The 2024 season is one that will forever be remembered at Ridgemont High School.

It has been a decades long struggle for the Gophers to replicate the type of success the program enjoyed in the early and mid 1970s.

Coaching turnover and lack of numbers prevented Ridgemont from developing any kind of sustained success. But that all changed this season.

Second-year head coach Travis Rettig led his Gophers team to an 8-2 overall record and a secondplace finish in the Northwest Central Conference with a 7-1 mark.

It was the first winning season for Ridgemont since the Gophers went 7-3 in 1995. Prior to that, their last winning campaign was in 1979.

Ridgemont also qualified for the playoffs for the first time, and they amplified that accomplishment by earning a home game in the first round. The sixth-seeded Gophers host l1th-seeded Ft. Loramie in a Division VII, Region 28 contest Friday.

“It’s been an exciting year for us and to be in and host a playoff game means the world to our athletes, coaching staff, and community,” said Rettig. “We’re hoping to continue to build off of this success for years to come.”

The Gophers went 4-6 last year and began putting the building blocks in place to turn around a program that didn’t know how to win.

“We’ve talked about handling adversity throughout the game, not letting bad plays snow ball into more bad plays, and finding ways to win, even if it’s ugly,” said Rettig of the team’s mindset this season. “On top of those things, we just have a great group of kids. The seniors are leaders with a few of the juniors sprinkled in, while the underclassmen have followed suit and continue to push our varsity guys in practice each day. The whole team has bought in to the mental toughness we’ve (coaches, teachers, parents, community) tried to instill.”

As excited and proud as the Gophers are for their accomplishments this fall, they understand that they can’t rest on their laurels as they face a very sound Ft. Loramie squad on Friday.

The Redskins went just 5-5 during the regular season but they played a challenging schedule that included games against Minster, Versailles, Lima Central Catholic, Columbus Grove and Bluffton.

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