Dec. 2: O’Gorman graduate is the Big Ten Volleyball Player of the Year. Nebraska junior Bergen Reilly also was named the Big Ten Setter of the Year and first-team all-Big Ten for the third consecutive year. The nation’s No. 1 Cornhuskers finished the regular season 30-0 and 20-0 in the Big Ten.
Dec. 2: First-year New Mexico football coach Jason Eck was named the Mountain West Coach of the year. Eck is a former SDSU assistant coach (2016-21). Eck’s Lobos went 9-3 and tied for first in the conference. New Mexico also broke the longest active streak of not being bowl eligible of eight years as the Lobos last bowl game was in 2016. New Mexico also got its first win over a Big Ten team in program history when the Lobos defeated UCLA 35-10 at The Rose Bowl earlier this season. Plus, Eck’s son, Lobos’ linebacker Jaxton Eck, was not only named first-team all-Mountain West, but also the co-defensive player of the year.
Dec. 3: The men’s cross country athlete of the year in the Summit League is Warner native Cody Larson of SDSU. He led his Jackrabbits to the Summit League title by winning the league championship race and being named meet MVP. He is one of only five runners in Summit League history to break the 24-minute barrier in an 8,000-meter race. Larson won the league crown in a record time of 23 minutes, 15.59 seconds.
Dec. 5: Former coach Bob Winter and 15 members of his 1975 Yankton Gazelles State A championship team were honored during the Gazelles’ home game against Sioux Falls Lincoln. Yankton defeated Watertown 39-34 in that first Class A state championship game for girls’ basketball at the Aberdeen Civic Arena. Several members of the 1975 team also were part of Yankton state titles in 1977, 1978 and 1979.
Dec. 5: After less than one year as head football coach Washington State, former SDSU coach and player Jimmy Rogers has been hired by Power Four and Big 12 Conference member Iowa State. Rogers is 33-9 after three seasons as a head coach. He was a former assistant coach for the Cyclones, whose head men’s basketball coach, T.J. Otzelberger, also is a former SDSU head coach.
Dec. 6: The Augustana men’s basketball team outlasted rival Sioux Falls 108-106 in double overtime. Both sides couldn’t capitalize at the end of regulation, sending the game tied at 90 to the first overtime. Bennett Fried of Augie tied the game at 99 with seconds to go in the first OT to send the game into its second OT. In the second OT, Augie made seven of nine free throws while USF only one of six. The game featured 13 ties and 12 lead changes.
Dec. 6: The Dakota State men’s basketball team used 24 points from Brayden Pankonen to defeat Valley City State 77-62 to improve to 9-1. The last time Dakota State started the season 9-1 was in the 1966-67 season.
Dec. 8: Nancy Hoeke has resigned as the Milbank volleyball coach. She is the winningest coach in school history and had a 449-279 career record in 35 seasons, 25 of which were at Milbank. Her Bulldogs were state champions twice (2004 and 2007 – the program’s only titles) and state runners-up twice (2007 and 2009). She is a 1984 Aberdeen Central graduate.
Dec. 8: Full-time racing will return to Huron for the 2026 season under the guidance of JSX Promotions LLC led by co-owner/president Josh Sterrett and co-owner/executive director Jordon Sterrett. The two Huron natives said they plan to start a new chapter at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron built on the strong foundation established by Orville Chenoweth, who was the promoter for about 25 years starting in the mid-1990s. The speedway has been hosting dirt-track racing for more than 100 years.
Dec. 9: Former University of North Dakota All-American tight end Jim Kleinsasser was one of 22 inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. The Carrington (ND) native was inducted with such icons as Peyton Manning and Nick Saban. He is only the second North Dakotan inducted (UND’s Jim LeClair in 1999). After a standout career at UND (1995-98), Kleinsasser was a standout NFL player with the Minnesota Vikings for 13 seasons. Carrington is 147 miles north of Aberdeen.
Dec. 10: Rapid City native Simeon Birnbaum was named the Big Ten Conference Indoor Track Athlete of the Week. The Oregon sophomore ran an Oregon school record in the 3,000 meters with his time of 7:39.65 in a meet in Boston. Birnbaum topped the previous school mark of 7:40.51 set by Edward Cheserek at the 2016 Millrose Games. Birnbaum was an All-American for Oregon in cross country this past fall.
Dec. 11: Brandon Valley senior Alyvia Padgett scored 40 points to lead the No. 2 Lynx to a 63-54 win over top-ranked O’Gorman. It ended the Knights’ 50-game win streak. OG defeated Brandon Valley 47-46 in last year’s State AA title game and again defeated the Lynx 55-42 for the 2024 State AA title. The Knights have won three state titles in four seasons. The Lynx are coached by Aberdeen native Mike Zerr.
