The four boys who will represent Idaho in the 40th annual Junior America’s Cup next week at BanBury Golf Club in Eagle say they will be comfortable and confident at a local venue.

They expect to be competitive, too — reversing years of disappointing finishes for the state’s top juniors.

Idaho won the 17-team, regional event in 1998, but has struggled to crack the top 10 since. The team finished 14th last year.

“We have a really good team this year,” Colby Dean of Eagle said. “We’ve all proven throughout the last few months that we have the game to compete with the West’s best, so maybe we can show some of our stuff (next) week.”

Dean, who is 16, will be joined by three 17-year-olds on the Idaho team — Mark Brassey of Boise, David Elliott of Boise and Kyle Miley of Twin Falls. Elliott and Miley played last year.

The four earned their spots on the team through a yearlong points competition.

“We’re all really good friends, the four of us,” Brassey said. “… That friendship kind of helps us with this tournament. It gets us motivated.”

The Junior America’s Cup features teams from Northern California, Southern California, San Diego, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Sun Country (New Mexico), Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Alberta, British Columbia and Mexico. Northern California is the defending champion — and its team is loaded this year.

The flag-raising ceremony is Monday and the juniors play 18 holes each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Teams count their top three scores each day.

Three of the Idaho players — all but Dean — played in the Junior World event last week at Torrey Pines outside of San Diego. None made the cut, but they hope that experience will help.

“We’re trying to get a top-five finish — we think that would be extremely great,” Brassey said. “We’ve won once — other than that, we haven’t done that great. It would be really fun to get a top finish in this.”

Here’s a look at the four players representing Idaho:

Mark Brassey, Boise

Age: 17

High school: Timberline (will be a senior)

Junior America’s Cup history: Rookie

How he qualified: He won the Dropping and tied for first in the Junior World qualifier.

Quotable: “Most of the kids here, we all want to go to college golf. It would be a great experience to play in college. This is a great opportunity to meet some coaches and try to get your name out there.”

Colby Dean, Eagle

Age: 16

High school: North Star Charter/Eagle High golf team (will be a junior)

Junior America’s Cup history: Rookie

How he qualified: Didn’t have any points going into June, but finished third in the qualifiers for the Junior World and U.S. Junior Amateur events.

Quotable: “(This team) was something I was shooting for, but it was something I wasn’t necessarily expecting to happen.”

David Elliott, Boise

Age: 17

High school: Cole Valley Christian (will be a senior)

Junior America’s Cup history: Played on 2011 Idaho team

How he qualified: Finished second in the Dropping and third in the Junior World qualifier.

Quotable: “It’s fun to be kind of as a team and have other guys that you’re all kind of feeding off each other and just trying to encourage each other and do as well as you can. You’re not just playing for yourself, but you’re playing for the other guys on the team and a lot of people across the state who follow junior golf.”

Kyle Miley, Twin Falls

Age: 17

High school: Twin Falls High (will be a senior)

Junior America’s Cup history: Played on 2011 Idaho team

How he qualified: Won the Big I qualifier and tied for first at Junior World qualifier.

Quotable: “It’s good to see that there are people out there that are really good, and you’re maybe not quite as good as them, but it makes you work harder to try to get as good.”

Chadd Cripe: 377-6398,

Twitter: @IDS_BroncoBeat