So, I’ve officially been with SD SportScene for a full school year now, and I thought I’d give my two cents on what I’ve noticed over the past 10 months.

Within these last 10 months, I, personally have interviewed over 300 coaches and athletes, attended too many games/events to count, and have 177 publishings on the site (this will be my 178th).

I’ve gone to four state tournaments, numerous playoff games, and even some Northern events. So, with all that being said, one thing has stood out to me specifically: sportsmanship.

Growing up in Southern California, I’ve been around some of the best atmospheres in sports. I’ve played against Tetairoa McMillan (seventh overall pick to the Carolina Panthers), Jared Jones (second round draft pick to the Pittsburgh Pirates) and plenty of others. Among all that, the sportsmanship of South Dakota has made much more of an impact on me than playing against some of those guys.

Another little fun fact, my high school football team my senior year had an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty every game. We only had five games due to COVID, so there were at least five, possibly 10. And how many have I seen here in all sports: zero.

In high school, trash talking was just part of the game, and the refs allowed it to a certain degree. But in all the games that I’ve seen, I don’t think I’ve heard any sort of trash talking. If anything, it’s been the complete opposite.

For example, down at the State Track meet a couple weekends ago in Sioux Falls, I was covering the Class B pole vault finals, and Rasmus Loken of Ipswich, who won the Class B title and had the highest mark going in, was cheering his competitors on, which I thought was crazy.

In my head, I’m thinking, ‘You’re going up against these guys. Why are you hoping that they hit a height?’ but Loken had something else to say.

“It’s a great environment. I love to see it. We’re all talking to each other,” Loken said. “No reason to bring anyone down. We’re all here, we’re all at state. Might as well bring each other up.”

I even saw opposing coaches help out other pole vaulters, which I thought was extremely abnormal, but apparently that thought was the only abnormal thing.

Countless times I watched athletes finish their races, cross the finish line and just hug each other, congratulate each other. That was the first thing they did as they awaited their times. And if someone broke a record (which happened 14 times on day one), they would just congratulate that person, even though they just lost.

Even looking at the state softball tournament this past weekend, I saw girls from other teams coming back later to watch their opponents, with a team they just played.

All this was foreign to me prior to covering sports for SD SportScene. I remember asking some of the South Dakota guys on the football team at Northern if people talked trash in high school, and they all said that it’s extremely rare. That amazed me.

It makes me appreciate South Dakota prep sports that much more. It’s one thing to be a great athlete. It’s another to be a great athlete, and bring up other athletes around you. It’s even more impressive to be all that, and not feel the need to boast about it.

Coming from an area that’s all about competitiveness and that’s it, it made me realize that you can have both. You can be competitive in between the lines, and still be buddies outside of the lines. You don’t have to say mean things to the guy lining up across from you, but you can still play them tough and help the guy up.

So, with all this being said, athletes in South Dakota, keep doing that. I know it probably just comes natural to you, but it shows people outside of the area that you can be competitive and still be nice. I admire it, and I know plenty of others do as well.