June 1: SDSU football quarterback recruit Jack Henry of Dell Rapids wrapped up his high school sports career with another team state championship. The 2024 Class B player of the year and high school state baseball tourney MVP helped Dell Rapids win its fourth state title in a row. He also led Dell Rapids to the last two State 11A football titles and was a part of two state champion relay teams (4×100 with Mason Stubbe, Cole Ruesink and Nick Snyder, 4×200 with Grady Lamer, Ruesink and Stubbe) as well as being an all-state basketball player. Henry helped Dell Rapids win the 2023 State B American Legion baseball championship as well.
June 1: Castlewood won the first State B high school softball state title in 2023, and were state runners-up to Chester in 2024. The 2024 Castlewood team had six sets of sisters playing: Morgan and Avery Wilson; Natalie and Karli Akin; Kelly and Kayla Goens; Lucy and Lilly Jacobsen; Sophia and Cydni Kudrna (dad Jay is assistant coach); and Claire and Bridgette Horn (dad Craig is head coach).
June 2: The 28 th annual Manning Passing Academy on June 27-30 in Thibodaux (LA) will feature SDSU quarterback Mark Gronowski as one of its counselors. This is one of the premier football camps in the country that features the Manning family (Archie, Cooper, Peyton and Eli).
June 4: Flandreau and Augustana graduate Mike Jewett has been hired by Creighton women’s basketball coach Jim Flanery as an assistant coach. He has coached at Augustana, St. Cloud State, Southwest Minnesota State, SDSU and last year he was the USD women’s basketball assistant coach who was the acting head coach for part of the season as the head coach was out on maternity leave.
June 4: Clark-Willow Lake freshman Brynn Roehrich won the State B golf championship in Brookings after finishing as the state runner-up in 2023. She got a congratulatory text from Clark native and professional golfer Kim Kaufman. The last Clark golfer to win the state individual title was Kaufman as a senior in 2009, the year Roehrich was born. John Brown not only coaches Roehrich, but he coached Kaufman as well. Kaufman and her sister Ashley won six individual state titles (in 2006, Ashley won and Kim was second, and in 2007, Kim won and Ashley was second) and led their team to seven straight team championships.
June 4: The 2023-24 school year in golf belonged to Watertown. Arrows’ boys’ and girls’ golf teams that are coached Corey Neale each won state team titles. His girls won the AA championship this spring in Yankton with balance and depth: Shelby Pearson and Gabi Olson tied for fifth, Avery Palmquist was seventh and Aspen Reynolds was eighth. His boys won the AA title last fall on Oct. 3. The last time the Watertown boys won the team title was 1971 and the last time the Arrow girls did it was in 1979 (also won in 1978).
June 4: Gavin Colson won the State B boys’ golf title in Brookings. He is the first Sully Buttes boys’ golfer to win the championship since Scott Hofer won the title in the spring of 1977 in the first year of the two-class system. Hofer also won the state title in the fall of 1975 in the last year of the one-class system.

June 4: Jo Auch worked her last South Dakota High School Activities Association events at the state golf and softball tournaments. She is retiring after a 16-year career as assistant executive director of the SDHSAA. The Scotland native also spent 26 years teaching, coaching and administrating at Menno. She had many accomplishments right up to the end, including helping South Dakota to sanction softball as a high school sport in 2023. Kristina Sage of Freeman will replace Auch.
June 4: Carly Guthmiller of Groton Area had a state tournament to remember. She made a hole-in-one on No. 11 at the State A Tournament at Bakker Crossing in Sioux Falls.

