The Northern Utah native, and four-time state champion at Box Elder High School, recently took his talents a little further down the road becoming one of a school-record eight All-Americans for Nebraska at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia last weekend.

Hardy finished his latest campaign a runner-up, falling short of a national title in the 141-pound championship against Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez by a 12-9 decision. The Huskers claimed two national champions in Ridge Lovett (149 pounds) and Antrell Taylor (157 pounds).

Missing from the stands, however, was Hardy’s high school coach and longtime family mentor Mike Ripplinger, unable to travel while awaiting a kidney transplant. Ripplinger stepped down as Box Elder’s head coach in 2018 after 34 seasons coaching a solid chunk of the Hardy family tree, including Brock’s father, Chris, during the mid-1980s.

“It’s been really tough,” Hardy said. “I know (Ripplinger) wants to be at a lot of the tournaments. We do a tournament earlier in the year in Las Vegas that he can’t go to so it’s been hard, but he tries to make it known to me that he feels bad he can’t be there and I have to explain to him ‘Hey, I’m happy with you supporting (me) through the television screen because I know what you’re going through’ and I don’t want this added pressure to him during the situation.”

MATT HERP/Standard-Examiner

Ripplinger’s impact on Hardy and his family goes back a ways.

Under the longtime coach’s guidance, Hardy won four consecutive state championships at Box Elder, becoming the first of his name — 30-plus Hardy’s have attended Box Elder — to do so upon graduating in 2018. Hardy’s senior season cemented Ripplinger as one of the “most prolific coaches ever,” the 24-year-old said.

Ripplinger coached Hardy both freestyle, involving both lower and upper body attacks, and Greco-Roman style, involving solely upper body attacks, in high school.

“(Hardy) took advantage of every opportunity he could to wrestle,” Ripplinger said. “He’d go to regional tournaments and nationals as soon as he could start going. He loved wrestling and that’s kind of his motto, right, ‘wrestling is fun.’ You can always see it when he’s out there on the mat, he looks like he enjoys what he’s doing.”

Hardy’s recruitment to Nebraska was strengthened in part by Ripplinger, who spent time with veteran coach Mark Manning — leader of 36 All-Americans and 13 top-10 NCAA team finishes — before Hardy landed in Lincoln. Ripplinger also shared a strong relationship with newly hired Utah Valley coach Adam Hall, Hardy said.

Matt Rourke, Associated Press

The Ripplinger house is a must-stop whenever Hardy regularly hits I-80 westbound.

“They got to develop a relationship,” Hardy said. “On top of that, every time I’m home I go and visit with (Ripplinger) and fill him in, and I get to tell him about the different coaching philosophies and what we’re they’re trying to focus on at Nebraska.”

Such mileage became inevitable for Hardy as his recruitment blossomed toward the end of his high school career. A commitment to a two-year church mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, heavily influenced where Hardy would land, with many of his top offers, including the likes of Cornell, skeptical about bringing the Box Elder star aboard with such a delay in his eligibility.

“I had a lot of people try and talk me out of it,” Hardy said. “I had a lot of colleges stop talking to me once they found out I wanted to serve a mission so it was kind of difficult in that sense. …

“Coming down to my top five schools, Nebraska being one of them, every school had their idea of how to control it in a way. … Something that stood out with Nebraska was they essentially just said, ‘We really want you and we don’t care how we’ll have you, so we’ll leave that decision up to you.’ … It was comforting in a sense that they were willing to work with me.”

Now with one year of eligibility remaining, Hardy plans on returning to Nebraska in hopes of closing his college career with a national title.

Hardy holds ambitions to qualify for the World Team and compete for Team USA on the Olympic level, but his greater plans are grounded in Utah. Hardy’s eager for any opportunity to coach wrestling at the high school or college level; surrounding himself with athletics, period, is where Hardy feels his labor will be felt the most.

Why the itch to coach? Hardy pointed to Ripplinger and his high school coaches.

“I think I’ve always been interested, even when I was in high school, in eventually coaching one day just because of the people around me that were my coaches,” Hardy said. “How much I learned from them, not just in the sport of wrestling, but how much I learned from (Ripplinger) that wasn’t about wrestling and how much I’ve learned from my current coaches about not competing. I want to be like them.”

With more than three decades of experience, Ripplinger knows a good coaching candidate when he sees one. The former Box Elder coach has been watching Hardy for a while, too.

“(Hardy) knows how to relate to kids wanting to learn,” Ripplinger said. “He can break moves down (and) helps them to understand all the little fine points of the technique. … Coaches sometimes skip some little details but Brock, he’s just so honed in on those little important factors that can make a whole lotta difference.

“Whoever gets him, they’re going to be so grateful. When he competes on the mat, he goes and gets it but he is just an ambassador off the mat.”

Connect with sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.