Campbell Wilson has wasted no time making her presence felt at Boise State.
The freshman forward has become the engine of the Broncos’ attack, piling up 11 goals and seven assists to lead the team in both categories. Those 29 points are the second-most ever by a Boise State freshman, and no freshman in the country has produced more. Wilson has also collected the six-time Pac-12 Newcomer of the Week honor.
For a player putting up numbers like that, it’s easy to focus only on the finish. But Wilson’s path to this moment started long before she was lighting up scoreboards in Boise. She has been around soccer since she was 3, and she still remembers the first time she really tried it out.
“I remember my first time actually trying out being in the field I had like two pigtails and my shiny cleats and shin guards and it was just a cute moment and my parents were there and it was very wholesome,” Wilson said.
She spent years climbing through the Boise Thorns club system before reaching varsity at Rocky Mountain High School as a freshman. Then came the injury that forced her to stop and rebuild.
“I tore it in a club game in a championship. I jumped up, tried to head a ball, came down, landed on it and I just knew it was torn,” Wilson said.
The rehab was long, with physical therapy and strength work taking up months of her time. Through that stretch, a talk with her father gave her the message she kept leaning on.
“He was just like, there’s two things I can control always, and that’s my attitude and my effort so that has just stuck with me forever,” Wilson said.
Wilson made it back as a junior, helped win a state title and graduated as a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year. When it came time for college, staying in Boise made sense, not just because of soccer, but because of everything she had already experienced around the school.
“Growing up--me and my family would always come to events. Soccer games, I’d be a ball girl.
I’d run out with the people, and they do the handshakes, all that stuff and we went to football games too, basketball. Just anywhere around the community, I just very much liked, and I just felt like it was a close home,” Wilson said.
One of her most memorable early moments in a Boise State uniform came against Oregon State. With a little more than 30 seconds left, Wilson stepped up for her first career penalty kick and buried it in a 2-1 Broncos win. That week, she was the only freshman in the Pac-12 to score a match-winning goal.
“We're always going to be true to our identity--and ourselves the Bronco way--obviously we have a winning history in this program, but we want to be the first team to win the Pac-12 and many more ahead of us,” Wilson said.
Now the Broncos are still chasing that Pac-12 tournament goal, and their freshman star is right at the center of it. Boise State travels for a Thursday night match against Colorado State.
In Other News...
Boise State Faces A Tough WR Decision Against Washington State
Boise State should have most of its wide receiver group available when it lines up with Washington State, a useful development for an offense trying to find the right mix entering a matchup that figures to ask plenty of its skill players. Rasean Jones and Cam Bates are both back after missing the previous game, and Darren Morris is also back on the availability report, giving the Broncos a much fuller picture at receiver than they had last week.
The only real uncertainty among that group centers on Ben Ford, who is listed as questionable after leaving the Fresno State game at halftime. On the other side of the injury report, senior left guard Carson Rasmussen is still out for a third straight game, leaving Boise State to continue juggling its front while hoping its passing options stay intact against the Cougars. [Read more 🡒]
Former Bronco Kirby Moore Is Bringing A New Problem To Boise State
Kirby Moore has always been part of the Boise State story, and now he is showing up on the other sideline with a different kind of challenge for the Broncos. The former Boise State wide receiver and current Washington State head coach talked recently about his connection to the program and the path that took him from the blue turf into a head coaching job, but the timing matters now because Washington State is getting ready to host Boise State in an upcoming game.
Moores offense is also arriving with some recent momentum after he took over the play-calling duties and made a notable quarterback move. Washington State went with a different signal-caller and produced its highest point total of the season in a loss to Oregon State, which at least suggests the Cougars may have found something useful as they turn to a familiar face with a new wrinkle for Boise State to sort out. [Read more 🡒]
Boise State Faces A Dangerous Test In Its Biggest Defensive Weakness
Washington State is turning to redshirt freshman quarterback Owen Eshelman for his next start, and Boise State is preparing for a version of him that already looked dangerous in his first career outing against Oregon State. Eshelman completed 32 of 49 passes for 289 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, and he added another layer with 136 rushing yards and a touchdown, the kind of dual-threat performance that can test a defense in a hurry.
Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said he expects Eshelman to get better with more experience, which only adds to the challenge for a Broncos defense that has already had trouble this season against explosive plays. Danielson pointed back to the basics, stressing that Boise State needs cleaner tackling and stronger fundamentals rather than a wholesale scheme change, a reminder that this matchup could hinge as much on discipline as on game plan. [Read more 🡒]