Dec. 1: Clark native Kim Kaufman made a hole-in-one in the first of eight rounds in Alabama during the Q-Series as part of their two-week journey to the LPGA. Top finishers will be granted LPGA Tour status for 2023.
Dec. 2: Two free throws by Baylor’s Jalen Bridges with 16 seconds left gave his sixth-ranked Bears a 64-63 win over No. 14 Gonzaga in a rematch of the 2021 national championship game in Sioux Falls. A sold-out Sanford Pentagon crowd saw the Zags take a 63-46 lead on Malachi Smith’s dunk with 1:41 to go, but Baylor rallied to score the final eight points.
Dec. 2: The USD volleyball team won its first-ever sets in the DI NCAA Tournament, but suffered heartbreak twice in its fourth DI national tourney in Omaha. First, the Coyotes (29-4) lost a close 3-2 first-round match to Houston: 25-14, 25-19 18-25, 23-25 and 15-11. Also in the fourth set, the Coyotes Summit League player of the year Elizabeth Juhnke seriously hurt her knee as the match had to be stopped while Juhnke had to be taken off the floor by stretcher. The Coyotes were trailing 15-11 in the fourth set when Juhnke got hurt, but rallied for their friend to force a fifth set. Earlier in the match, Juhnke recorded her 2,000th career kill. The junior from Lakeville, MN, is the only Coyote to reach that total and only the fourth Summit League player to ever reach that milestone.
Dec. 3: Jimmie Nicolaus is in his 30th season as coach of the Mitchell Technical College Mavericks rodeo team. The Mavericks have 22 members this year. Nicolaus is a former pro bull rider and a South Dakota native from Fairfax in Gregory County.
Dec. 4: The South Dakota Kid was featured on “60 Minutes.” Rapid City’s Shane Van Boening, 39, is the world 9-Ball pool champion, the first American to have earned the title in 20 years. He also is considered by many as America’s greatest billiards player ever, having won more than 50 major professional titles. Van Boening (SVB) is known for his killer breaks, his sixth sense for thinking shots ahead and his ability to set up his next shot by practicing 10 hours or more a day and shooting more than half a million balls a year. A national TV audience saw how promoters are trying to legitimize pool into a proper pro sport with million-dollar sponsorships and prize money, bigger fan bases and elevating the sports’ stars such as SVB into world-wide celebrities.
Dec. 5: Milbank native Kalen DeBoer of Washington and Jonathan Smith of Oregon State were named co-football coaches of the year in the PAC-12 Conference. DeBoer coached his Huskies to a 10-2 record and No. 12 rankings in the regular season and is only the second UW coach (Don James) in school history to claim the conference coach of the year honor.
Dec. 5: Aberdeen native and second-year Tennessee coach Josh Heupel was named coach of the year in the SEC by the Associated Press. He coached the Vols to a 10-2 record and No. 6 ranking in the regular season.
Dec. 6: The Jamestown volleyball team (37-2) won the 2022 NAIA national championship. It is the first national title in the 120-plus years of Jimmie athletics. Jamestown sophomore reserve Tenley Buddenhagen of Huron was one of eight players to play in all 39 matches for the Jimmies.

Dec. 8: SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier has won the Eddie Robinson Award, which honors the national coach of the year in college football’s DI subdivision. A 54-member panel voted on the 36th annual award named for the legendary Grambling State mentor. Coach “Stig” has a 196-112 career record in 26 seasons all with the Jacks. The 65-year-old is the first South Dakotan to win the award and will be honored Jan. 7 in Frisco, TX.
Dec. 9: Aberdeen native, former Aberdeen basketball standout (Central and Presentation College) and Aberdeen Central graduate Josh Mach won his head coaching debut with the Rapid City Central girls’ basketball team. The Cobblers defeated Aberdeen Central 41-30. This is Mach’s 15th year of teaching and coaching (former Redfield-Doland head coach and last 10 years as assistant boys’ coach at Aberdeen Central).
Dec. 10: Long-time American sports journalist Grant Wahl collapsed and died suddenly while covering a World Cup soccer match in Qatar. He was 48. Wahl was one of the most respected and prominent soccer reporters in the world. He also came to Aberdeen to do a feature piece on former NSU basketball coach Don Meyer (1944-2014) for Sports Illustrated (Dec. 15, 2008).
Dec. 10: Two-time defending State AA boys’ basketball champion Sioux Falls Roosevelt saw its 35-game win streak come to an end, losing to Sioux Falls Jefferson 73-61.
Dec. 10: Aberdeen native Paiton Burckhard passed the 1,500 career point mark as she helped lead the SDSU women’s basketball team to a 82-78 win over No. 24 Kansas State.
