Show stopper
Back-flipping Lockport alum Ramos takes third at Big Ten tourney
Purdue’s Matt Ramos knows the alphabet.
But the redshirt sophomore 125-pounder, a 2019 Lockport graduate, doesn’t have much use for its order.
“A lot of kids are very A, B, C, D,” he said. “But I like to be funky. It all started at Lockport. I wanted to be in that 1% where people don’t know how to wrestle against that. “It makes them think.” This unconventional wrestling approach has followed Ramos at every turn — from Lockport to Minnesota to Purdue and now to next weekend’s NCAA Tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Ramos will be wrestling there after a third-place finish at the Big Ten Tournament.
Leroy Vega is the assistant coach who spends the most time working with Ramos, drawing off his own experience as a three-time All-American at 125 for Minnesota.
He’s the one who initially used the alphabet analogy while describing Ramos’ style.
“He’s not your normal kid with wrestling technique,” Vega said. “He’s not an A, B, C kid. He starts at A and then he goes all over the place. But he still finds a way to get it done, even if you have no idea how he did it.”
One such display came late in Ramos’ consolation semifinal match at the Big Ten Tournament, when Ramos flipped backward and darted through the legs of Minnesota’s Patrick McKee to avoid a takedown in the closing seconds, holding on for a 2-1 decision.
Ramos said moves like that contain a strategic element, but there’s an entertainment element involved as well.
“Growing up, I always tried to learn the flashiest moves,” he said. “I like to be a crowd-pleaser — I like to put on a show. I want to show people moves that’ll make
them smile and clap. If they want to see a back flip, I’ll hit a back flip.”
This creative approach keeps his teammates on their collective toes as much as Ramos’ opponents, according to Kooper Loehr, a Decatur native.
“You can’t get used to any one thing with him because he keeps evolving,” Loehr said of Ramos. “He’s always learning. It’s always fun to put in extra work with him because you know he’s putting in the extra work and you want to go help him.”
That word — fun — is at the center of all of this for Ramos.
“The way my mind is wired, if anything gets hard, I’ll smack a smile on my face and see the best in it,” he said. “We go through hell every day in that wrestling room but if you can find the fun in it, that’s where the leaps forward come from — when you really enjoy the process, instead of just getting through it.”
And that fun is contagious, affecting the atmosphere inside Purdue’s wrestling room in such a way that the Boilermakers have an assistant coach like Vega make daily 90-minute drives from northwest Indiana to West Lafayette just to be a part of it.
“He makes it fun for me,” Vega said of Ramos. “It’s easy when you’re driving an hour and a half to coach a kid who wants to win, wants to be there and is eager to be successful.”
The success is a key part as well, and Ramos has enjoyed plenty of that during his wrestling career — and not just on the high school and college scenes.
Last May, Ramos was the champion in the 57-kilogram division at the U.S. Open Championships.
He’s in line for more success at the upcoming NCAA Tournament, earning a fourth seed in the 125-pound bracket for the annual meeting of the country’s best college wrestlers.
Ramos said he feels much better than he did before the 2022 version of that tournament.
“I’m thankful that my body’s not too beat up right now,” he said. “Last year, I was hurting really bad. The key is to stay positive now. We’re going to chip away at these weaknesses and make it happen.”
Keeping in line with his unconventional approach to the sport, though, Ramos said he would also find some time to appreciate the stage he has reached once again.
“At every tournament, I’m always looking around the arena,” he said. “I don’t want to miss it because it’s going to be gone in the blink of an eye. I’m just being happy in the moment.”