s — the program’s aha moment arrived. The other guys in the room began to believe that they could achieve similar success.

“And then after that, we always had guys placing at those national tournaments. And when we started setting our goals higher, then the state championships just started coming to us.”

When Robert became head coach, he brought in Marcus Hoehn, a Big 12 champion for Missouri in 2009, to assist him. His goal was to groom Hoehn for a few years and hand him the keys.

Hoehn only drove the Union County car for a year, and Robert was back in the driver’s seat. That lasted until Elam stepped on board a few years ago after receiving a call from Robert.

“I called Jarvis and I talked to him. I talked him into coming home and helping me coach.”

A Little Success

One of Robert’s great successes was Stephen Little. Little tore up the mat at Union County between 2019 and 2022, competing in a different weight class each season.

His bona fides were as follows: state runner-up at 160 pounds in 2019, state champion at 170 pounds in 2020, state champion at 180 pounds in 2021 and state champion at 190 in 2022.

Little’s achievements resulted in a scholarship to the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. Little continued his success at UALR. He notched a Pac-12 title this year in the 197-pound weight class and is a three-time All-American, the first in the program’s history. In the 2026 NCAA semifinals, Little lost to Oklahoma State’s Cody Merrill in a triple overtime match.

Former Union County three-time Kentucky state champion Stephen Little competing for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock at the 2026 PAC-12 Wrestling Championships. | UALR Athletics

Little recalls his time in the Braves program with reverence and fondness. The 2020 state championships stand out in his memory. It was profound enough that Little couldn’t describe it, a testament to the culture the coaches have implemented at Union County.

“We had nine guys in the finals at state,” Little said. “Coach Robert just took us back in the tunnel and was kind of giving us a pep talk. There were a couple guys, you know, they were tearing up, and it was just very like…I don't know how to put it into words.”

The Braves won the state team championship that year.

“I knew the coaches my whole life,” Little said. “So I think just growing up and then knowing them the whole time I was wrestling helped me develop morals, discipline, and just being responsible, holding myself accountable.”

Little acknowledges that the Union County culture is more about supporting and uplifting teammates and others before success on the mat.

“I feel like they're the reason I am the way I am, and I wrestle the way I do, you know? Like I said, growing up with them and knowing them for so long, I guess kind of built that over time. They're just really good guys.”

Generational Firsts

But before Little, there was the next generation of Ervins. This group is worthy of its own article. Suffice it to say, this contingent of Ervins catapulted the program into the championship juggernaut it is
today.

Robert’s sons, Caleb and Isaac, rolled through the high school ranks of the grappling game. Isaac notched a state championship in 2009 during the Braves' third state title run. However, it was Caleb that obtained legendary Brave status, after capturing three state titles (2009-2011), the first Union County wrestler to accomplish that feat. Robert’s younger sons, Saul, Matthias and Micah, collected a total of eight state crowns from 2015 to 2020.

To be fair and accurate, the sons of Robert’s brother, Tim, actually started the ascent in the mid-2000s. Max Ervin was the 2005 state champion in the 160-pound weight class, and his brother Mitch won two state titles, along with the team, in 2007 and 2008. The youngest son, Brock, arguably the best wrestler in the program’s history, claimed five state championships between 2010 and 2014. And the son of Robert’s brother Gary, Luke, won the 2009 state title in the 135-pound weight class.

Caleb was the first Brave wrestler to earn an NHSCA national championship. The National High School Coaches Association event is the premier high school wrestling tournament in the United States.

Both Caleb and Brock competed for the University of Illinois in college, and the former was named the Illini’s freshman of the year. Sadly, injuries derailed their collegiate careers.

In the Black

Coaching alongside Elam, is Brooks Black. Unlike the others, he isn’t Western Kentucky-bred. Black isn’t even a native Kentuckian. The former Blair Academy (New Jersey, ranked No. 3 nationally in 2026) standout wrestler, who was once featured in SI Faces in the Crowd, dominated nationally in high school before wrestling at Illinois. Black became acquainted with the Ervins via Caleb and Brock while in Champaign. Caleb was his host. This inevitably led to his involvement with the Union County wrestling camp in 2014. The York, Pennsylvania, native hasn’t missed one since.

“My first camp I ever did in Union County was in 2014,” he said. “So, in college, I had a lot of injuries, battled some different things, but I ended up a two-time national qualifier and was a two-time Big Ten place winner…then I got hurt junior and senior year. Came down in 2014, ran summer camps, and I haven't missed. This will be my 12th year helping out with summer camps.”

Black hit life’s wall after his final years at Illinois. He did a brief stint in MMA before moving into the basement of his parents' home and laying concrete while navigating some difficult circumstances. He had no direction. Then a life-changing call from Robert set Black on course.

“Robert called and asked me if I wanted to come down and help coach. So I worked for the cable company for a year, and then he just saw something in me, working with some of the special needs kids that used to come to our summer camp, and I got back into school.”

Now, Black coaches wrestling, and teaches the emotional behavior disability students at Union County High School.

“I’ve been offered a lot of Division I jobs,” he revealed. “A lot of college coaching, but, man, there's no amount of money that would take me away from Union County.”

Black said it is a special place, and the community support for the program is unreal, especially during state tournament time. A line of exuberant community members and jubilant public safety personnel with their vehicles form a parade that sends the team on its way to Lexington and repeats the formation upon the team’s return.

“I mean every single fire squad, water rescue, the sheriff's department, our city police, it is an absolute line that parades us out of town,” Black said. “And then, if we win, when we come back, and we come around the school, the news stations are there. The fire truck has the water shooting a huge stream over the top of the bus. I mean, it is completely packed out. I've never seen anything like it.”

