Dec. 1: SDSU graduate Isaiah Davis scored his first NFL touchdown, catching a pass from future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers and taking it in for a 4-yard score for the NY Jets. It was Rodgers’ 494th career TD pass as the Jets lost to Seattle 26-21. Davis was the 45th different player who has caught a TD pass from Rodgers.
Dec. 1: Max Flatten of Watertown is one of 12 anglers named to the Bassmaster High School All-American Fishing Team. Almost 300 students in grades 10-12 across the nation were up for the award. The Watertown senior is the first known South Dakotan to earn the honor.
Dec. 3: In their first meeting of the season in their Basketbrawl rivalry series, the SD Mines men’s basketball team (1-8) got its first win of the season in a 58-50 victory over Black Hills State. Abel Hutchinson and Keagen Smith combined for 29 points for the Hardrockers.
Dec. 5: Harrisburg setter Josalyn Samuels has been named the MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year. She is the first player in South Dakota history to win the award.
Dec. 5-6: For the first time, South Dakota had both of its DI teams in the 64-team DI national volleyball tournament. SDSU (27-3) fell 3-0 to Miami while USD (21-10) fell 3-0 to Creighton.
Dec. 6: In their first ever meeting in girls’ basketball, Watertown nipped Great Plains Lutheran of Watertown 39-34. Malia Kranz led the Arrows with seven points while sisters Madeline and Katherine Prahl combined for 27 for GPL. GPL started playing girls’ basketball in 1998.
Dec. 7: Arizona State defeated Iowa State 45-19 to win the Big 12 Conference football championship. Helping open holes for the Arizona State powerful offense is seventh-year senior offensive lineman Emmit Bohle. The 6-foot-6, 310-pounder is a former Northern State and Selby Area standout. Bohle is one of only 35 FBS players who is competing in their seventh year of college football in 2024. He has played in 49 college football games, 27 for the Sun Devils and 22 for NSU. Arizona State was 3-9 last season, and the Sun Devils were picked to finish last in the Big 12 this season.
Dec. 7: The Montana Grizzlies had their fill of SDSU Saturday. That afternoon, the SDSU football team defeated Montana 35-18 in the second round of the FCS football playoffs. Linebacker Adam Bock led the Jacks with eight tackles and an interception that he returned 40 yards for a touchdown. That night, Brooklyn Meyer scored 32 points to lead the Jackrabbits’ women’s basketball team past the Griz 78-70.
Dec. 8: Callie Mueller of Florence earned the title of Miss Rodeo America 2025 at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. She was Miss Rodeo South Dakota 2024. She will travel more than 40,000 miles and appear at about 100 rodeo events as the official representative of the PRCA. Other Miss Rodeo America winners from South Dakota were Jordan Tierney of Oral in 2020-21; McKenzie Haley of Winner (2011); Leslie Patten of Belle Fourche (1985); Donna Keffeler of Sturgis (1982); and Pat Koren of Rapid City (1965). Marilyn Scott of Wyoming was the first Miss Rodeo America in 1956.
Dec. 10: USD forced 19 turnovers and Chase Forte scored 25 for the Coyotes in a 82-81 win over Wyoming in a rare visit to Vermillion from a Mountain West Conference opponent. Wyoming is coached by former NSU standout Sundance Wicks. USD’s final four points in the final 10 seconds came from four free throws from brothers and former Dakota Valley standouts Paul and Issac Bruns.
Dec. 12: Marvin Richard III tied a 58-year-old Pine Ridge boys’ basketball record for most points in a single game. He scored 49 in the Thorpes’ 76-63 loss to highly rated Bismarck Century. On Feb. 16, 1966, Will Garnier scored 49 points in Pine Ridge’s 105-81 win over Edgemont. On Dec. 19, Richard claimed the record for himself with 57 points against St. Francis in the Lakota Nation Invitational.
Dec. 13: Led by two large gifts, the USD athletic department has raised almost $14 million since July. The big donations came from former Coyote offensive lineman John House ($5.6 million) and an undisclosed gift from Scott and Lisa Jones and family.
Dec. 13: De Smet and Baltic dedicated their basketball courts to honor long-time coaches. Bob Sittig (299-96) led the Baltic girls to five state titles (1995, 1996,1998, 2001 and 2003). Meanwhile, Marv McCune (1954-2001) led De Smet to three state basketball titles in 1987, 1995 and 1999 and state football titles in 1980 (via polls) and 1981 (via first year of the playoffs).
Dec. 14: For the first time in state history, South Dakota will have two representatives in the national semifinals of the DI FCS playoffs. In a game with nine turnovers, USD defeated California-Davis 35-21 to advance to the Coyotes’ first semifinals. USD quarterback Aidan Bouman had a hand in three TDs and Gary Bryant III led the defense with 15 tackles while five different teammates each had one interception. Meanwhile, SDSU downed Incarnate Word of Texas 55-14. In his final home game in Brookings where Mark Gronowski went 31-0 over his career at Dykhouse Stadium, he threw three TDs and ran for two more.
