As the school’s wrestling coach the past four seasons, Mesa Ridge’s Rob Braaten drills his athletes on the art of the reversal, giving tips and techniques on how to find an advantage, even in the most dire of situations.

Braaten also serves as the Grizzlies’ football coach, a post he’s held for 10 seasons. As it turns out, those wrestling lessons have found a way to carry over to the gridiron.

With a 2-1 start to the young season, Mesa Ridge can see that that reversal in results is underway. It wasn’t that long ago that the Grizzlies were at the cusp of the 4A elite, reaching the semifinals in 2012.

“We definitely would like to be more consistent,” said Braaten, whose Grizzlies travel to District 20 Stadium to meet Rampart (3-0) at 7 p.m. Friday. “But I like where we are right now. The young guys are coming along well. We’re taking care of the football and fixing a few things.”

Following that 2012 run, things went south in a hurry. The Grizzlies lost five of seven league games the following season en route to a 4-6 mark. In 2014, the program bottomed out, going 2-8.

That’s pretty dire. Time for a reversal.

“We look back on the past, good and bad, and we’re trying to move forward,” senior lineman Kaleb Gaster said. “We want to reinvent the program, and we want to use the past to build on it, and at the same time look toward the future. We can see we’re a good football team now, but we know there’s a lot of room for improvement.”

Thus far, the change has been quite noticeable.

For starters, the Grizzlies shut out Canon City in the opener, reversing an ugly 40-13 home loss in 2014. And while Mesa Ridge perhaps let one get away in a 21-20 loss to Ponderosa, it sure wasn’t the same team that fell to the same Mustangs by 15 points the year before.

On Friday, the Grizzlies face an undefeated Rams team that last September claimed a 28-15 win on Mesa’s home turf.

“I feel like we’re a lot better,” Braaten said. “The Ponderosa game is one we’d like back, but we’ve learned from it. Rampart is a good team. They run it well and they pass it well. But I think we’re good at the same things. We have to see if we can match that and see what we can get.”

More than anything, the Grizzlies credit the turnaround to a change in attitude.

“We have more team chemistry this year,” said senior quarterback Nic Braaten, Rob’s son who along with Gaster is one of the team’s captains. “We didn’t have intensity last season. People who were playing weren’t playing for the team. We know last year is behind us. We may not be best friends off the field, but we’re on the same page when we are.”