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When Jonovan Smith joined the Cerritos College wrestling team in 2021, he came in with the confidence equal to his resume. He breezed through his competition on his way to a 31-1 record at 275 pounds, which culminated with a 3C2A State Championship. Always destined to move on after one season, Smith went on to compete in international competition, which he has parlayed into a berth in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and will represent Puerto Rico in freestyle wrestling.

Smith's family connection goes deep into the island and history of Puerto Rico, specifically in Las Marias. His great grandfather, Santiago Marrero, left Puerto Rico 60 years ago and came to the states. Smith says his grandfather was a visionary and his own man with roots in Puerto Rico. Although Smith and his father were born in the United States, Smith still qualifies to represent Puerto Rico in the Olympics.

Most recently, Smith competed in the Seniors Pan-Am Championships, where he had to injury default in the finals and followed that up by winning the Seniors Pan-Am Olympic Games Qualifiers, both of which took place in Acapulco.

In order to qualify for the tournaments in Acapulco, Smith had to wrestle in other tournaments. The  United World Wrestling point system comes from placing or winning at top tournaments. Tournaments such as the Pan American Games, Pan American Championships, Central American and Caribbean Games, Henry Deglanne Grand Prix, Senior Worlds, Zagreb Open, the Nationals on the Island are some of the options Smith had to choose from. One of main obstacle was not qualifying for any of the tournament, but finding ways to get to any of the events. He was able to continue working and made is way to where he needed to be in order to be in the position to earn an opportunity to succeed.

"Our Cerritos College wrestling family is so proud of Jonovan!" said head coach Donny Garriott. "He has always had this dream to wrestle in the Olympics and he has never given up on it. He is a perfect example of believing in yourself when sometimes others didn't. He is such a nice kid and I couldn't be happier for him and his family on this amazing accomplishment. Jonovan will always be a Falcon but now he belongs to the world!!"

While competing in Acapulco, Smith was battling the flu and wa down to his lightest weight, which presented its own difficulties. But he believed that his newfound training style showed because what he lacked in areas of technical ability, strength, and facilities, he made up for in cardio, strategy, trust and mental toughness. Said Smith, "I didn't have a choice in whether I could save energy or play it smart. I had to give it all I had."

Prior to coming to Cerritos, Smith was already a highly-decorated wrestler, as he was a four-time Los Angeles Regional champion (2016-19), three-time LA CIF City champion, three-time California State qualifier and two-time California State placer. He finished second at the state championships in 2019, while he finished in eighth place at the LA CIF City championships the year before. He took first place in both folkstyle and freestyle in 2019, while he was also a two-time California State Greco Roman champion (2017-19). Additionally, Smith placed second in the nation at the USA Folkstyle National Championships in 2019 after earning All-American honors in Greco Roman in 2017 when he placed seventh.

"When I reached high school, I had told everyone in my freshman year that I was going to win the 2016 Olympics," said Smith. "Yes, it was a tall task for a young kid like myself, but even then I was constantly competing, not just physically, but with the idea of beating anything or anyone that could come my way. So I have been at this for a long time."

After winning the state title in 2021, Smith (pictured, left after winning the state title) stated, "When I decided to come to Cerritos, I was very nervous that I wasn't going to be able to be the person that I once was. I believe that the true opponent is the person you look at in the mirror. I remember vividly during my junior year in high school where I was losing to a guy from Walnut High by nine points because I didn't take him seriously. I had a little talk with myself and realized that I needed to quickly re-evaluate myself and who I wanted to be. I decided in that moment to work back little by little and ended up winning the match on a takedown with three seconds left. When I got head butt (in the 3C2A state finals match) against Rudy (Garcia of Fresno City College), who I have a great deal of respect for, I needed to do a little reset in my mind because my first instinct while they were working on the cut on my mouth was to just attack him. But I knew that I needed to treat it the same way I did the guy in high school and re-directed my energy and focus and beat the guy before I could beat myself."

While at Cerritos, Smith found his time to be enjoyable.

"It was really far away from where I lived I even exhausted myself physically, financially, and emotionally trying to get there at times because of the distance and my lack of limited resources," stated Smith. Yet the coaching staff and my family were willing to make it work and made sacrifice just to help me get there to practice and to school constantly and consistently. (Coaches) Donny Garriott, Dustin Kirk, Gene Choi and many others of the Cerritos Community College wrestling program have a great system and chemistry for progression. They take wrestlers that never really had the best shot or chance at life and turned it into family.

"I have seen them turn wrestlers that never had a shot in the dark and turn them into champions with the consistent drilling," added Smith. Former experienced Cerritos alums made a big difference in helping the process of many athletes becoming champions.The game plan at Cerritos is always the same - get better, become a champion in school and life. They took me during a time where to most college coaches I was just a one-time Fargo Tournament champ and nothing else. Even more, they relished in winning, and we paid the price it took to be champions. I had great training partners and they are part of my journey."

"Jonovan is the kind of guy who, when you earn his trust, he'll run through a wall for you," commented Garriott after the state championships. "He had a couple of bad experiences at two other school, so I think I just needed time to get to know him. Although he seems to not be focused on his matches because he seems like a free spirit, he's the opposite of that. He's very composed when he wrestles and is very confident. He believes he's going to win every time and has the skillset to prove it."