Prep Redzone Dakotas spotlights Bemidji State camp defensive standouts

Prep Redzone Dakotas named 12 players to its 2026 Bemidji State Small School Team Camp all-camp defense team, putting Bemidji State University back in the offseason spotlight for high school football in the Upper Midwest. The defensive list included Colin Wendlandt, Leo Petrowski, Joey Lopez, Keaton Butts, Brody Filan, Max Vannurden, William Posthumus, Jaden Davis, Luke Kraemer, Tucker Hagen, Eli Gieseke and Brady Hirt.

The recognition lands in a summer when Bemidji State has again turned its campus into a regional stop for football exposure. The university says its camps are intended to be instructional and informational, and its 2026 schedule lists a 1A-3A Minnesota Class Teams camp for July 14-16 and a 4A-6A Minnesota Class Teams camp for July 21-23. Each camp costs $200 per athlete, includes five coaches per team and charges $75 for each additional coach.

That size has become a major part of the story around Bemidji State football. The small-school summer camp drew more than 900 high school student-athletes from 19 high schools in three states in 2025, and the university’s team camp has grown sharply from its early days. Eight years after starting with 150 players, the 11-on-11 camp had surpassed 900 participants in a single week and later climbed past 1,300.

The program’s recent success under Brent Bolte has helped fuel that pull. Bemidji State finished 10-3 in 2021, the first 10-win season in program history, and Bolte was named the 2021 NSIC Coach of the Year. For the players named to the defensive all-camp team, and for the coaches bringing teams through Bemidji, that combination of competition, visibility and winning tradition is what makes the Beavers’ summer camp circuit worth watching as the fall season nears.