Dec. 10: Lisa Lockhart of Oelrichs ended up fourth in the 2022 world standings as she earned $199.566.48 this season, only about $37,000 less than world champion Hailey Kinsel of Cotulla, TX. This season marked Lockhart’s 16th straight qualification for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Earlier this season, she also passed $3 million in career earnings, making her only the second competitor (Sherry Cervi) in women’s pro rodeo history to eclipse the milestone.
Dec. 10: The Black Hills State men’s basketball team (10-0) is off to its best start in school history after the No. 5 Yellow Jackets took down host and No. 8-ranked Colorado School of Mines 85-77 in overtime.
Dec. 10: TCU quarterback Max Duggan finished as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. His parents met at USD where Jim was a star quarterback and team captain and Deb (Dodds) was a Coyote Hall of Fame track and field hurdler.
Dec. 10: Sophomore 6-foot-4 guard Brevin Walter (Las Vegas) of South Dakota Mines broke a nearly 50-year-old men’s basketball school record. He scored 45 points (11-19 FGs including 5-9 three-pointers and 18-22 FTs) to lead the Hardrockers to a 93-88 win over Metro State of Denver. The old record of 44 points was set on Feb. 26, 1974, by 5-foot-9 guard Doug Schlepp (Java) in a 103-87 win over rival Black Hills State. In his final career game, Schlepp made 20 of 29 field goal attempts (no three-point line) and all four of his free throws. With 1:20 left, Schlepp was driving in for a layup when he was fouled hard by Kris LeDuc of Black Hills State. There was an altercation resulting in both Schlepp and LeDuc being ejected. Before he left, Schlepp was allowed to shoot his two free throws for his 44 points, which broke Dave Jackson’s Tech school record of 42 points set in 1969.
Dec. 12: New England rookie running back Pierre Strong Jr. of SDSU had the best game of his NFL career in helping the Patriots defeat the Arizona Cardinals 27-13 on Monday Night Football. Strong had five carries for 70 yards and his first touchdown as a pro and two catches for 20 yards. South Dakota also got love during the game on the ManningCast (ESPN2 broadcasts MNF with brothers and former NFL QBs Peyton and Eli Manning along with guests commenting on the game). One of the Mannings’ guests was Rapid City Central and SDSU graduate Adam Vinatieri, one of the NFL’s greatest kickers. They talked about Vinatieri’s days as the Cobblers’ quarterback and showed his RCC senior picture.
Dec. 12: Former SDSU coach John Gregory died at age 84. He was the head football coach at SDSU from 1972-81 with a 55-50-3 record, coaching the Jacks to their only NCAA DII playoff appearance in 1979. Gregory hired current SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier as a Jackrabbit student assistant coach in 1979.
Dec. 13: Three sisters won wrestling titles at the Lakota Nation Invitational to pace Lakota Tech to the team title. Senior Arlissa Waln won the 190-pound title; junior Jordan Waln won the 170 title; and sophomore Jessica Waln won the 132 title. Meanwhile, their seventh-grade brother Jason Waln finished as the LNI runner-up at 160 pounds in Jason’s first-ever wrestling tournament.
Dec. 13: Former Sioux Falls Lincoln athletic director Jim Dorman was inducted into the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s Hall of Fame.
Dec. 14: White River senior Joe Sayler became the 43rd player in South Dakota boys’ basketball history to score more than 2,000 career points. Louie Krogman of White River is the all-timer leader with 3,521 points.
Dec. 15: Santee, NE, defeated Tiospaye Topa 112-72 in the Lakota Nation Invitational. Santee senior Austyn Saul scored 51 for the Warriors while Tiospaye Topa sophomore Kris Meeter scored 54. Both were top individual scoring records in the 46th annual LNI.
Dec. 15: The SDSU women’s basketball team was within striking distance of No. 1 South Carolina in the final minutes in Sioux Falls, but then struck out. The Jackrabbits, playing a DI No. 1-ranked team for the first time in school history, rallied to pull within six points of the Gamecocks with a 7-0 run, but then gave up 11 straight points in a 62-44 South Carolina win. The Gamecocks (10-0) are the reigning national champions while the Jacks (7-5) are the reigning WNIT champions. In his 23rd season as head coach of SDSU, Aaron Johnston is now 549-184 while Dawn Staley is 548-185 in her 23 years as a head women’s coach. The Gamecocks are 4-1 in the Sanford Pentagon since it opened in 2013 while SDSU is 1-2 there.
Dec. 17: Rapid City Christian (5-0) won its first Lakota Nation Invitational Boys’ Basketball championship 79-77 over White River (4-1) when Benson Kieffer made the game-winner with 2.6 seconds left. In the girls’ LNI championship, Lakota Tech led defending champ Red Cloud 28-15 with less than 15 minutes in the game. However, The Crusaders rallied for a 45-38 win.
