Congratulations to the Coaches of the Year award winners! They were selected by the Basketball Coaches Association.
BOYS
Head Coach
Region 1: Todd Neuendorf, Aberdeen Roncalli.
Region 2: Michael Ricke, Madison.
Region 3: Mike Lodmel, Sully Buttes.
Region 4: Doug Schauer, Faith.
Region 5: Bill Marquardt, McCook Central-Montrose.
Region 6: Galen Schoenefeld, Viborg.
Region 7: Burnell Glanzer, Tripp/Delmont-Armour.
Region 8: Jim Drake, Winner, and Eldon Marshall, White River.
Assistant
Region 1: John Brown, Clark/Willow Lake.
Region 2: Randy Santema, Sioux Valley.
Region 3: Kurt Schulz, Hitchcock-Tulare.
Region 4: Dusty Petz, Spearfish.
Region 5: Steven Deibert, Bridgewater-Emery.
Region 6: Bill Leberman, Parker.
Region 7: Jeff Wepking, Avon.
Region 8: John Daiss, Hill City, and Jared Bouman, White River.
GIRLS
Head Coach
Region 1: Cal Schubert, Sisseton, and Brian Hogie, Ipswich.
Region 2: Leslie Tvedt, Castlewood.
Region 3: Mike Ring, Highmore-Harrold.
Region 4: Donavan DeBoer, Rapid City Stevens.
Region 5: Jeff Breitkreutz, Tri Valley.
Region 6: Pat Kraning, Viborg.
Region 7: Rob VanLaecken, Parkston.
Region 8: John Hess, Wall.
Assistant
Region 1: Kari Jung, Warner.
Region 2: Scott Mitchell, Deuel.
Region 3: Kami Moody, Woonsocket.
Region 4: Eric Thomson, Spearfish.
Region 5: Dave Mudder, Garretson, and Kim DeRouchey, Hanson.
Region 6: Jennifer Schmitz, Parker.
Region 7: Tera Koupal, Wagner.
Region 8: None.
Lower Level
Regions 1-4 Boys: Bob Billotto, Eureka-Bowdle.
Regions 1-4 Girls: Tim Boeck, Arlington.
Regions 5-8 Boys: Dean Jacobsen, Viborg.
Regions 5-8 Girls: Lisa Kraning, Centerville.
College
Men’s: John Hemenway, Dakota Wesleyan.
Women’s: Aaron Johnston, South Dakota State.
The games will be held Friday, April 2nd. The rosters and coaches are:
Shaunteva Ashley, S.F. Roosevelt; Carsey Barden, Sturgis; Alison Kusler, Aberdeen Central; Jacqee Jasinski, R.C. Central; Taylor Piper, Mitchell; Mandi Robish, Huron; Brittany Lehner, Watertown; Elise Maresh, S.F. Lincoln; Justine Blade, R.C. Stevens; Whitnee Clayton, S.F. Washington
Rachel Krogman, Elkton-Lake Benton; Kelsey Backus, Chester; Larae Zimprich, Hamlin; Jilianne Doom, Wagner; Allyssa Wall, Dakota Valley; Cassie Schuurmans, Bon Homme; Chrissy Strassburg; Elk Point-Jefferson; Sarah Vermeulen, Stickney-Mt. Vernon; Christian Janis, Pine Ridge; Shelby Bierma, Dell Rapids
Amanda Hart, Hanson; Hillary Paulson, Freeman; April Winne, Scotland; Caitlin Whiting, White River; Samantha Kleinsasser, James Valley Christian; Kelsey Walloch, Menno; Kylie Westover, Colman-Egan; Shelby Anderson, Ethan; Allison DeKam, Castlewood; Jessie Lee, Viborg
Class AA Boys: Coach: Lance Friesen, Mt. Marty
Jared Hannigan, Aberdeen Central; Terrell Newton, Huron; Alex Robey, S.F. O’Gorman; Jared Bartling, S.F. Roosevelt; Sam Fosness, Mitchell; Cody Larson, S.F. Roosevelt; Brett Victor, Mitchell; Kory Johnson, Watertown; Glenn Jackson, R.C. Central; Ryan McCutcheon, Brookings
Brandon Feterl, McCook Central-Montrose; Carl Swallows, Red Cloud; Derrick Wiebe, Madison; Derek Brown, Clark-Willow Lake; Matt Vande Kamp, S.F. Christian; Russ Hendrickson, Flandreau; Patrick Draisey, Harrisburg; Gabe Kjellsen, Groton; Ben Engelstad, Deubrook; Jordan Powell, Beresford
Class B Boys: Coach:
Jesse Tolsma, Mitchell Christian; Zach Merwin, Sully Buttes, Kyle Entringer, Colman-Egan; Will Rozell, Warner; Jake Krogman, White River; R.J. Estes, White River; Michael Alberts, Langford; Cody Thomsen, Mitchell Christian; Landon Braun, Rosholt; Macon Oplinger, Menno
Some thoughts from the B and other ruminations.
