I went to college with a former 2 time all state basketball player at Lincoln High School (pure coincidence) by the name of Todd Mathison. Todd graduated from Lincoln in 1979, first went to Mankato State, then SDSU and finally ended up at Sioux Falls College. Todd, myself and others would talk about our high school playing days and what is was like among other things in our different sized schools.
A year younger than Todd at Lincoln were Jim Ferrie and Rick Bruflat both of whom were 6′9″ and they played as sophomores at Lincoln. But Todd made it clear to me that was because they were 6′9″. I remember very well something he told me once; “sophomores don’t play at the bigger schools”. At that time there were still 2 classes in South Dakota and what Todd meant was that unless you were really tall sophomores just didn’t see playing time at the varsity level at the states biggest schools. I understood what he meant.
This coming Saturday (20th), Brookings plays Lincoln at Lincoln high school. Todd lives in Las Vegas these days, but I wonder what he would think if he was back for a visit this weekend and wanted to see his alma mater play. He’d grab a program to see if he could recognize some names. He played with Tracy Odegaard (Tanner’s dad) at Sioux Falls College. Maybe he’d recognize Nick Goeman’s name who’s dad played at Washington or Jon Gednalske, who’s dad was the quarterback at Lincoln the year before Todd played the position.
But sooner or later he’d look at the grade the kids who were playing were in. I wonder what he would say when it’s possible at a given time in the game there may by 8 sophomores on the court in a varsity AA game!
I don’t know if this season is an abberation or not. Maybe this has happened before, but with blogs and websites no one ever had the chance to “post” about it. But there seems to be a abnormally high number of sophomores starting or getting playing time in their teams rotation at the AA level.
My count has it currently at least 25 sophomores (and 3 freshmen) are seeing varsity playing time as either starters or in their teams rotation off the bench.
Todd might see Brookings with Tanner Odegaard, Landon Busch, Matt Thomas and Jordan Vanderbush on the floor against Lincoln who may have Trey Naasz, Scott Mulder, Jon Gednalske and Matt Vander Woude playing.
Washington starts Joey Habtemariam and plays Brady Maxwell and Tyler Shetterly off the bench. O’Gorman has Sam Wallin and Conner Schaefbauer. Brandon Valley with Ben Schultz, Trevor Crow and Brock Wickett. Yankton with Bryan Youngberg, Huron has Luke Carr, Mitchell had just Tucker Volesky but because of injuries is now also playing Jade Miller and Tate Martin. Roosevelt’s Tom Nugteren is new to the rotation after the Rough Riders recent shake up and Pierre has Conner Berg, Joe Tetzlaff and Kyle Jacobsen. (I am not familiar with Spearfish’s rotation if any of their sophomores are in it or Stevens either)
In fact only 4 of the 17 AA teams don’t have a sophomore listed on their varsity roster (RCC, Sturgis, Douglas and Aberdeen Central).
So what’s going on here?
Are kids more developed at younger ages these days by playing year round? Is it just expanded rotations such as O’Gorman playing 10, Lincoln sometimes 12 and Roosevelt seemingly willing to play everyone on the varsity roster on a given night.
I went to a B school and if a kid got to play as a freshmen or sophomore, sometimes it had a lot to do with weak junior and senior classes. Is this a weak senior class? Or junior class? Or both?
Or is this just a really talented sophomore class? Tanner Odegaard’s dad was an all state player at Brookings and went on to play at Sioux Falls College. Landon Busch’s dad Mike was a great at Huron, Jade Miller is well….a Miller and Conner Schaefbauer’s dad was an all state player at Warner.
It’s too early to tell if there are any Division I players out of this group. But on many nights you will see the names of these kids as leading scorers or rebounders or making game winning shots (Ben Schultz of Brandon Valley against Lincoln or Bryan Youngberg’s 2 free throws to ice the overtime win against Roosevelt).
Whatever the reason, the next two years should be fun to watch in AA.
I wonder what Todd Mathison would think.
We are 5 minutes from tip off of the days first game between two Class B teams. Hurley (3-8) and Colman-Egan (8-8).
I was asked to do this a while back. I apologize for not getting started on this earlier. Life things have prevented me from doing this.
Some of the bloggers have introduced themselves….even though it seems everyone knows my identity, I will not do that. I will give you plenty of clues and it if really bothers you to know, you can easily find out.
I grew up on a farm near Wakonda, where I attended high school. From there I went to Sioux Falls College and have lived in Sioux Falls ever since save for 4 years in Nashville, Tennessee.
I have 2 sons, one who has graduated from Lincoln and one who is currently attending Lincoln.
Many of you have read or followed my posts on SDsportstalk. You many think I am a bit of an opinionated jerk. Fair enough. I have opinions and will voice them. I do not like people who put up false information or “opinions” trying to pass them off as fact. It’s ok to have opinions that are different from others, but don’t try to make me believe they are truth and get angry when I call you on it.
Whenever possible I will provide proof of what I am saying, not just “this is better because I posted it garbage”. I have always held the belief of don’t believe anything you read or here…find out for yourself what the truth is. If you were ever sitting with me watching the news, I would more than likely “correct” the newscaster multiple times that the information they are trying to feed you isn’t true. Pieces missing, words in different places in the story that change the story. To me, this is either sloppy reporting, lazy or reporting trying to “mold” my thought on the subject by giving information that isn’t correct. It’s insulting to me. Unfortunately too many people will swallow whole everything they hear on the television or read in the newspaper.
I am also believed by many to be nothing but a homer for Lincoln. Not true and if you really read my posts you will find I am actually very fair and impartial.
This past season I picked Washington to win the football title, last year I picked O’Gorman, the year before Roosevelt. In boys basketball this year I picked Roosevelt, last year Lincoln, the year before Watertown and before that Brandon Valley. Girls basketball this year O’Gorman, last two years Washington. Track this past spring I picked the RC Central girls and Washington boys. But it seems whenever I post something positive about Lincoln, that’s what people jump on….conveniently forgetting about everything else.
So I ask you to read with intelligence, an open and fair mind. You may see what I see, but if not, that’s ok.
Lincoln Parent