Bama’s Ridley awaits future

Former Monarch star hopes to hear name during draft party

FORT LAUDERDALE — Coach Calvin Davis remembers the first time Calvin Ridley suited up for him at Monarch High and knew Ridley would become an NFL draft pick.

In a preseason game against Hollywood Hills his junior season, Ridley scored a 70-yard touchdown on a slant and returned a kickoff for another touchdown.

“I knew right off the bat,” Davis said. “You can kind of tell those kids that are better than everybody else on the field, and they make it look so easy, that they’ll have a chance.”

On Thursday night, Ridley, a Fort Lauderdale native, hoped to hear his name called in the NFL draft surrounded by about 250 friends and family at a watch party at Lincoln Park in the neighborhood he grew up in.

The University of Alabama receiver hadn’t been selected in the first 22 picks of the NFL draft, but the expectation was that he would be the first wide receiver selected.

There was a hope the Cowboys would pick him at 19. The crowd got excited anticipating Ridley’s selection just to be let down when Boise State linebacker Leighton Vander Esch was taken.

When picked, he becomes the first Monarch graduate, having spent his last two high school years at the Coconut Creek public school following a sophomore season at ChaminadeMadonna and freshman year at Dillard, to be selected in an NFL draft.

Ridley announced he was declaring Alabama wide reciever Calvin Ridley is greeted by well-wishers as he arrives for an NFL Draft watch party on Thursday in Fort Lauderdale. for the draft on Jan. 10, two days after winning his second college football national title in three seasons with the Crimson Tide.

He was a five-star prospect coming out of Monarch in 2015. That fall, he burst onto the national scene, going for 89 receptions, 1,045 yards and seven touchdowns as a freshman.

While Davis knew Ridley was special two years prior, that season was what assured him he was first-roundpick special.

“After his freshman year at Alabama, I knew it was just a matter of time before we got to this moment right here,” he said.

Ridley followed that up with a 72-769-7 sophomore season and 63-967-5 junior campaign that also saw him score the tying touchdown to force overtime in the 26-23 titlegame victory for Alabama over Georgia.

In 2013, as a junior at Monarch, Ridley posted 41 catches for 1,131 yards and 12 touchdowns in helping lead the Knights to their first playoff appearance.

Due to age restrictions of the Florida High School Athletic Association, Ridley was ineligible after three games of his senior year, but that was when he proved he possessed the necessary work ethic.

“He still came and worked out five days a week. He still was an assistant wide receivers coach,” Davis said.

According to a statement from SportsTrust, Ridley’s agency, he held the watch party in Fort Lauderdale because he “forwent the NFL’s invitation to attend the draft in Dallas as it was more important to return home and celebrate this occasion in the neighborhood where he grew up.”