Aug. 30: Mike Strandell of Watertown hit a hole-in-one on the par-4, 300-yard hole No. 4 at the Sutton Bay Golf Course near Agar. Oddsmakers say making such a shot are a million-to-one.
Sept. 1: The NFL is a tough, fast-moving business. A couple of days after making the Pittsburgh’s 53-man 2022 roster, the Steelers released Warner native and third-year pro Derrek Tuszka. However, the next day he was claimed off waivers by Tennessee. Later in the month on Sept. 24, Tuszka started for the Titans in their win over Las Vegas, but was then waived on Sept. 26.
Sept. 3: The world’s biggest football pre-game show, ESPN’s College Game Day, gave South Dakota a lot of love on opening weekend. The crew talked about the “dangerous” SDSU Jackrabbits against Iowa; the possible resurgence of the University of Washington program under new coach and Milbank native Kalen DeBoer; and USD’s game against Kansas State.
Sept. 3: Iowa nipped SDSU 7-3 in a football game that featured two field goals, two safeties, 21 punts, eight Jackrabbit false-start penalties and a punter who was the game’s MVP. Australian punter Tory Taylor put the Jacks in horrible field position all day, as the Jacks started eight of their drives inside their own 15-yard line. His pinning the Jacks near their own end zone led to the two Hawkeye safeties.
Sept. 3: Presentation College defeated Luther College 29-6 to snap a 23-game losing streak and to get its first win since Nov. 2, 2019 (51-35 over Mayville).
Sept. 3: Washington State nipped Idaho 24-17 in the first game of the Jason Eck head coaching era at Idaho. Coaching WSU was Jake Dickert. He and Eck coached together at SDSU where Eck left after six seasons as an assistant to take the job with the Vandals. Dickert also was an assistant coach at Augustana and USD.
Sept. 5: The Minnesota Vikings have voted teammate C.J. Ham as one of their eight captains for the 2022 season. Ham, in his seventh season in the NFL, also served as a captain for his college team, Augustana, where he played for the Vikings from 2011-15.
Sept. 6: After the SDSU football practice, the Jackrabbit Former Player Association presented players with new all-white helmets — each with the outline of a blue Jackrabbit. The Jacks, who will wear their new $65,000 lids at the home opener on Saturday, now have an alternate helmet they can wear during the season with their traditional blue helmets.
Sept. 7: The oldest quarterback club in the state started its 75th season at Yankton, hearing from Augustana football coach Jerry Olszewski. The Yankton Quarterback Club has been supporting local and area high school and college athletics through its weekly meetings hearing from coaches and from financial support.
Sept. 8: South Dakotans had an interest in the 2022 NFL opener as Buffalo blew out the defending champion Rams of Los Angeles 31-10. Pierre native Brandon Cruse officiated his first NFL game. The former football and basketball standout for the Governors started his career officiating junior high and high school games while attending the South Dakota School of Mines. His first officiated football game at age 19 was a Spearfish vs. Rapid City Central JV game.
Sept. 9: With time running out in the first half, visiting Parkston hurriedly lined up at Hanson’s one-yard line for one more play in Alexandria. But they fumbled, and Hanson’s Jackson Jarding picked the ball up in the end zone with :00 on the clock and returned it 103 yards for a touchdown. Teammate Ethan Cheeseman added the two-point conversion, and Hanson won 8-6 after a scoreless second half to usher in its new $4.1 million football and track complex.
Sept. 9: Tea Area shocked state football fans and Sioux Falls O’Gorman in a wild 44-41 high school football game. The Titans got the winning TD with 2:06 left on an 80-yard halfback pass from Chase Van Tol to Ethan McKnelly. The ball was tipped into McKnelly’s hands off of two O’Gorman defenders and a Tea receiver. The Tea defense then sealed the win when its Ethan Vis tipped away a fourth and sixth pass inside the red zone.
Sept. 10: A Division II runner won a men’s cross country race hosted by a Division I school. Jackson Harrison of Northern State won the 8 kilometer race (25:01.61) at the SDSU Classic.
Sept. 10: Bergen Reilly had her senior volleyball season at Sioux Falls O’Gorman interrupted in the best of ways. Due to a player’s positive Covid test, Reilly was called up to the Team USA’s Olympic-level squad for one week to compete in the Pan Am Final Six Tournament in the Dominican Republic. The 17-year-old high school senior helped her team to the championship match, where Reilly and her teammates lost to the Dominican Republic. Reilly is the first high schooler to play with the top-level volleyball program in the U.S. in 20 years.
Sept. 11: The NBC Sunday Night Football game featured Tampa Bay defeating host Dallas 19-3. It also reunited two men with Augustana ties in former Vikings’ receiver Eric Ellingworth and former Augie assistant coach John Van Dam. Ellingworth is now a scout for Dallas and Van Dam is the tight ends coach for Tampa Bay in his fourth season with the team. Van Dam coached Ellingworth at Augie in 2008-09.
Sept. 16: Hot Springs dominated St. Thomas More 49-14 for the Bison’s first football win over the Cavaliers in 10 games. Hot Springs last defeated STM 13-10 in overtime on Sept. 14, 2012.
