The Barnett Center will be a hub of wrestling activity when Northern State holds its annual Wrestling Camp Sunday through Wednesday at the facility.

Like it has in the past, the camp has attracted some of the premier names in the wrestling world. Jason Nolf, a three-time NCAA Division I national champion, is back at the camp. Other clinicians will include Tony Ramos, assistant coach at North Carolina, two-time national high school coach of the year Dave Crowell from Pennsylvania, and Northern Iowa head coach Doug Schwab.

“We kind of get a list of guys that we think people would be interested in,” said Northern State wrestling coach Rocky Burkett who is the camp director. “We try to get people from outside this area, just to bring some different ideas to South Dakota.”

Burkett said there is plenty of wrestling knowledge to be gained from the featured clinicians and not just for the current campers.

When asked if he learns things during the camp, Burkett responded, “Oh yeah, a hundred percent. I don’t always get to sit in on the stuff, because I’m behind the scenes doing stuff, but I get out there as much as I can,” Burkett said, “And then our guys (NSU wrestlers) come in and they’re the ones that are getting the moves shown on them. They get out and help show the campers the moves. So our guys are getting a lot of exposure to it and a lot of learning as well.”

Burkett said campers will be coming from South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Wyoming and even from as far away as Alaska.

He expects there to be around 350 wrestlers attending the camp which is an increase from last year. Burkett talked about the growth and popularity of the camps.

“In our little kids camp, we had that a couple of weeks ago, we used to only have like 50 kids,” Burkett said, “and I think we had 140 for that.”

The camp will feature a pair of technique sessions each day, as well as dual competitions in the day and also in the evening. Burkett said that individual wrestlers who are not part of a team will be drafted onto one and also be competing. The public is invited to come and watch.

Burkett said the camp often features some of the top wrestlers in the region.

“There’s years where we have multiple-time state champions going against each other,” he said.

There will definitely not be a lack of activity with so many wrestlers in one area at one time.

“We’ll have 13 or 14 mats going,” Burkett said.

Burkett said the camp not only allows wrestlers the opportunity to learn and grow in their sport, it is also good for the Northern State program and for NSU in general.

“Not every kid is going to be good enough to be able to compete (at Northern), but we want kids to come here and be like, ‘Oh this is cool. The Barnett Center, this is a cool setup.’ We have really nice dorms, and just to see all the facilities that we have, and hopefully it’s a good tool for the university too as well,” Burkett said. “That’s another reason why we do it. The more the university grows, the better off we’re going to be as a program, too.”