BONNERS FERRY — Badger wrestling is ready to make a run for state with a number of strong contenders as practice gets underway.

Coach Kevin Campbell is hopeful of the season with the return of seniors who have been traveling around the county for years competing. He expects Eli Richards to defend as state champion and that other Badger wrestlers will be strong competitors.

Currently the high school program has 29 students signed up. Last week, Campbell put on a throw camp.

“We just brought the kids upstairs and taught them how to throw. We had some fun and I think I got about four or five more kids to sign up after that,” Campbell said.

The Badgers have three girls wrestling this year. This year, there is a wrestling state tournament for girls. Campbell said that, unlike other years, the tournament will be at the same times as the boys and at the same facility.

“The girls are actually going to be featured,” he said.

In the past, any girl who wrestled in Idaho would go to state, Campbell said. Now there are going to be qualifiers and weight classes to try to evenly distribute the girls.

Campbell said he will not have girls wrestling the boys. And while it is going to limit how many matches they get, he said that hopefully as girls wrestling grows, there will be more competition and more chances for the girls to practice their sport.

“Some parents are hesitant to let the girls wrestle. Girls need to be girls but the girls are in the Olympics,” Campbell said.

He went on to say that Iowa just added a women's wrestling program and so the dominos are starting to fall for women’s wrestling to take off at the collegiate level and will then trickle down to high school sports.

Campbell said that students don’t have to attend BFHS to be part of the team. Any high school student in Boundary County can be part of the team.