I met famous poster Captain Tony this week! In our short meeting he struck me as a great guy with a passion for high school sports. I always appreciate the chance to meet some folks in person that I have “met” online. There are still a lot of you I have not met, but I am looking forward to it. I am hoping that the Captain will be a regular blogger for us this fall!
I wonder if the woman from Colman-Egan that trashed me as being negative with my announcing last fall was a little worried that I did a couple of C-E Hawks games on their way to 8th place? Now that I think about it, she may be taking credit for the fact I said positive things about her team and all the others!
The Aberdeen American News, which has one of the best stable of sportswriters ever assembled, did an article about the wagering that goes on at the Circus Bar during the tourneys. The funniest part was the quotes from all the police and prosecutors that basically said they were all totally unaware that anything like this was going on there! I am hoping the AAN will do upcoming stories on the fact that the sun comes up from a similar posititon every morning and that Christmas has a habit of falling on December 25th.
White River can flat out PLAY. They also have a bunch of guys that can score. I think scoring is an art we are losing in basketball. 4th grade teams that run set plays don’t teach kids how to score. Neither do summer team camps. Hanging in a gym with former players or working on your game on your own is still the best way I know to improve your scoring ability.
TDA has some talented, hard working kids. But do they get to the state tourney if anyone other than Burnell Glanzer is coaching them? There are a few others that are his equal, but no one is better than he is.
Special mention to Doug Schauer of Faith and Terry Schouten of James Valley Christian. They are both doing a whole lot with very little.
You could probably put the Hitchcock-Tulare players school photos in my 1976 high school yearbook and no one would be able to pick the ones that were from 34 years in the future!
Please do not feel bad if I do not eat the treats you brought me to say “thank you” at the tourney. I know your heart is in the right place, but I am just jaded enough to be leary of what may or may not be in the cookies and bars. Pre-wrapped Froehling Meat products from Hecla? HECK yes, and THANK YOU!
Always interesting to read and hear comments from folks concerning our coverage on SDPB. The HUGE majority of folks are appreciative and complimentary, and that really does my heart good. Some of course, are less so. We used to promote a discussion board on air and encourage folks to post their comments. It dawned on one of the producers that all that was doing was asking people not in the business to tell us all the mistakes that we made, so while I think it is still there, we did not talk about it or read it. We know we made mistakes. It happens.
ALWAYS refer to a young child in non-gender specific terms. A good rule in life and in broadcasting.
Craig Mattick and I now have the second longest tenure of doing state championship broadcasts, trailing only Jim Burt. There have been some great ones through the years, and some that frankly were not good. We got in with some of the bad ones when we first started doing the games when PAX got the contract in 2001. They hired us to be analysts while their guys did play by play, despite the fact they never did play by play. It occurred to someone that maybe guys that do pbp for a living should be doing it on the championship broadcasts, and it has been that way ever since SDPB took over running things in 2003.