Dec. 14: One of the greatest rodeo stars in South Dakota history, Lisa Lockhart of Oelrichs competed in her 18th consecutive National Finals Rodeos in Las Vegas. The 59-year-old also is one of the greatest barrel racers the world has ever seen. Lockhart, who finished 10th in the world in 2024, is the WPRA’s all-time career earnings leader as she has earned around $4 million in her career.
Dec. 14: SDSU redshirt freshman Brenden Begeman of Herreid-Selby Area scored the first touchdown of his SDSU career in the Jacks’ 55-14 quarterfinal win over Incarnate Word of Texas. In high school, Begeman ran for 6,807 yards, intercepted 26 passes and scored 107 TDs.
Dec. 18: No. 6 Alabama left Grand Forks with a tough-fought 97-90 win over the University of North Dakota. Devil Lakes native and former NDSU standout Grant Nelson, which led the Crimson Tide to last year’s Final Four, led Alabama with 23 points and 10 rebounds. UND got 40 points from Bismarck native Treysen Eaglestaff. Former NSU standout and coach Paul Sather’s UND team led 38-35 at halftime and had the game tied at 85 with less than two minutes to play. Eaglestaff was the 2022 North Dakota Mr. Basketball winner while Nelson won the award in 2020.
Dec. 20: Paiton Burckhard’s return to Aberdeen Central as head girls’ basketball coach was a memorable one. In the season opener, her Golden Eagles defeated Spearfish 66-64 in triple overtime at Golden Eagles Arena. Ava Yeske spotted Taryn Hermansen under the hoop for the game-winning basket with seven seconds remaining in the third OT. Hermansen ended with 19 points and 19 rebounds while teammate Lauryn Burckhard (Paiton’s sister) had 29 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter and three OT periods. Paiton Burckhard was a former standout player for Aberdeen Central and SDSU. In high school and college, she had 3,473 points, 1,712 rebounds, led AC to state titles in 2018 and 2016, and SDSU to a 129-36 record, six conference titles, a Sweet 16 appearance and the 2022 WNIT national championship.
Dec. 21: Some highlights from the 47th annual Lakota Nation Invitational in Rapid City:

 Rapid City native and Las Vegas Aces coach of the WNBA Becky Hammon returned home as an honored guest of the LNI. Hammon was one of the greatest players in WNBA history.
 The Mahpiya Luta girls’ team won its fourth straight LNI, defeating Rapid City Christian 62-31. Coach Matt Rama’s team (formerly Red Cloud) was led by tourney MVP Jodene Hunter-Big Crow.
 The Rapid City Christian boys’ basketball team defeated Pine Ridge 79-62 to win the LNI. The Comets were led by tourney MVP Julius Frog. Last year, Pine Ridge won the title over RCC.
 Pine Ridge was led in the tourney by Marvin Richard III, who scored 151 points in four games. His LNI record total included another tourney and school record in his 57-point performance against St. Francis.
Dec. 28: After two seasons at SDSU as head coach, former Jackrabbit standout Jimmy Rogers is the new head coach at Washington State. He led the Jacks to a 27-3 record and the 2023 FCS national title as well as being part of a 29-game winning streak. He replaced Jake Dickert, who recently took the job at Wake Forest. Dickert is a former assistant coach at USD, Augustana and SDSU.
Dec. 28: Castlewood placed four players in double-figure scoring in a 64-50 boys’ basketball win over Madison, giving coach Paul Raasch his 600th career coaching win. Raasch is just the fourth coach in state history to reach the milestone and is the winningest active coach in South Dakota. The other three coaches to amass 600 wins were the late Larry Luitjens (748), the late Gary Munsen (672), and Burnell Glanzer (614). Bryon Laue had 21 points and 17 rebounds to lead the top-rated Warriors. 
Dec. 31: Dan Jackson, who previously played and coached football at South Dakota State, will become the 22nd head coach in Jackrabbit football history. An Omaha native, Jackson began his association with SDSU football as a player from 2003-05. He joined the Jackrabbits’ coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 2012. He was elevated to cornerbacks coach in 2014 and also served as recruiting coordinator, special teams coordinator and assistant head coach under John Stiegelmeier before moving on to Northern Illinois following the 2019 season. Jackson coached two seasons at Northern Illinois, then was hired at Vanderbilt, where he coached defensive backs during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In 2024, Jackson became a defensive coordinator for the first time when he joined the coaching staff at Idaho under former Jackrabbit colleague Jason Eck. Jackson recently was tabbed to become defensive coordinator at New Mexico under Eck.
Dec. 31: SDSU quarterback Mark Gronowski is moving on, as he said he would earlier this year. Gronowski will either play another season of college ball somewhere else or enter the NFL draft. He leaves the Jacks with 49 wins, two FCS national titles, 10,309 passing yards, 130 TDs (93 passing), 1,767 rushing yards and a trophy case of awards.