Reffett is proud 'Pops' of the Huskies

As the oldest member of the Washington Huskies — he turns 24 early next month — defensive tackle Jordan Reffett has the inevitable nickname "Pops."

And of all the things he has ever been called — a list that includes winner of the Guy Flaherty Award as the team's most inspirational player a year ago — it might be the one that makes him most proud.

Age, you see, isn't all there is to that nickname, as becomes evident watching his 1-½-year-old daughter, Kendall, bound into his arms.

"It's so nice to come home and see her, because she has no idea anything else that's gone on," Reffett said. "She's just so happy."

She is also, in Reffett's opinion, a big reason he has suddenly become a force on Washington's defensive line as he enters his senior season.

The 6-foot-6, 295-pound Moses Lake graduate played sparingly his first two years with the Huskies but says he began to turn things around when he got married three years ago to his high-school sweetheart, Nicole, bought a house in Everett and started a family.

"It makes everything crystal clear about your goals and what you want to do with your life," Reffett said. "Because you have something that is tagging along with you that you have to take care of. It's kind of a motivator, if you will, to be successful in whatever you do."

Nicole Reffett said marriage and fatherhood "helped him settle down a little bit. Helped him focus," adding that previously "he was a little rowdy. He had a good time."

"Nothing too crazy," he said. "But I was just kind of more into hanging out with my buddies and doing things like that instead of schoolwork."

Now, he's already a holder of a degree in political science, and one of the rocks of UW's defensive front four, having moved into the starting lineup midway through last season and making 23 tackles for the year after having made only two his first two seasons.

"I had a rough couple of years here trying to find my place," Reffett said. "But then I just decided to totally commit to being a good football player in all aspects of it and said, 'Let's give it 100 percent and find out just how good you can be,' instead of saying, 'I'm not going to do this because there's a starter here ahead of me,' and having that poor-me-type syndrome. So that's what I did. I sat down and said, 'You know, I'm going to find out how good I can be.' "

Said defensive line coach Randy Hart: "He found out that when you do play hard, you get better."

Even if a lot of his teammates wonder how he balances it all.

He's one of two married players on the team (quarterback Carl Bonnell is the other) and the only one with all the apparent trappings of middle-age maturity — a wife, a kid, a two-bedroom house.

"That would be kind of rough," says receiver Marcel Reece. "But that kind of goes with Jordan being a leader on the field and off the field, in his house and running a household, having kids. He's a big man with a big heart."

It's the latter quality that helped him win the Flaherty, referred to by the school as "the team's oldest and most prestigious award." The honor is especially valued because it is voted on by the team.

"He's just a special guy who uplifts everyone," Reece said.

Kendall, though, helped as well.

"He's up early in the morning doing mat drills [offseason conditioning drills] and he hasn't got much sleep because he has a baby running around — people look up to that," said defensive end Greyson Gunheim, who is Reffett's closest teammate. "A lot of people don't understand how he could do that, but then he comes out here and he has a good attitude and it's like, 'If he's doing it, then I've got to do it.' "

Nicole Reffett supports the family by working as a medical assistant in naturopathic medicine in Lynnwood, which allows Jordan to concentrate on football and studies, and relatives help with baby-sitting. Some UW teammates helped them fix up the house, which they already have plans to sell once school is over, likely making a hefty profit.

The couple grew up in Moses Lake and became good friends in high school — he was a sports star, she was on the drill team — before the relationship turned more serious.

Nicole, however, stayed behind in Moses Lake when Jordan Reffett first came to UW in the winter of 2003.

Reffett, a lifelong UW fan who idolized Steve Emtman and attended many games as a kid with his grandfather — a longtime season-ticket holder who lives in Bellevue — committed on the spot when Rick Neuheisel offered a scholarship in the summer of 2001.

He was part of the Class of 2002 but delayed his enrollment after failing to get the test score he needed. Reffett says some confusion over an English class that ended up not counting required him to need a 1010 on the SAT to get in. He eventually got a 1070 and participated that spring, making him the last still-active player to be coached by Neuheisel, who was fired that summer.

The first few years at UW were rough, with coaching changes, position changes (he played on the offensive and defensive lines in 2004) and being separated from Nicole.

The decision to solve that problem by marrying seemed an obvious one to both, but Jordan said he didn't enter into it lightly, seeking advice from friends and family on the possible difficulty of handling marriage and being a college-football player.

Having a baby wasn't really part of those discussions, both saying it just happened, but when Nicole became pregnant, the two embraced parenthood.

"To me, it was just the culmination of all these great things coming together," Reffett said.

He occasionally brings Kendall to practice, and when she comes to games it means there can be four generations of the family in the stands.

Jordan Reffett also sometimes enlists teammates to help baby-sit, such as when he and Gunheim would meet this summer for conditioning sessions, taking turns running laps.

"He'd watch her while I'd run a lap and then I'd watch her while he runs a lap," said Gunheim, known in the family as Uncle G and who learned quickly that a set of car keys will provide endless fun for Kendall.

Reffett said he hopes the NFL comes calling, something that might have seemed a pipe dream a few years ago when he was languishing on the bench.

But he has already prepared for life after football, as well, having spent the summer interning with The Pacific Institute, a Seattle-based company that helps businesses with organization and motivation, an avenue he may pursue long-term someday.

"Some kids don't turn into men until they are 30, 40 years old," Reffett said. "Luckily, I found the right way to do things here at a younger age and it really helped me out in everything."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Read his blogs on Washington football at www.seattletimes.com/huskies