There have been some dandy announcers through the years, and many of them are good friends of mine. Tom Maxwell and Mark Ovenden on KSFY and Gary Weckwirth, Tom Nieman and Al Bahe on KELO are some that come to mind. I am really, really blessed to have been in this position for as long as I have, and I am very, very thankful that I get to work with the wonderful crew at SDPB. I also really enjoy the fact I get to share the time with a great friend like Craig. God has been very good to me.
Wonderful to hear how many of you are enjoying what the Buzzard is all about! Keep spreading the news and look for expansion this fall!
Enough for now. As always, feel free to share your thoughts. Thanks!
This is a post for all of you that may be looking at Sportsbuzzard for the first time. Welcome! It is great to have you here, and I invite you to look around.
I want to explain a little about what the Buzzard is, and our future plans. The Buzzard started as a way for some guys West River to provide coverage of their football teams in a way that others were not. Previews, blogs, pictures, results, history, polls and more make up the site. This winter, the West River guys expanded their coverage, and their territory, to boys basketball.
That is where I came in. My name is Mike Henriksen, and I am the host of “Sportsmax” on radio, and help out SDPB with their State Tournament coverage. My Buzzard area is Southeast South Dakota. Each team has their own page. It is a wonderful way to promote the great kids that we have taking part in activities here in the state! Bloggers from around the state keep folks updated with information and opinions. We work VERY HARD to keep the site positive, and we monitor every comment made by a person who responds before we allow it to be posted. You will not find anyone trashing kids or calling out coaches, unlike other sites.
In the fall of 2010, we will continue our expansion in the Southeast by adding football team pages to our coverage. This winter we will add girls basketball team pages. We chose to start slowly so we could work out any bugs this year prior to going with 3 sports. In addition, we are hoping to find the right person to cover the Northeast part of the state so we can give every kid in those activities the coverage they deserve!
If you are a business owner, I would encourage you to sponsor your team’s page. It is a great way to show support for your kids and make sure their story gets told. Sportsbuzzard is much more effective than a preview magazine or newspaper section. Those both become obsolete once the season starts. Here, we are constantly updating each page all season long! This winter was a challenge when it came to the weather and the problems it caused, but we were able to post when games were postponed and rescheduled all year long! That is not something a magazine or newspaper can do!
In addition, we made some great strides with live chats and webcasts of games. We are looking at doing a schedule of live games this fall and winter. There is no more reason to have a radio station at the game. The Buzzards can broadcast! Check out my “This Changes Everything” blog for more information. It could even make your Booster Club or other organization some money!
Here at Sportsbuzzard, we continue to grow. But we can’t do it without your help! Would you like to be a blogger and share your thoughts with the world? Contact me! Would you like to support your team by buying an ad on your team page? Contact me! Like what you see here? Tell your friends, submit information, let me know some history about your school or team, or submit photos! Every team and kid deserves to get their story told, no matter how succesful the season is in terms of wins or losses. Traditional media keeps shrinking and can not do justice to the towns and teams anymore. The future is folks like you working with folks like us!
So welcome to the Buzzard! Look around, and let us know what you think! We are always looking for ways to improve what we do. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to contact me. I would love to hear from you!
Mike Henriksen
Sportsmax Radio
Sportsbuzzard.com
sportsmax@siouxvalley.net
The wonders of technology! You no longer have to be in range of a radio station to hear the broadcast. This is a list of the stations doing Region games tonight. It will be updated through the day and should be complete by this evening, so please check back. Also take a look at how these teams have done against each other or common opponents by clicking on their page. Enjoy!
