Tigers' wrestling season slated to begin Thursday

The Mountain Home Tiger wrestling squad opens its wrestling season with a home dual Thursday night against Nampa.

Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was pleased with the turnout for wrestling this year.

"We had 54 to start out with, and I think we're still right around 52, so the numbers look good and we're pretty happy with that.

"We have a lot of freshmen. We have about 10 to 12 in each class and then the freshman run at right about 21."

Coach Knudson likes the experience that he has on this year's squad.

"Yeah, it's kind of neat to see it -- we're finally at that point of having a lot of experience at each weight class, and then we have some good backup there, too, so it should be a really good year for us and we're really looking forward to that, just because of that intensity that you need in the wrestling skill. That experience just develops over the years, so it's going to be great to see."

Coach Knudson says they should have all the weight classes covered this year.

"It looks like our weight classes will all be full. We could be a little more solid at 120 and 126, depth-wise, but I think we'll be okay there, so it's looking good."

Knudson expects his Tigers to be right in the thick of things in the 4A conference race.

"Probably Kuna on top, they look really good, Columbia, Nampa's there also, and never underestimate Caldwell -- they're tough -- and we should be right in that top three or four, so I'm looking forward to seeing how we can compete against them this year."

The Tigers will open Thursday evening on the mats in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium against the Nampa Bulldogs.

"It'll be a real challenge for us to see how we can open up and really get things going," said Coach Knudson. "Nampa has a lot of kids out all the time, so you never know what they might have in the background over the last year or two at that junior high, so it'll be a good opener, and I hope that we can come out and perform like I think we can."

Varsity action will get started around 7:30 p.m. Thursday night. The Tigers go to Nyssa, Ore., on Friday and Saturday for the Nyssa Invitational.