When Colston Loveland takes the field for the Chicago Bears, it will be the first time anyone has represented Gooding High School in the NFL since Stan Pavko played guard and tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1940.
Loveland is related to the Pavko family, another prominent name of about four in the small Gooding community in Idaho. The No. 10 pick in the draft has spent plenty of time since the draft talking about the virtues he learned in his hometown.
After taking Loveland in round one, general manager Ryan Poles talked about Loveland’s “Idaho toughness.” In the pre-draft process, Poles asked the Michigan standout how he came to possess strong hand strength. Loveland’s response was to ask Poles if he ever put up a wire fence in Idaho.
Poles hadn’t.
But as his former head coach at Gooding High School, Cameron Andersen, told ChiCitySports, Loveland built more than hand strength by putting up fences in frigid temperatures during Mountain West winters.
“I would say that the main part of it is like Idaho is so wide open, especially where Gooding is,” Andersen said of what Loveland meant by building fences in Idaho. “So cattle, you release them out into the hills and the mountains, and they can roam wherever they want. So you have to put up these fences to keep them in. And the fences have barbed wire. If you’ve seen those, I’m sure you’ve seen the guy at the bar with the tattoo looking cool, but that barbed wire, it’s rough, and you’re out, there’s nothing near you.
“You’re out in the middle of the desert, and it’s cold and there’s this whole mindset of, like, he specifically mentioned taking a fence down for the winter so that it’s not broken, because you’re taking those cows in during the winter, and you’re housing them somewhere. But if you ever think about the thought process, ‘I’m going to go down this miles and miles of fence and take it down, just so I can go and put it back up.’
“And so I think that’s one of the things that builds that Idaho toughness, that Idaho mentality that people keep asking about, is the thought process of the way of life. There’s less about, well, ‘Why are we doing this, and why are we doing this,’ and why it’s more about, you have a job, and you get it done, and you know that the end game is the most important part.”
Chicago Bears TE Colston Loveland: Idaho isn’t for everybody
During his introductory press conference, Loveland said that kind of work wasn’t for everybody.
“Where I’m from, really Idaho as a whole…All everyone does there is just work,” Loveland said. “Seeing how my parents grew up, and they just worked their butts off. Everyone in the community, very blue collar…I wouldn’t say a lot of people are built for it. But I think it’s a blessing to come from there.”
In a town of about 3,500 residents, citizens are expected to play multiple roles. Loveland’s former assistant football and basketball coach, Tanner Baumann, now the head coach of Gooding High School’s football team, explained why Loveland suggested most people aren’t built for that lifestyle.
“If you like days off, if you like sleeping in, if you don’t like the sound of sprinklers or mosquitoes in the summer or being 20 minutes from the river or 45 minutes from the mountains, then you probably wouldn’t like it,” Baumann said.
“I’m the head football coach, but I’m also in charge of painting the field, and sometimes there are rocks on it I gotta take care of…Gooding is a special place, because you may have a title of accountant, but you might also be the exterminator for your building, or the housekeeper, or the janitor.”
Loveland played the part of a student, athlete, and rancher growing up.
“He would wake up early in the morning, he would go out on the desert, and he would work with cattle, and then he would come back and do a full practice,” Andersen said. “And we just, we never heard a word of complaining.”
Loveland didn’t take a break in the downtime between his senior football season and the spring following his commitment to Michigan.
One day Andersen asked, “Hey, Colston, you feeling all right?” after seeing him limp through a hallway at school.
“Yeah, it’s just leg day,” Loveland replied.
Loveland had bigger things in mind than a little pain in high school.
“Like, did you do leg day hard enough that even though you’re in shape, you’re still limping through the hallways? He never took days off,” Andersen said. “The end game, what was down the road, was always just more important than what immediacy was.”
Loveland was always preparing himself for the next level, but he remained loyal to the school by taking the humble route in his senior season with the basketball program. Because of his early enrollment at Michigan in the spring semester of 2022, Loveland knew he wouldn’t play a full season on Gooding High School’s basketball team.
Loveland chose to stay on the program as a “practice dummy” until he departed for Michigan. He didn’t want to participate in games and take time away from players who would be needed later in the season when it mattered. His actions on and off the court led to the respect of his peers.
“At his draft party, all his buddies that played basketball and football, they were all there right beside him,” Baumann said. “So that tells you kind of how special of a person he is in that regard.”
Baumann generously described Loveland’s basketball style as a “big effort guy” and “very much a football player.” He was never a great shooter, but he worked his tail off and had offers to play in college. Because of his size, Loveland was called for fouls because he was bigger and stronger than his competition.