Dec. 17: Former Sioux Falls Washington volleyball standouts Phekran Kong and Sydni Schetnan helped Louisville reach the Final Four again this season. The Cardinals finished 31-3 (63-4 over last two seasons) and as national runners-up. Kong led Louisville over Pittsburgh in the national semifinals with 11 blocks. The Cardinals opened their season in Vermillion, beating the Coyotes 3-0. One of the Louisville assistant coaches is former Augustana coach Dan Meske.
Dec. 17: Northwestern, IA, won the NAIA national football championship. Members of the team from South Dakota included Isaac Rodriguez and Peyton Carroll (Brandon), Jonah Hofer (Bridgewater), Owen Hede (Dakota Dunes), Isaiah Robinson and Dominic Abraham (Garretson), Ryan Dodds (Jefferson), Jackson Arlt and Steven Christion (Lennox), Cade Clayberg and Thomas Ostrem (Tea), Jackson Olsen (Platte) and Morris Hofer (Onida).
Dec. 18: Former Aberdeen resident and Olympic gold medalist Michael Andrew won two medals at the 2022 Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, Australia: gold in the mixed 4×50 medley relay and silver in the men’s 4×50 medley relay. Andrew, 23, has won 127 (28 gold, 65 silver, 34 bronze) medals at world competitions during his career.

Dec. 21: With an enrollment of 816, Pierre Riggs High School had two of its football players sign to play in the Big Ten Conference. Quarterback Lincoln Kienholz will play for Ohio State while lineman Jason Maciejczak will play for Nebraska. The Governors have won six straight state championships. Kienholz finished with one of the most impressive big-school career stat lines in the history of South Dakota high school football: 9,100 passing yards with 104 TDs, 3,502 rushing yards with 44 TDs and three-time All-State and three-time state championship game MVP.
Dec. 27: Ian Marshall (Springfield, MO) continued to rack up honors after only one season of NSU football after he was named a finalist for the best defensive player (Cliff Harris Award) from the more than 5,000 defensive players from almost 500 NCAA DII, DIII and and NAIA schools. The All-American Marshall registered a season school record 14 sacks in 2022. Marshall was named the Super Region 4 defensive player of the year.
Other All-Americans in NSU football history: Jim Kretchman; Harlan Krein; Morris Bates; Vince Johnson; Daryl Merkwan; Dick Wherry (twice); Gordon Groos; Dave Pastian; Leon Breske; Curt Fredrickson; Larry Kolbo; Kendall Titze; Chuck Farley; Seth Kahn; Steve Hanson; Paul Kemnitz; Jason Landmark (twice); John Carda; Sam Flakus; Bryan Schmidt; Doug Coughlin; Kevin Cox; Tom Scheid; Stacy Roberts; Todd Tatum; Jim Caraway; Tony Kjaglien; Rick Knecht, Ed May (twice); Brent Sheehan; Aaron Ferrie; Kip Kieso; Bill Noble; Dave Guthmiller; Tyrone Morgan (twice); Eric Cuka; Channing Barber (twice); Conner Doherty (twice); Chance Olson; and Dewaylon Ingram.
Dec. 29: The Providence Academy of Minnesota girls’ basketball team defeated Brandon Valley 58-32 in the Hoop City Classic. The winners’ five starters, Maddyn Greenway, Brooke Hohenecker, Grace and Hope Counts and Emma Millerbernd, combined for 44 points. All five starters have South Dakota connections: Greenway’s dad Chad was a multi-sport at Mount Vernon and a long-time NFL linebacker with the Minnesota Vikings. Hohenecker’s mom Amy (Von Wald) was a state champion runner at Hoven and an All-American at Northern State. The Counts’ parents were both former SDSU athletes (dad Chris played basketball and mom Lisa played volleyball). Millerbernd’s dad Nate played football at SDSU. Greenway, a highly-recruited freshman, already has scored more than 1,500 career points.
Dec. 30: The Yankton boys’ defeated Brookings 79-39 in the second game of the season for both teams. Their first games were Dec. 9, and the teams had to postpone five games between them due to the winter weather.
Dec. 30: Two Power Five DI football coaches who grew up in South Dakota had tremendous and similar seasons. Aberdeen native Josh Heupel and his Tennessee Volunteers went 11-2, won the Orange Bowl and finished in the top 10 of the national rankings. So did Milbank native Kalen DeBoer and his Washington Huskies (11-2, won the Alamo Bowl and finished in top 10). It was Tennessee’s first 11-win season since 2001 and this season was just the fifth time in school history that Washington reached 11 wins or more.

Dec. 30: New Ipswich boys’ basketball coach Stewart Bohle’s team won its season opener. It is the first-ever game as a head boys’ coach for Bohle and his 200^th career coaching win. Bohle won 199 games and a pair of state championships with the Warner girls’ program.

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.