Pete Reardon has plenty of reasons to sing a tune when it comes to the Tri-State wrestling tournament.

His Post Falls High squad is a two-time champion here, as well as at the Idaho state 5A level.

You may not know it, but Reardon is no slouch with the guitar either, though this isn’t really the time for him to be playing concerts.

“I don’t sing as much during wrestling season,” said Reardon, in his eighth season as the Trojans’ head coach. “But I’ll sing once or twice a week around the house.”

While he hasn’t played that much in public, it has been something that he has held an interest in for his entire life.

“I’ve never played at church, but I grew up loving music,” Reardon said. “Being well-rounded, I always wanted a guitar my entire childhood. My dad told me when I was 8 years old that he’d buy me a guitar. We had an old classic guitar in our attic, and that if I learned to play a song on it, he’d buy me an electric guitar.”

The first time he picked that guitar up, however ...

“I dropped it and broke the neck on it,” Reardon said. “And it broke my heart. So I didn’t end up getting a guitar until I was 18 years old.”

Reardon, who wrestled at North Idaho College from 1995-98, learned to play while on downtime with teammates and friends.

“I just started to learn, and played some small gigs and parties,” Reardon said. “Now, it’s just something fun to do around the house with the kids.”

As a tribute to colleague Jeff Hinz, the former Trojan football coach who died from cancer in July, Reardon performed “One More Day” by Diamond Rio at Hinz’s memorial service at the Post Falls High football field.

Reardon played the same song for Hinz while he was in Hospice care.

“I was more nervous the week before (his service) going to play for him while he was just sitting there in a coma,” Reardon said. “Just the situation, it was really difficult. I’d played in front of enough crowds, but I was more nervous that it would be something that the family would want. I wanted it to honor him and be something that people were touched by.”

From time to time, Reardon will sing for his students, but not in season.

“Definitely in the spring because there’s a little more time to play it and goof around with it,” Reardon said. “I’ve played it here and there, and if my students request some songs, I’ll do it on a slow day.”

As for this weekend’s Tri-State Invitational at North Idaho College, it’s all business for Reardon and the Trojan wrestling team, who have won the previous two years at the event.

“It’s really cool,” Reardon said. “Even now, just to talk about it, it’s a little surreal to think about. It’s an honor just to win it once, let alone twice. It just doesn’t seem real that we’ve had a team that has won that tournament. It’s such a great tournament, with a lot of history. It’s an honor to have won it and a big honor for our program.”

At NIC, Reardon wrestled his first two years for John Owen, and competed in Pat Whitcomb’s first season in 1997-98.

“I was really fortunate to have really good coaches when I went to NIC,” Reardon said. “Both of those guys are awesome and do a really good job. I’ve been very fortunate to have been a part of some really good programs. It’s really neat to go back there, see a lot of familiar faces and the entire Owen family, as well as all of the people in Spokane and around the area that have a tie to the program. It’s almost like a big family gathering.”

And while his team might be considered a favorite, Reardon is optimistic of a chances of a three-peat.

“I think this team has to find its way,” Reardon said. “They’ve got a lot of work to do. This is a really talented group, with a ton of potential. But we also lost some really, really talented kids with Alius (De La Rosa, a three-time Tri-State champion) and T.J. (Wolf, a two-time champ at Tri-State). Those guys were the next best thing to a sure thing at getting to the finals and scored a lot of points. We’ve got the same kids back minus those really tough kids, but when you take those kids away, you’ve got to have some kids step up and take that role over.”

Post Falls returns Ridge Lovett, who won at 98 pounds as a freshman in 2015.

“It’s so hard to predict a tournament like Tri-State,” Reardon said, “because it’s so deep and so tough. And it’s early in the year, so you don’t know how you match up with other teams quite yet. I think we’ve got as good of a chance as they’ve had the last two years, but it takes a good first day and you’ve got to get guys into that second day. There’s no freebies matches at Tri-State.”

The last two years at least, Post Falls has used the success at Tri-State to win state championships.

“I think overall the kids have bought into caring about each other and working hard for each other,” Reardon said. “And that’s some of the principles of our team. It’s more than just talented wrestlers. They really want to do well in a group setting, and they just want to do really well for each other. And that shows more than anything.”

Post Falls assistant coach Dave Herndon has been on Reardon’s staff in each of the team’s championship wins.

“Pete is relaxed during the day, but as the match gets closer, he definitely gets worked up,” Herndon said. “He loves to compete and hates to lose. He spends a lot of time with the younger kids in our club programs and during the offseason, he spends many hours with high school kids taking them to camps and training for freestyle tournaments.”

Jeremy Zender, an assistant coach at Post Falls, has known Reardon since they were in eighth grade before eventually graduating from Mount Baker High in Deming, Wash.

“He really cares about building true champs,” Zender said. “The idea of being a role model and doing our best to create role models/productive young adults. This is an important idea and goal of our program. Pete is very competitive and I’m not sure if it’s the act of losing or joy of winning that drives him. He has worked very hard to build Post Falls into what it is today. He has been very smart to make it a community affair. There are a lot of people involved in this program that make it great — from the little kid club, middle school to the high school team.”

Everyone together, making beautiful music on and off the mat.