The three-time defending Wyoming state champion Lady Braves will be back on the mat to begin their quest for another title on Thursday as they host the Lady Braves Brawl at Star Valley High school. Matches will begin at 2 p.m.

First year Lady Braves Coach, Jeff Anderson, is excited to start a new season.

“We’ve put in some conditioning before the season with some boot camp type stuff,” he responded. “The beginning of the season it’s hard to get in everything you want to get in. But I think we’ll fare pretty well. Idaho and Utah are ahead of us by a week or so but we have a great group of girls and I expect great things from them.”

The Lady Braves return two wrestlers with state championships under the belts with Remington Aullman and Cara Andrews. In addition, state placers such as Oakley Hepworth, Carlee Angell and Brooke Schwab returning as well.

In the all-class format for Wyoming, Star Valley has set the bar for depth in the first three seasons of sanctioned girls wrestling. While some schools are closing the gap on that depth, Anderson also believes in the quality of the Lady Braves’ skills.

“Teams seem to be catching up with numbers but we still have a great quality of wrestlers with lots of support,” he added. “We will see Thunder Ridge on Thursday and then we will see them again in a dual on Tuesday (Dec. 16).”

Anderson touched on some goals for the Lady Braves who will be getting more young girls competing due to the growing program at Star Valley Middle School.

“Some of the goals this year is to start setting up a system where girls can come up from the middle school and know the techniques and stick with things that work and install that system,” he said. “We want them to know what to do in each situation. We want to have the basics down and then use the system we like to use. The girls who know and have drilled it hundreds of times tend to be more successful. A longterm goal is to produce great young women who are confident and proud to be a Lady Brave.”

Beyond that, Anderson is working to keep growing the sport in a community where wrestling continues to be important.

“We hope to grow this team even bigger than we have it now,” he said. “At the end of December we will have signups for the club team. We want to do some duals and get that younger girls wrestling going so they have have a little more competition when they get to the high school.”

Anderson is also grateful for the support he and the program continue to get as he takes over from Kevin Waldron who helmed the program last season.

“Since I’ve started I’ve been really impressed by the support we’ve gotten from the school and the community. Rocky Mountain Yeti gave us a contribution to our program. As a lifelong wrestler, its exciting to have this much support.”

A gun raffle for the program will have tickets available at the Brawl with the drawing taking place on Tuesday during the dual with Thunder Ridge.

SVI Media will be streaming the Star Valley matches at svinews.com.