SF Christian vs Madison – www.amazingmadison.com
Yankton at SF Roosevelt - www.kvht.com or www.kwsn.com
Elk Point-Jefferson - Harrisburg – www.keloam.com
Milbank-Aberdeen Roncalli – www.bigstoneradio.com/kmsd/
Mitchell-Sturgis – www.kdsj980.com or www.1490korn.com
Sully Buttes-Eureka Bowdle – www.jackfm953.com
Tri-Valley-McCook Central/Montrose - www.amazingmadison.com
James Valley-Mitchell Christian on 105.1 FM at www.kokk.com
Hitchcock/Tulare-Langford on 1210 Am at www.kokk.com
Aberdeen Central-RC Stevens – www.hubcityradio.com
Winner-St. Francis on AM 1260 and White River-Wall on Magic 93 www.kwyr.com
TDA-Avon – www.kool98.com
The Hutchinson County Hobo will be live at the World’s Only today with a live chat. Mitchell Christian takes on Hanson at 1:30 and Corsica-Stickney takes on Tripp-Delmont-Armour at 3. You can be involved in the discussion and follow the scoring here. Hope to see a lot of you here for what should be a couple of great games! Also, while you are here, please check out the “team” pages and click on our sponsor links. We appreciate the folks that have made our first year of coverage so much fun! And please consider sponsoring your hometown teams as we expand even more this coming fall!
Since the regular season came to a close this week, people should be talking about the things that happened on the court: conference titles, possible District and Region match-ups, and great careers winding down. Instead, much of the focus was on what happened off the court, or on student behavior.
In the Huron-O’Gorman game, there were complaints about the student body for the Knights and some of the things they decided to chant, and about whether an elbow thrown by a player was intentional or not. I was not at the game, so I don’t know the facts, or what was in the heart of the players and students involved. I did find it ironic that Catholic school students would be advocating birth control. I guess we have come a long way. I would also like to think that the chants were not racially motivated, but I can’t say for sure. I think kids today are much cooler about race than we were. They are certainly more exposed to people of different races than we were at that age. There have been plenty of players through the years that have had the crowd chanting put downs. Barry Glanzer, Jason Sutherland, Mike Miller, Matt Martin and Josh Mueller come to mind. All of those kids were top players for top teams. Of course, they were all white. But now, the top player for the top team is Tyrell Newton, who is black. So are the chants racially motivated? For some maybe. But I think for most kids it is a chance to get under the skin of a good player. At least I hope that is the case. I think “race” gets thrown around so often that it loses some of it’s meaning. There is no question that racism exists here in South Dakota. I guess I would rather save the outrage for life changing situations such as jobs not offered, housing turned down, or business not done because of the color of someone’s skin.
Meanwhile, there was a big story out of Sioux Falls Roosevelt this week. What that story is, no one is really sure. The Sioux Falls Media fell all over themselves trying to put 1 plus 1 together and kept coming up with 3. The Roosevelt administration did not help a thing by refusing to comment. All that did was fuel the fire of speculation. I understand that they need to be very careful with what they say. This is an age where school districts find themselves open to lawsuits. (I guess we have come farther in some areas than in others!) However, what the Roosevelt administration did, in my opinion, is leave a couple of their kids out to dry, allowing them to be judged by inuendo and rumor. The message boards went wild, each with more “facts” than the other. The story became sensationalized and convoluted. The bottom line is there is much more to this story for a couple of kids, and much less to it for a couple of others. Time will sort that out. Of course, no one wants to give it time. We want the information, credible or not, right now. I am hoping that in a couple of weeks we will look back at this story, and several people, including alleged news organizations, will be embarrassed by their actions and reactions.
A friend of mine sent me this poem this week. It hung in the house of Bruce Maxwell of Parkston, who was as big of a youth sports fan as you will ever find, and a real quality human being. He did not write it, and it is a little corny, but the sentiments ring true. I wish more fans, young and old, would take it to heart.
“Please don’t curse the boy out there, he is my son you see,
he’s only just a boy you know and he means the world to me.
I did not raise my son, sports fans, for you to call him names
he may not be a super star, but this is just a game.
Please don’t curse the boys out there, they do the best they can,
They never try to lose a game..they’re boys and you are a man.
This game belongs to them you see, and you are just a guest,
So do not sit and criticize, they need your very best.
If you have nothing nice to say just leave the boys alone.
And if you can’t enjoy the game you should have just stayed home.
So don’t put down the boys out there as they pass and shoot and run,
No matter if they win or lose to us they are number one.”