Sept. 17: The NSU football team survived a wild 23-22 win over visiting nationally ranked Minnesota State-Mankato. It was the Wolves’ first win over Mankato since Oct. 9, 1971, when the Wolves scored on the final play of the game for a 16-14 win. NSU led 23-0 going into the fourth quarter before the Mavericks exploded for three touchdowns in less than 10 minutes. With 91 seconds left, Mankato blocked a punt that went out of the end zone to make it a 23-22 game. With the Mavericks driving, NSU’s Ar’Shon Willis stopped them with a game-saving interception at the Wolves’ 33 with 54 seconds left.
Sept. 18: The Las Vegas Aces won their first WNBA title under the guidance of coach Becky Hammon, a Rapid City native. It was the first pro sports championship in the history of the city.
Sept. 18: Steve Stricker won the fifth annual Sanford International PGA Tour Champions event in a sudden-death play-off hole over Robert Karlsson. Stricker earned $300,000 and Karlsson $176,000 of the $2 million purse. Stricker won the first title in Sioux Falls in 2018 followed by Rocco Mediate (2019), Miguel Angel Jimenez (2020) and Darren Clarke (2021).
Sept. 26: USF has hired its coach to help the school restart its wrestling program. The Cougars dropped men’s wrestling in 2011, but will start again in the fall of 2023 under coach Matt Meuleners. He was a four-time All-American and two-time national champion at Northern State, where the 2012 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference wrestler of the year is still the Wolves’ all-time leader in career wins (145-32). In the past years, Meuleners has served on the wrestling coaching staffs at Nebraska, Brown and Cal State-Bakersfield.
Sept. 30: Five-time defending Class 11AA champion Pierre continued to prove it has one of the best football programs in the state despite of size. The Governors overcame a 28-14 halftime deficit to defeat Class 11AAA’s fourth-ranked Brandon Valley 43-34. University of Washington recruit and Pierre senior Lincoln Kienholz is one of the nation’s best high school quarterbacks. Kienholz passed for 304 yards, rushed for 195 yards and had a hand in six touchdowns (four passing).
Sept. 30: With both teams looking for their first win of the football season, Iroquois/Lake Preston defeated Colman-Egan 20-18 in two overtimes. Jake Larson made the game-winning two-point conversion.
Sept. 30: Hanson football coach Jim Haskamp earned his 200th career win as his Beavers defeated Garretson 51-0. Haskamp, who has 130 losses, is the 19th high school coach in state history to get to 200 career wins. He is one of five active coaches to have that many wins as of Oct. 2: Kim Nelson of Sioux Falls Roosevelt (312-144); Jeff VanLeur of Bridgewater-Emery-Ethan (295-128); Shaun Wanner of Groton Area (239-117); and Wayne Sullivan of St. Thomas More (230-93).
Sept. 30: The Class 11B No. 1-rated Winner football team traveled to Bridgewater where it defeated second-ranked Bridgewater-Emery-Ethan 36-0 to win its 29th game in a row. The two-time defending champion Warriors last lost a game on Nov. 15, 2019, in the 11B championship to BEE 21-14.
Sept. 30: Herreid-Selby Area senior Brenden Begeman led his team to a 66-26 win over Northwestern with 277 yards rushing and five touchdowns. Begeman now has 5,271 yards rushing in his career, becoming the 16th high school player in state history to reach the milestone.
Sept. 30: Two of the best nine-man football teams in the state put their defenses on display in Warner’s 8-6 win over Hamlin. Warner was rated second in Class 9A and Hamlin third in 9AA. Hunter Cramer had a huge game for host Warner with his second-quarter, three-yard TD run and follow-up two-point conversion pass to Landon Jensen, 17 tackles and an interception. Tyson Stevenson scored on one-yard TD for Hamlin in the fourth quarter, but the Monarchs stopped the two-point conversion.
Sept. 30: University of Nebraska freshman Alea Hardie set a school record in winning the 5K at the Joe Piane Cross Country Invitational in South Bend, IN. The Sioux Falls O’Gorman graduate ran the course in 16:44.2 (the old Nebraska record of 16:48 was set in 1988 by Sammie Rush), her third consecutive individual title to begin the season. Hardie, who also led Nebraska to the team title, is the first Husker to win three event titles in a season since Fran ten Bensel in 1991.
Sept. 30: In Sioux Falls Lincoln’s 37-34 overtime win over Rapid City Stevens, some Class 11AAA records were set by SFL quarterback Tate Schafer (453 yards passing) and receiver Jack Smith (377 yards on 21 catches with four TDs).
Sept. 30: Seven Deadwood casinos offering in-person sports wagering handled $6.6 million in bets during the first 12 months they were able to do so. March (time of the men’s basketball DI tourney) saw the highest betting activity ($975,347.25) followed by the $835,251.63 bet in January (NFL playoffs).
Email us at dave@sdsportscene.com if you think we missed something or if you have an event you would like us to consider for this feature.
