June 1: The 2024 pheasant harvest showed that hunters took more than 1.3 million roosters. That is the highest harvest since 2012 when hunters took about 1.4 million birds. An additional 380,000 pheasants were harvested at private shooting preserves in South Dakota. State officials said conditions were near ideal during the state’s 2024 pheasant season. The 2025 traditional pheasant season will start Oct. 18 and end Jan. 31, 2026.
June 3: Coach Kim Zimmerman and his Aberdeen Central girls’ golf team won their program’s first state team championship. However, the Golden Eagles have always been in the hunt as they have four state runners-up and three third-place finishes since 2016. Aberdeen Central junior Olivia Braun won the individual title while teammates Emma Dohrer (junior) finished fourth and sophomore Kyley Wirebaugh finished fifth. Braun and Dohrer now each has four top-10 finishes and have been five-time state medalists (top 25). Also, junior Chloe Vikander medaled for Aberdeen Central by finishing 21st and rounding out the Golden Eagle team were seventh-graders Carli Withers and Genevieve Golz. This was Zimmerman’s 27th season as coach. He coached Sydney Wirebaugh to the 2018 individual Class AA championship.
June 3: Clark-Willow Lake sophomore Bryann Roehrich won her second straight State B girls’ golf championship. Chester junior Jadyn McDonald was second and Miller junior Jayce Pugh, a two-time state champion (2021 and 2022), was third. Roehrich’s sister, seventh-grader Faith, finished 12th. The last time CWL had individual state champions was during the era of Clark sisters Ashley and Kim Kaufman when the Kaufmans won six straight titles from 2004-09 (Ashley in 2004 and 2006 and future LPGA player Kim in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009).
June 3: The St. Thomas More girls’ golf team won its school’s first team state title. STM junior Rylan Horning also won the State A individual title and freshman teammate Kaitlin Strain finished third. Horning won the individual title in 2023 and Strain was the individual state title winner in 2024. The STM coach is Brandon Kandolin, who has coached the STM girls’ basketball team to seven state titles. Also, STM has now won 31 state titles in various sports under the leadership of athletic director Craig Nowotny, who is retiring after 29 years at the school.
June 4: A legendary South Dakota high school boys’ basketball coach is changing jobs. Dave Hollenbeck is moving from St. Thomas More in Rapid City to West Central in Hartford. Hollenbeck has been the STM for the past 29 seasons, with his teams going 532-156. Under Hollenbeck, STM went to 16 state tournaments, won four state titles (2006, 2007, 2011 and 2012), were state runners-up twice (2010 and 2016) and collected 19 conference championships and 15 seasons with 20 or more wins. Four of his players have won Mr. Basketball awards (Ryder Kirsch in 2020, Skye Warwick in 2012, Liam Duffy in 2011 and Zach Finley in 2006).
June 7: It has been a magical horse-racing season for trainer Bill Mott. The Mobridge native’s horse, Sovereignty, won the 157th Belmont Stakes with Junior Alvarado aboard. Earlier, Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby. The horse did not run the complete Triple Crown circuit as he rested and did not enter the Preakness Stakes. This is the second time Mott has won the Kentucky Derby (Country House in 2019) and the Belmont Stakes (Drosselmeyer in 2010).
June 8: Former Aberdeen resident and 2021 Olympic gold medalist Michael Andrew medaled at the 2025 U.S. National Championships in Indianapolis. He also earned a spot on the 47-member Team USA that will compete in the 2025 World Championships in Singapore on July 11-Aug. 3 where Andrew is scheduled to swim the 50-meter breaststroke and 50 butterfly. He finished second in both of those races at the U.S. Nationals.
June 9: South Shore native and 2017 Watertown graduate Spencer Waege announced his retirement from football. The 6-foot-5, 305-pound defensive lineman was a three-year starter and two-time All-American for North Dakota State. The Bison went 78-8 and won four national titles with Waege in its program. He has spent time in the NFL for the last couple of years with the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers. This fall, he was scheduled to play with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats before announcing his
retirement.
June 11: The Lake Norden amateur baseball team defeated host Ramona at its DeRungs Memorial Field. It was the first amateur game at the Ramona field since the 1960s and the first home game since the Express formed in 2023. The 1960 field is named after manager Logan DeRungs’ relatives. The community has renovated the field, built in 1960, with the help of the Minnesota Twins Community Fund, Sioux Valley Energy and local donations of money and volunteer labor.
June 12: Two 1975 Valley City State graduates with connections to Milbank were inducted into the school’s Bill Osmon Coaches Hall of Fame. Steve Rice coached Milbank’s football team from 1987-91. His Valley City classmate and fellow inductee, Boyd Sussex, spent 19 seasons as the Milbank boys’ basketball coach, leading the Bulldogs to the State A title in 2023. The honor is named after legendary Valley City State coach Bill Osmon (1918-2007), who coached Vikings’ teams that won 24 conference titles in four different sports.
June 12: Roslyn native Logan “Storm” Storley defeated Masayuki Kikuiri of Japan by unanimous decision in his semifinal welterweight fight in the PFL World Tournament 5. He now fights Thad Jean (10-0) of Florida in the championship on Aug. 1. Storley won six prep state wrestling titles at Webster and was an All-American at Minnesota. He is 18-3 as a pro mixed martial arts fighter and is a former Bellator world champion.
