ONIDA – Stevie Wittler is a natural basketball junkie.

The Sully Buttes senior has grown up in a basketball household along with her brothers Nick, Marshall, and Wesley. Nick is currently playing basketball at Dakota Wesleyan University, while Marshall is attending Lake Area Tech. Younger brother Welsey is a sophomore at Sully Buttes.

Wittler described watching her brothers play for Sully Buttes as the “the best thing ever” and still enjoys watching her younger brother play for the Chargers.

“My favorite thing ever is to watch Wesley play sports. He is so much fun to watch,” Wittler said. “It was like that for all of my brothers. When we were younger, we could all play together. It didn’t matter if it was boys and girls, we played together at the gym, but now I just really like watching my brothers play and going to the gym with them whenever I can. They’re really good, so it’s really fun to watch.”

Although it is now just Stevie and Wesley left in the house, it has always been a competitive household, which has led to interesting times for the siblings.

“There used to be balls flying all around the kitchen, and we’d get in trouble a lot for playing sports in the house, and now it’s just me and Wesley left,” Wittler said. “We still get after it whenever we can, but it’s pretty competitive and we’re always going at each other a little bit.”

That competitiveness is seen in Wittler when she is also on the basketball court. Sully Buttes girls’ basketball coach Susie Rilling said she sees a variety of skills in Wittler when the senior guard is playing the game.

“On the court, Stevie is a dynamic and skilled athlete showcasing her agility, speed, and precision in every move,” Rilling said. “Her dribbling, shooting and defensive skills make her a valuable asset to the team. She exhibits confidence and leadership to help the team’s success.”

While Wittler has also participated in cross country, volleyball, and track and field for the Chargers, it’s basketball that she finds the most appealing for a few reasons.

“I like a team sport. It’s really fun to accomplish things with your friends,” Wittler said. “It’s always just been a really big family thing for us.”

As a young girl, Wittler could be seen at open gym sessions playing basketball, with the hopes of impressing Sully Buttes girls’ basketball coach Mark Senftner. She said the late coach has meant a lot to her during her high school career.

“He was such a big role model in my life and I definitely feel the hole there from him,” Wittler said. “When I was younger, I just always strived to make him proud. I know he would be at open gym and I would go, in seventh and eighth grade, and really try to impress him so that he’d let me play some varsity. He was a really big deal to me and in practice I felt everything he said made sense and he had a lot of wisdom.”

Last season, Wittler and the Chargers qualified for the Class B state basketball tournament, and although they placed eighth, Wittler (who was a third-team all-state selection) says it was one of the best experiences of her life.

“That was really, really fun and something I’ll always be really grateful for,” Wittler said. “No matter the outcome it was a really fun opportunity to be able to play in front of that many people and with other really good teams. It was just a super fun time for our team in general, and ever since I was little, I always wanted to play in a state basketball tournament, and it was so much fun to watch. It was really amazing to be able to be a part of it.”

Over the past three seasons, Wittler has also been a place-winner at the state track and field meet in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles. Her best finish in the 100-meter hurdles came last season as she finished in fifth place, while her best finish in the 300-meter hurdles came in 2021 as a freshman, also a fifth-place finish. While she has seen success on the track as well, Wittler says she has a love/hate relationship when it comes to the sport.

“I don’t know what it is about track and why it’s so fun, because it’s also so miserable,” Wittler said. “I guess the whole environment of the track meets and being able to make so many friends and being able to show your competitiveness. It’s kind of fun, especially when I was younger and got to go to state, it was really cool being around a lot of older, really good athletes.”

Once her high school days come to a close after the track and field season this spring, Wittler will look ahead to college. She plans on attending Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa where she will play basketball and most likely pursue a degree in the law field, although she is still undecided on what her vocational path might look like.

For now, Wittler is focusing on finishing her career as a Sully Buttes Charger, and she says being a part of the Sully Buttes community has had a special significance to her. “It’s meant the world. It’s really, really fun,” Wittler said. “Some people love us, some people hate us, but they know the name. It’s really fun to be a part of the culture here and just how sports-orientated we are. It’s fun to be coached under the people that we’re coached by and get the support that we get in this community. It’s been great.”