June 6: The Sioux Falls Storm indoor football team will induct on July 20 former defensive coordinator Brian Hermanson into its hall of fame as its 13 th member. After 12 seasons and seven championships with the Storm, Hermanson retired at the end of the 2022 season. The Storm went 129-30 with Hermanson directing the defense. Storm Hall of Famers include Aberdeen Central graduate and
legendary noseguard Cory Johnsen (now an assistant coach).
June 7: Madison Evans of Sioux Falls Lincoln is South Dakota’s first ever Gatorade SD Softball Player of the Year. In only the second year of sanctioned high school softball in the state, Evans has helped Lincoln win two State AA titles and go 41-2 in the past two seasons. This year, Evans was 19-0 as a pitcher with a 0.87 earned run average (ERA) while striking out 217 batters in 97 innings. At the plate, she batted .605 with 39 runs batted in.
June 8: A historical plaque commemorating the history of the Aberdeen Pheasants baseball team was unveiled outside of the Barnett Center on the NSU campus. That was the site of the Aberdeen Municipal Stadium which was the home to the minor league affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.
June 10: Recent Chamberlain graduate Dakota Munger won the 16-18 boys’ division of the South Dakota Junior Golf Tour in Pierre. After almost six hours of golf, he threw a five-inning no-hitter and had the game-winning hit in the second game of an American Legion Baseball doubleheader in Chamberlain that night. Munger and his Chamberlain teammates defeated the Faulkton-Highmore Hitmen Legion team 2-1. Munger struck out 12 batters, left the opponents hitless and had a walk-off two-run RBI single in the fifth inning.
June 12: Indiana State has named Nathan Christensen as its new athletic director. Christensen has served as Senior Associate Athletic Director of Development at SDSU since 2021. He is a Minnesota State-Mankato graduate.
June 12: Gov. Kristi Noem honored an Aberdeen Central graduate by proclaiming it as Jerry Oster Day in South Dakota. It is the second such honor in his 49-year radio career, with 46.5 years at WNAX in Yankton. Oster’s first full-time radio gig was started on June 1, 1974, as a 6 p.m. to Midnight announcer six days a week and chief engineer at KSDN in Aberdeen. He retired from WNAX on June 1, 2023. Oster did color commentary on SDSU football games for 30 years with Norm and Chris Hilson and Steve Imming.
June 12-15: White River native and Midco Sports Network announcer Alex Heinert was part of the eight-person announcing team for the Nike Outdoor Nationals and USATF U20 Championships at legendary Hayward Field in Eugene, OR. That facility is home to the University of Oregon track and field teams, the USA Olympic Trials and other iconic meets. About 5,000 athletes from across the national competed. In South Dakota, Heinert works the Howard Wood Relays and state track meets.
June 15: Four South Dakotans recorded top five finishes at the 2024 College National Finals Rodeo in Casper (WY). New Underwood native Cooper Filipek of Gillette (WY) College finished second in Bareback riding. Belle Fouche native Lan Fuhrer of SDSU and Clayton Backhaus (Bismarck, ND) of Black Hills State finished third in Team Roping. Hereford (SD) native Talon Elshere of Casper College finished fifth in Saddle Bronc riding.
June 18: USD will face Nebraska in a women’s basketball game at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls Nov. 16. USD head coach Carrie Eighmey enters her inaugural season at the helm of the Coyotes. South Dakota returns eight players off last year’s 23-13 squad that reached the Women’s National Invitation Tournament Super 16. Two-time all-Summit League first team pick Grace Larkins returns for her senior season with the Coyotes. Nebraska is coming off a 23-12 season that included the Cornhuskers’ first Big Ten Championship game appearance since 2014. Spearfish native and Nebraska coach Amy Williams led the Huskers to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Williams was the head coach at USD from 2012-16, leading the Coyotes to a WNIT Championship title in her final season in Vermillion.
June 18: Mount Vernon/Plankinton/Corsica-Stickney defeated Faulkton/Highmore 17-0 in an American Legion Baseball game played on the 1989 film “Field of Dreams” Field in Dyersville (IA). Taite Klumb was the winning pitcher and hit a grand slam while teammate Cain Tobin added three hits.
 
June 18: Watertown broke ground on an eight-court pickleball complex east of the Prairie Lakes Wellness Center. Officials expect the project to cost around $600,000. The project is expected to be completed in early October.
June 20: David Crum is the new athletic director at South Dakota Mines. He has more than 30 years of collegiate athletic experience with a successful fundraising background as well. Crum has worked at DI schools such as UCLA, Nebraska, Iowa State and Minnesota.
June 21: Former Aberdeen resident Michael Andrew did not qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, finishing eighth in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke and fifth in the 50-meter freestyle at the USA Olympic Swim Trials in Indianapolis. Andrew, 25, lived in Aberdeen for about his first 11 years and won an Olympic gold medal in 2021 as part of the the USA men’s 4×100 medley relay team. He now lives in California. Ryan Murphy (backstroke), Andrew (breaststroke), Caeleb Dressel (butterfly) and Zach Apple (freestyle) won the event at the Tokyo Olympics in a world record time of 3:26.78. Each swimmer swam a different discipline or stroke for 100 meters as part of the relay.
June 22: The 50th annual Kadoka Buffalo Stampede Rodeo was held. The rodeo actually started in 1972-73, but its first performance at the community’s permanent rodeo grounds started in 1974.
June 22: Spearfish teacher and coach Eric Lappe made his first career hole-in-one at hole No. 8 at Meadowbrook in Rapid City. In 1992, Lappe led Harrold to the State B championship before an overflowing crowd at the Barnett Center in Aberdeen. Harrold nipped Warner 84-79 as Lappe scored 40 points while Chuck Welke led Warner with 39 points and 22 rebounds. Chris Rozell added 26 for Warner (23-1).
June 23: USD graduate Chris Nilsen tied for second in the pole vault to earn a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics. It will be his second Olympics as he earned a silver medal at the last one in Tokyo. Nilsen was a three-time NCAA champion and seven-time All-American for the Coyotes. His personal best is 19 feet, 10.25 inches.