June 13: Rapid City Stevens graduate and Oregon freshman Simeon Birnbaum finished seventh in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA DI national track and field championships. It earned him All-American status in a race where 68-hundreds of a second separated first place from 11th place. The winner was Washington’s Nathan Green in 3:47.26. In 11th was Michigan’s Trent McFarland in 3:47.94. Birnbaum finished in 3:47.64.
June 14: 1955 Hayti High School and 1960 Huron College graduate Garney Henley had his No. 26 jersey retired by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats during the team’s home opener (28-23 loss to Saskatchewan). Henley played 16 seasons in the CFL, all with Hamilton. He played 216 games from 1960-75, scoring 56 touchdowns and collecting 59 interceptions. He was a two-way starter who also returned punts and kickoffs. Henley led the Tiger-Cats to seven CFL championship games, with Hamilton winning Grey Cups in 1963, 1965, 1967 and 1972. Henley, 89, was All-CFL nine times and the league MVP in 1972. After spending a year at SDSU on a basketball and track scholarship, Henley transferred to Huron College where as a multi-sport standout played his first football game. He was an All-American in each of his three football seasons at Huron and is a member of the National College Hall of Fame, the Gridiron Greats Hall of Fame and South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame among others.
June 14: Hayti native, Hamlin graduate and Florida sophomore Gracelyn Leiseth earned All-American honors in the NCAA Division I national track and field championships by placing 10th in the shot put. Earlier in the season, Leiseth placed fifth in the shot and seven in the discus in the Southeastern Conference outdoor championships.
June 16-21: The 2025 U.S. Trampoline and Tumbling National Championships were held at The Monument in Rapid City. More than 110 teams from across the U.S. with 1,600 athletes competed in more than 3,500 events at the 55th annual national championships. This is the third time (2005 and 2015) Rapid City has hosted this event.
June 17: Former NSU standout offensive lineman Jake Oliphant and his Beaumont (TX) Renegades defeated the Omaha Beef 37-29 to win the National Arena League championship.
June 19: Platte-Geddes boys’ basketball coach Frank Cutler is retiring after 36 seasons, all at Platte. His teams went 546-264. The Claremont native guided the Black Panthers to 13 state tournaments with three third-place finishes, two state runner-up finishes in 2009 and 2014 and a state title in 2008. Cutler also was a SDSU baseball standout and a state amateur baseball legend. He was a multi-sport standout at Langford High School.
June 20: The winningest high school football coach in South Dakota will join Kim Nelson will be calling plays for head coach Jared Smith, who played for Nelson at Roosevelt and who later served as one of Nelson’s assistant coaches. Nelson, who has 314 career wins, resigned as the Roosevelt head coach in 2023. He was a University of Sioux Falls assistant coach that fall and was the SFR freshman coach last season.
June 23: South Dakota State’s Rod DeHaven has been named the Summit League Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year for the first time. DeHaven guided the Jackrabbits’ men’s outdoor team to a conference title in May, capping a sweep of the cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field men’s titles for SDSU in 2024-25. DeHaven was named Summit League Coach of the Year for each of those seasons. He was also selected as the Coach of the Year for women’s cross country.
June 24: Arlin Likness and Tom McGough were inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in Rapid City. Likness is a Britton and Northern State graduate who won seven football state titles at Hamlin and Yankton. His teams went 261-101 and were state runners-up three times. A Stanley County and NSU graduate, McGough of Miller has been coaching track and cross country for more than 50 years. His teams have won 70 conference, 46 region and two state championships.
June 26: Former Northern State basketball standout Jacksen Moni was signed by the San Antonio Spurs to play in the NBA Summer League July 10-20 on the ESPN networks. Moni was a three-time all-conference player for the Wolves before finishing his career at NDSU.
June 27: Hunters harvested about 99,000 grouse during South Dakota’s 2024 season — the highest number taken since 2000.
June 28: Pierre native Carter Sanderson was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins with the 169th pick in the sixth round of the NHL Draft. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound forward is believed to be the first South Dakotan drafted into the NHL. A University of North Dakota commit, Sanderson played in 2024-25 for Muskegon (MI) in the United States Hockey League when he helped the Lumberjacks win the team’s first USHL championship. Sanderson helped the Lumberjacks win the team’s first-ever Clark Cup title in the USHL
last season. A 6-foot-1, 192-pound forward, Sanderson logged five goals and six assists last season. Sanderson is the second Pierre native to be drafted by a professional sports team this year as Grey Zabel was drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks in April.
June 28: Dakota State sports information director Nick Huntimer was inducted into the South Dakota Association of the Deaf Hall of Fame at the group’s 55th annual conference in Sioux Falls. He has worked at his alumni mater since 2004. He is believed to be the first deaf college SID in the nation and the first deaf official to work South Dakota high school tournaments.
June 29: Aberdeen native Ezra Aderhold won his first Disc Golf Pro Tour championship by capturing the Discmania Challenge in Indianola, Iowa. Aderhold, rated fifth in the world standings, became the first South Dakotan to win a title on the DGPT. He is in his sixth season on the tour.
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.
