Five-time North Dakota state wrestling champion Boeden Greenley set to take next steps as a Bison (2024)

FARGO — The first time Lisbon’s Boeden Greenley stepped foot on a wrestling mat, he dreamed of one day wearing a green and yellow singlet at North Dakota State.

Several years, 241 career high school wins — 215 of those consecutive — and five North Dakota state wrestling championships later, Greenley is set to make his collegiate debut with the Bison.

Putting on the singlet, though, is just the beginning, Greenley hopes.

“It feels good and it’s a good step along the way,” Greenley said. “I don’t want to just wrestle for NDSU. I want to have a successful career and be an All-American for NDSU. I just want to be the guy to keep it rolling.”

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Greenley begins his freshman year wrestling at 157 pounds, down from the 170 he wrestled at last year in high school and the 160 he competed at over the summer.

“I’m feeling good," he said. "I’ve just been getting in shape and trying to get the weight down a little bit. I actually feel a lot better cleaning up my diet. Last year, I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted so it sucks sometimes but I feel a lot better in general.”

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The five-time North Dakota state champion and six-time placer said he expects to be redshirt. Freshmen can wrestle five attached events while being able to keep their redshirt, he said, adding that he will make his collegiate debut at the Bison Open on Nov. 11.

“I’ll wrestle in the Bison Open and the SDSU Open for sure then any duals that they want to put me in. Depending on my performance, the red shirt will either be there or it won’t. I expect to redshirt this year but we will see what happens.”

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Greenley already has a grasp of the lessons and challenges ahead by making the jump from high school to the NCAA Division I level. It has helped him build on a solid wrestling foundation.

“I’d say the main difference is there is no such thing as a day off," he said. "Every guy, even if they’re a backup guy, it’s really hard to beat them. You get humbled really fast. Coming out of high school, you kind of feel like you know every technique and everything. Then you come in here and you feel like you don’t know anything.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth and I talked to (assistant coach) Hayden Hidlay about it. You might not always feel that growth because everyone around you is so good. I feel like I’ve already gotten so much better in a month or two. It’s impossible not to get better.”

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Greenley stayed loyal to the school he dreamed of wrestling for growing up despite recent coaching changes at NDSU, with the departure of former head coach Roger Kish. There also was interest from other programs. He is excited to work with new head coach Obenson Blanc and the rest of the Bison coaching staff.

“I love Obe Blanc and I love Hayden Hidlay and I really like our other two assistant coaches, Scott Mattingly and Ceron Francisco, too,” Greenley said. “I think Obe Blanc taking over is a great thing and Hayden Hidlay is one of the best assistant coaches in the country accolade-wise.”

As his NDSU coaches prepare him for the next chapter of his wrestling career, Greenley reflected on the lessons he learned at Lisbon under coach Rich Lacina.

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“Lisbon was great," Greenley said. "There were a lot of training opportunities and Lisbon was a great part of that. In my younger years, there were older guys that mentored me. Then as I got older, I started to mentor young guys, too. I felt like it was a good place all around to grow mentally and physically. I grew a lot as a person there just trying to figure life out.”

At NDSU, Greenley hopes to do more than just compete.
“I’m really excited to put on a show and, as my career goes on, I hope we can sell out the SHAC. That would be awesome,” he said. “North Dakota as a whole, I think, is a wrestling state. We might not have the most people but it’s a hard-nosed, Upper Midwest state and wrestling fits it really well.”

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While the reality of wrestling for the Bison is still setting in, putting on the green and yellow singlet for the first time since his initial recruitment has helped Greenley realize just how close his debut is.

“We did a little hype video thing the other day and I got into an NDSU singlet for the first time since my junior year,” he said. “That really made it feel like we’re getting ready to go.”