June 23: SDSU graduate Coby Hilton qualified for the semifinals of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR. And that is where his Olympic Trials ended as the Marshall (MN) native finished 18th in the 100 meters. On Jan. 21, 2023, at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Invite, Hilton won the 60-meter indoor race in 6.51 seconds, which equaled the fastest time in the world at the time.
June 24: After teammate Kavares Tears doubled in the seventh inning, Tennessee’s Hunter Ensley scored on an acrobatic, twist-around, half-slide/tumble to avoid being tagged to give his Volunteers a 6-1 lead over Texas A&M. It turned out to be the winning run in a 6-5 game that gave Coach Tony Vitello’s Volunteers their first baseball national championship. One of Tennessee’s relief pitchers is Sioux Falls Roosevelt graduate Marcus Phillips. In 2017, Phillips was a star pitcher and hitter who led Sioux Falls into the Little League World Series.
June 24: Former SDSU standout Luke Appel signed his first pro basketball contract to play with Okapi Aalst in the top league in Belgium.
June 25: SDSU will hold an open house Sept. 27 to celebrate the $53.1 million renovation of the old Frost Arena to the First Bank & Trust Arena. The two-year renovation and expansion project was spearheaded by a $20 million commitment from Brookings-based First Bank & Trust. The project will include new seating and suite options, state-of-the-art video board and display systems, a new sound system, a more spacious concourse, improved restrooms and new locker rooms and coaching offices. First Band & Trust Arena will hold 5,500; Frost Arena held 6,500. There will also be displays to highlight the 50-year history of Frost as well as the Jacks’ previous home, The Barn.
June 26: North Central University in Minneapolis has promoted Aberdeen native David Rohrbach from assistant coach to head coach of its women’s basketball program. The former Aberdeen Christian and Trinity Bible College basketball standout has a 113-61, eight-season record as a high school boys’ basketball coach, mostly at Aberdeen Christian.
June 26: Nebraska native Baylor Scheierman of SDSU/Creighton was picked in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft with the 30th pick by the world champion Boston Celtics. He will earn a guaranteed $12.8 million over the next two years.
June 27: The Sioux Falls Canaries defeated the Lincoln Saltdogs 6-2 to earn manager Mike Meyer his 300th career win. A long-time Canaries assistant, Meyer is in his fifth season as manager. Josh Rehwaldt homered for the winning run while teammate Derek Maiben extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games. Steve Shirley is all-time winningest manager in Canaries’ history, going 378-405 in eight seasons.
June 27: Salem native Jacy Pulse of USD advanced to the women’s 400-meter hurdles semifinals at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
June 28: Roslyn native and Webster High School graduate Logan Storley won a three-round unanimous decision over Luca Poclit of Moldova on ESPN at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. Storley is now 16-3-0 in his Mixed Martial Arts pro career, including a 7-0 record in fights held in Sioux Falls.
June 28: NSU and Watertown graduate Tanner Berg finished 17th in the hammer throw at the US Olympic Trials. Berg’s best throw was 233 feet, 7 inches, and he missed being part of the 12-man finals by less than six feet.

June 28: Nine current NFL and former SDSU players helped the Jackrabbit Former Player Association host its youth football camp in Sioux Falls. NFLers were Dallas Goedert (Philadelphia Eagles); Mason McCormick (Pittsburgh Steelers); Christian Rozeboom (LA Rams); Zach Heins (LA Chargers); Isaiah Davis (NY Jets); Garret Greenfield and Cade Johnson (Seattle Seahawks); and Pierre Strong and DyShawn Gales (Cleveland Browns). The JFPA was established in 2018 to connect SDSU football alumni and to raise money for the team.
June 29: Salem native and USD senior Jacy Pulse finished 20th in the 400-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene (OR). Her trials ended in the semifinals. In the finals of the shot put, USD coach Maggie Ewen finished sixth with a throw of 61 feet, 1.25 inches.
June 30: USD graduate Emily Grove tied for ninth in the women’s pole vault at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene (OR). She advanced to the finals and cleared 14 feet, 6.25 inches. Making the USA Olympic team and finishing second was Katie Moon. She is coached by former world champion and two-time Olympian Brad Walker, who was born in Aberdeen and lived there until age 2.
June 30: NSU defensive lineman and incoming freshman this fall Carlos McArthur helped Canada defeat Japan to win the International Federation of American Football U20 World Junior Championship in Edmonton. McArthur, also a long snapper, is from Regina, Saskatchewan.
June 30: Five-time USD All-American pole vaulter Marleen Mulla won the women’s national championship in her home country of Estonian. She is a five-time Estonian national champion.

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.