Black wrestled in one of the premier high school programs in the nation. The private academy offered success, but didn’t offer success coupled with the warmth and relational sustenance of a small, rural town high school.

“I’ve never seen it before,” he said. “I came from the arguably the best school in the country with wrestling in Blair Academy, but what Union County does, it's unbelievable.”

Black describes the Union County program as a force that goes well beyond wrestling. The room at Union County is a place to develop as a human being, not necessarily as a wrestler. You often hear talk that reduces the importance of winning and losing. It’s been a cliché for some time. However, at Union County, it’s a real slice of life bread and not lip service to fill the interview silence.

“It goes beyond wrestling,” Black said. “It’s not just the wins and losses. What he (Robert) instilled in me, and what me and Jarvis have taken over. We talk about the virtues in practice, having charity, prudence, temperance, the charity that we want these guys to have. Wrestling is such a big part of your life, but it's such a short amount of time. So when you're done with wrestling, you've got to be able to do things beyond the sport. I get emotional thinking about it, sometimes. It's pretty crazy.”

The most successful?

The success of the program from a tangible perspective is noticeably evident; a plethora of team and individual state titles in the past 20 years.

The 2025-26 season was no different.

The breakdown:

• The Braves won the Kentucky 1A State Duals in February.
• Achieved seven 2026 individual state championships.
  106-pound: Jackson Taylor
  113-pound: Peyton Fowler
  132-pound: Brennen Clifford
  138-pound: Utah Heady
  144-pound: Jayden Raney
  150-pound: Jordyn Raney
  190-pound: Lucas Ricketts

Of these wrestlers, three were ranked nationally.

Jordyn Raney finished the season ranked No. 1 in the nation in the 150-pound weight class. The first six-time state champion in Kentucky high school wrestling history was awarded the Orville Williams Outstanding Boys’ Wrestler Award at the state tournament. The Oklahoma State commit posted a 43-0 match record this season and claimed an Ironman Championship at 144 pounds.

Jordyn’s success is reflected in his attitude towards the sport.

“Every year, it’s like something's better about it,” he said. “It's never been like, ‘Oh, I'm done, or whatever.’ It’s not like a drag. It's always like, ‘I get to be here again. It's awesome.’ And it has to do with the team, too, and the coaches and everything like that. I couldn't be more excited where we are right now.”

He also credits the local community for its role in helping make the Braves a state championship dynasty.

“I don't I honestly know if there's much of a better community that supports wrestling than Union County. We have parades leaving the state, coming home from state. Just everyone's there…it's just different. I don't really know how to explain it. It's awesome.”

Union County High School wrestler Jordyn Raney celebrates his match victory at the 2026 Kentucky State Duals with his teammates. | Chris Adams

Is Jordyn the most celebrated wrestler in Kentucky wrestling history? Perhaps, and probably so.

Twin brother, Jayden Raney, also Oklahoma State-bound, garnered an end-of-season No. 2 national ranking in the 144-pound weight class. Jayden was a five-time state champion and registered 37 match wins to zero defeats in 2025-26, and collected an Ironman title, too.

And, like brother, like brother.

“It's been a long journey and super good journey for us,” exclaimed Jayden. “You know, got a long ways to go still, but just every year we keep going, coming back, and I feel like it gets more fun every time we come back. It’s a blast.”

He agrees that the community plays a special part in the Union County wrestling accomplishments.

“Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, they're letting the whole school shut down for two days while we're over there at the state tournament, so we can try to get as many people there as possible to help cheer us on.” Jayden said. “That's something special. If you got a school that can do that, and get as many people there to cheer you on, it'll change your mindset in the whole tournament.”

The Braves' Jayden Raney competing at the 2026 Kentucky State Duals. | KYWCA and Region 10

Ricketts earned a No. 7 national ranking at 190, and went 26-2 in his matches and garnered a third state title.

“Our community, it’s like no other, the whole community, everyone,” Ricketts said. “Everyone loves the wrestling team. And we love our community…We go up to state every year, and they send us off with fire trucks and all that just for our little old county. It means so much to our team to have that amount of people and community behind us, and we want to show up for them.”

Bigger Than a Mat

The symbiotic relationships between program and community, and coaches and wrestlers, are what really define and drive the Union County boys wrestling team. If we peer into Elam’s life, this is apparent.

“I have a wife. I have two kids. I'm blessed to have a landscaping business,” he commented. "I’m a teacher. I'm a co-head coach of the high school program. I help with the youth program.”

And though that is a crowded life menu, and Elam can feel its effects, he doesn’t lose focus.

“You know, there's times where I get tired, and my brain gets a little foggy, but I always remember why I'm doing it,” the former high school state champion said. “I’m doing it for these kids. My time's done. All of us coaches are done. Obviously, we don't get paid a lot. We do it because we want to see these kids succeed. We know what it takes.”

If humility and maturity are measures of team success, the Braves demonstrated them this season.

Kentucky holds a JV state tournament. And it’s not unusual for varsity squads to continue practicing during the week of the event. However, the mindset in the Braves wrestling room is a bit different.

“With this special group that we have — this is all coming from the wrestlers — they came up to us coaches and were like, ‘Coach, I know we normally would have practice around this time, but would you mind if we go and support our JV guys?’ So you can just imagine how that makes these other guys feel when you got Lucas Ricketts, and you got the Raney twins there,” Elam explained.

Perhaps an even greater illustration of how the program is bigger, or more than a state championship or national title, is how team members conduct themselves while on the road. Each season, the coaches have the wrestlers write down and state their goals. Elam said 90 percent of the squad say they want to be known for their unrelenting efforts on the mat, AND for modeling great character away from it.

As Elam describes it, “Over the years, man, we'll go to tournaments, and we'll get emails from tournament directors saying how well-mannered our guys are. And man, as a coach and a parent, that makes us feel good.”