MOBRIDGE – Whether putting on his football cleats, his basketball shoes, his track spikes, his cowboy boots or his baseball cleats, Jackson Eisemann is always competing at something.

The Mobridge-Pollock senior will be a four-year starter in football, basketball and track by the time he graduates next spring. He also competes in rodeo, and is a member of the Winner-Colome baseball team.

“It’s worth it,” Eisemann said of his demanding schedule. “There’s really no days off.”

Eisemann is currently the quarterback of the Mobridge-Pollock football team, which is 5-2 after a big win over Clark-Willow Lake this past weekend.

“We knew that they were really good and that if we wanted to have a good outcome for the playoffs then we’d have to win that game right there,” Eisemann said, “to have a chance at getting a good seed for playoffs.”

Eisemann threw a pair of touchdowns in that contest, but he said it is the Tigers’ defense which is playing lights out.

“Our defense has allowed six points is all in the last three weeks,” he said.

The Tigers have won three straight games since a loss to Aberdeen Roncalli, a contest that Eisemann said helped to turn the season around.

“It was just quiet in the locker room after the game. … We just remember that game all the time, of how hard it was after the game in the locker room,” Eisemann said. “We just use it as motivation now to push ourselves harder and harder each week.”

In addition to being a key member of the basketball squad, he is also a sprinter in track and field and ran on relay squads in a pair of state meets.

Then there is rodeo where he competes in team roping and calf roping.

What about bull riding?

“Not for me,” Eisemann said. “I like to stay healthy for my other sports.”

Eisemann plays first base for the Winner-Colome baseball team, and was on the 16U state runner-up squad that went 25-3 two years ago.

He explained that Mobridge didn’t have a team and he would go visit his aunt in Winner during the summers. Soon he was a key member of the squad there.

“They were all really welcoming to me. I had a lot of fun. I was friends with all of them before I even went down and played baseball with them,” Eisemann said. “They kind of encouraged me to play with them and I did. It probably was the most fun baseball I’ve ever played playing with them.”

However, it also added to an already demanding schedule now filled with frequent trips in the summer months.

“It gets to be a lot of driving when Winner is three hours away and you go down there and play baseball, and come back to Mobridge and go to a rodeo in Faith or Dupree, and then go back to Mobridge and then back down to Winner for baseball,” Eisemann said.

He said of all the sports he competes in, rodeo is among the toughest.

“It takes a lot of practice,” Eisemann said. “There’s a lot of mess-ups, there’s a lot of learning in it. It takes a long time to master.”

Eisemann, who said his favorite sport is probably whatever he is participating in at the time, has an interest in playing college football, but returning to his original position of wide receiver.

“I’ve always loved receiver a lot more than quarterback,” Eisemann said, “and I’m think I’m better at wide receiver than quarterback, but we’ll see what happens there.”

In the meantime, Eisemann will concentrate on having a memorable season year. His goal is to compete in as many big games as possible.

“I’ve always wanted to play in those higher competitive games,” he said, “where it comes down to win or go home. … I think those are probably the biggest goals to play in those type of games.”

Having competed in past state track and field meets, the high school and 4H finals in rodeo, and a state championship game in baseball, there are only two spots left to fill on his Bingo card: football and basketball.

It would cap a memorable high school career if he could reach those goals in all five sports in his final year of competition.

“That would be awesome,” Eisemann said. “That would be pretty sweet.”