Colston Loveland left behind a big legacy in Gooding, Idaho
While basketball is another way to pass time in the offseason, Football is king in Gooding.
When he was the head coach at Gooding, Andersen sold parking spaces around the football field. The school would have special nights where first responders would park around the field. Fire engine lights, ambulance lights, and police car lights would start blinking each time Gooding High School scored. Loveland was the cause of quite a few lights going off, as he finished his high school career with 39 total touchdowns.
Loveland’s legacy is having an immediate impact on the football program. Baumann is noticing an uptick in kids wanting to play for the Senators. Loveland’s younger brother, Cash Loveland, is following in Colston’s footsteps by playing tight end and linebacker.
While Baumann is unsure if Loveland’s No. 5 jersey will be retired by the community (Baumann is leaving the choice to retire the number up to Loveland), he said people in Gooding have no problems remembering when Loveland comes back to town. He’s been generous in giving back to the community.
“There’s not a kid in the school who doesn’t know who Colston is, and part of that is when he’s in town, he comes to the school and signs autographs and yearbooks and takes pictures,” Baumann said. “We have our state deaf and blind school in Gooding. And Colston was here one time and was wearing the blind goggles and using the stick and letting the kids with some poor vision teach him how to walk without his eyes.”
Both Andersen and Baumann are awed by Loveland’s achievement. In an era where most first-round picks prepare for college by playing at high school football factories, he had no choice but to make it through hard work in a town that doesn’t have as many resources or teammates.
“The easiest way for me to describe ‘Idaho tough’ is it’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” Baumann said. “Nothing’s really given here.”
The three main occupations in Gooding are farming (dairymen), teaching, and a barrel cheese processing factory owned by the Irish multinational nutrition company Glanbia. The football stadium has bleachers that would appear to hold under 100 people. It has a green field that is surrounded by rocks, telephone poles, and limited lighting.
Photo courtesy of Tanner Baumann
In a town full of corn-fed farmers, Gooding High School’s football team is naturally bigger than much of their competition. The school had challenges playing against faster teams.
Kurtis Adkinson, the quarterback throwing Loveland the ball in high school was listed at six-foot-two, 245 pounds. Andersen said that Loveland used to run a 5.0 40-yard dash time in high school, and credited Jim Harbaugh’s staff for developing his 4.7 speed in college.
“I think one of the reasons why Gooding is so proud of Colston is like, if you haven’t been there, it’s on the way to nothing,” Andersen said. “If you end up in Gooding, it’s because you meant to go there… The people that are there have been there for a very long time. And so I think one of the reasons that the town of Gooding is so proud of Colston is he’s one of those originals.”
Loveland’s selection by the Bears is set to change some allegiances to teams in the NFL in Gooding. The two closest league teams are the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, but there isn’t a dominant fan base in the town. Andersen is a Detroit Lions fan, and Baumann likes the Green Bay Packers. Both coaches are putting aside their respective teams’ rivalry for the Bears to root for Loveland.
“I think Chicago’s a pretty, pretty cool place for him to get drafted to,” Baumann said. “You guys got a pretty good kid as far as character goes. So I may be a lowly Packers fan, but I’m gonna have a soft spot for the Bears right now.”
Andersen thinks the Bears are getting a special player. Many scouts had Penn State tight end Tyler Warren ahead of Loveland in the 2025 class, but Chicago thought differently. Andersen believes Loveland has the athleticism to match Warren, but he didn’t have an opportunity to showcase it as much in Michigan’s system.
“One of the big things that it’s a misnomer about Colston that people don’t understand is the athlete that he is,” Andersen said. “In high school, there was one game where he played five positions, he threw a touchdown, ran a touchdown and and caught a touchdown, and had an interception on defense… He is a phenomenal athlete.
“Just Michigan didn’t ask him to do some of those things that Tyler Warren was able to do, but when you see him at practice or on the field in the NFL, he’s a phenomenal athlete who can do a whole bunch of really good things. So they’re going to be very pleased with that.”
Loveland will have the opportunity to show his mental toughness in OTAs in May and June.
Bears head coach Ben Johnson plans to have his staff go through mental reps with him this spring as he physically recovers from surgery he had to repair his shoulder (AC joint dislocation) on Jan. 29. Loveland is expected to return to full-contact drills around the start of training camp this summer.
Then it will be time for Loveland to put up his first fence in the NFL before knocking it down in January.
© Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
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