Kids. Black, white, perfect, fallable, smart, dumb, goofy, learning kids. That is what we are talking about here. Kids. On the court and in the stands. Kids. Let’s keep that in mind as we head into District tourneys.
Class AA
Record Pts Prv
1. Aberdeen Central (6) 14-4 40 2
2. Huron (2) 15-3 35 1
3. Sioux Falls O’Gorman (1) 13-5 31 T4
4. Rapid City Central 13-5 16 T4
5. Watertown 13-5 13 3
Class A
Record Pts Prv
1. Sioux Falls Christian (9) 17-1 90 1
2. St. Thomas More 17-2 80 2
3. Madison 18-1 71 3
4. Aberdeen Roncalli 17-2 61 6
5. Wagner 15-3 46 8
6. Belle Fourche 16-2 40 NR
7. Winner 16-3 33 5
8. McCook Central-Montrose 13-4 31 9
9. Red Cloud 13-4 26 4
10. Chester 14-5 6 RV
Others receiving votes: Sioux Valley, 14-5; Deuel, 15-4; Clark-Willow Lake, 13-5; Miller, 14-4.
Class B
Record Pts Prv
1. Corsica-Stickney (9) 19-0 90 1
2. Mitchell Christian 18-1 78 2
3. Rosholt 19-0 75 3
4. White River 17-2 57 4
5. Hitchcock-Tulare 18-1 55 5
6. Langford 17-2 46 6
T7. Sully Buttes 16-3 32 7
T7. Viborg 17-3 32 8
9. Hanson 15-4 15 9
10. Faith 17-2 11 10
Others receiving votes: Harding County, 17-3; Canistota, 15-4, Eureka-Bowdle, 16-2.
The final week of February already. Time to get serious.
Thanks to everyone involved in our live streamcast of the STM-Washington game. It was the first time I had seen either team, and the first time I had seen any AA team this season. Normally by now I have seen almost all of them. However, due to a couple of changes at KWSN Radio in Sioux Falls, I have not broadcast any games yet this season. That has given me the chance to see a lot of other teams instead.
Back to the game. Very fun to watch! Brady Maxwell of Washington has a special place in my heart because he is the son of Tom Maxwell, the late sportscaster and a wonderful friend of mine. Brady played very well. However, the STM team was just too much. It was very easy to see that they had learned from their game against O’Gorman. Many people will point to the fact that STM hit 14 threes in the game. However, to me, the important factor is those shots came out of set plays. Double ball screens, reversals, and more all helped offset the quickness of Washington and gave STM open looks. Credit Dave Hollenbeck and Ryan Messick with coming up with a succesful game plan, and to the kids for executing it!
This season’s schedule has been a mess. There are some teams with 3 games left, and some are done until districts. For some of the teams that are done, it is by design. Certain schools do not want their boys team playing while their girls team is involved in District play. All I know is that if your last game was the 19th, and you don’t play again until March 2nd, that is a heck of a lot of practice! Especially if you are a team the really has no shot at winning your District! Yet another reason I appreciate coaches as much as I do!
Is there a higher scoring team than Flandreau? Check it out here.
There are a couple more of the “kids having great years you problably don’t know about”. Jesse Taylor of Kimball, Logan DeRungs of ORR, and Chase Kristensen of Plankinton come to mind.
Young talent? There is plenty. Check out soph Eric Hensch of Harrisburg, and freshmen Brock Zeller of Elk Point-Jefferson and Cole Langer of Dell Rapids . I know there are others. Feel free to point them out in a comment.
Thanks for reading, and keep spreading the word about Sportsbuzzard as we hit the home stretch of the season!
This Saturday night we will debut the streaming of live sports events here on the Buzzard. I will be streaming audio play by play of the St. Thomas More - Sioux Falls Washington game. I hope this is the first of many live events here on the Buzzard! For more, including how we would love to come to your town, click here.
Saturday, log on to www.sportsbuzzard.com and go to the West River side of things. The live link will be posted there. I am really looking forward to it! GAME TIME IS 4PM CENTRAL, 3PM MOUNTAIN! As always, we will welcome your comments.