Dec. 12: Pine Ridge senior Marvin Richard III scored his 2,000th career point in leading his Thorpes to a win over Buffalo (WY) at an invitational in Gillette. He is the 47th South Dakota high school boys’ basketball player to accomplish the feat. Last season, he scored a state record 62 points in a game.
Dec. 13: South Dakota cowgirl Lisa Lockhart, 60, of Oelrichs finished eighth in the world during her 19th straight trip the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. She is the winningest barrel racer of all-time with almost $4 million in earnings.
Dec. 14: SDSU forced Ball State into 27 turnovers to collect a 78-59 women’s basketball win. SDSU freshman Mahli Abdouch (O’Gorman) tied a program record with 10 steals, a feat also accomplished by former Jackrabbit standout Karla Stevenson in 1985. Stevenson, a Hayti native, was in attendance at the game.
Dec. 14: Todd County seniors Chris Ellert and Haysten Wooden Knife were among 70 of the nation’s best high school seniors who played in the 2025 Native All-American Football Game at U.S. Bank Stadium, home to the Minnesota Vikings. Ellert and Wooden Knife helped Todd County finish as the All-Nations 9A state runners-up this fall.
Dec. 15: Coach Sundance Wicks and his Wyoming men’s basketball team (9-2) defeated SDSU 97-72 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. Wicks is a former NSU standout player and assistant coach. Last week, Wyoming defeated USD 106-79. Earlier this season, Wyoming defeated NSU 99-75 and the University of Northern Colorado 69-65. UNC is coached by another former NSU standout, Steve Smiley, who was teammates with Wicks. Later this season, Wyoming will twice play conference foe San Jose State, coached by former NSU assistant coach Tim Miles.
Dec. 18: Missouri head football coach Eli Drinkwitz has hired Webster native Jake Breske as his team’s president of player personnel and recruiting. Breske, a former USD quarterback, spent the last five years as Tennessee’s director of player personnel. Tennessee is coached by Aberdeen native Josh Heupel.
Dec. 19: The Philadelphia Eagles defeated Washington 29-18 to win the NFC East title. Among Philadelphia players scoring touchdowns was tight end Dallas Goedert, a Britton-Hecla and SDSU graduate. It was Goedert’s 10 th touchdown catch of the season, tying an Eagles record for most touchdown catches in a season by a tight end. Co-owning that Eagles’ record is Ellendale (ND) High School and SDSU graduate Pete Retzlaff (1931-2020), who had 10 TD catches as the Philadelphia TE in 1965. Ellendale is about 50 miles from Britton. Goedert caught a TD pass the following week on Dec. 28 to break the record and help the Eagles defeat Buffalo 13-12.
Dec. 20: Marvin Richard III led Pine Ridge to third place in the 2025 Lakota Nation Invitational. He ended his LNI career with 438 points in LNI games. That broke the record of 344 points that was set in 2002 by Paige Paulsen of Custer. Richard III also holds the LNI records for points in a single game (57) and points for a single tourney (151). Richard led the Thorpes to the 2023 LNI championship, the 2024 runner-up spot, two third-place finishes and one fourth place finish.
Dec. 20: Mahpiya Luta defeated Lakota Tech 65-34 for its fifth consecutive Lakota Nation Invitational championship. The team is coached by Matt Rama and led by MVP Ashlan Carlow-Blount, who had 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Carlow-Blount not only helped Mahpiya Luta win five straight LNI titles, she was MVP twice, all-tourney three times, earned the tourney playmaker award twice and won the Waylon Cash Most Inspirational award as a freshman.
Dec. 20: Mahpiya Luta defeated Cheyenne-Eagle Butte 76-74 in double overtime to win the 48th annual LNI boys’ championship. The team last won the tourney in 2007 as Red Cloud, and Mahpiya Luta current coach Christian McGhee was a part of that Red Cloud (now Mahpiya Luta) team. Okte Spotted Eagle of Mahpiya Luta sent the game into its first OT with his basket with five seconds left. With 15 seconds left in the first OT, Julian Tonche scored to send the game into its second OT. CEB led by three in the final minute of the second OT, but offensive rebound putbacks by tourney MVP Memphis Brewer (a sophomore) and Spotted Eagle gave Mahpiya Luta the title.
Dec. 20: Not only did Mahpiya Luta sweep the boys’ and girls’ 2025 LNI titles, they had athletes who won the Steve Withorne MVP awards who are children of former LNI MVPs. The girls’ MVP in 2025 was Ashlan Carlow-Blount of Mahpiya Luta, and her mom Amanda Carlow was the 1997 LNI MVP playing for champion Pine Ridge. The boys’ MVP in 2025 was Memphis Brewer of Mahpiya Luta, and his mom Brittany (Knife) Brewer was the 2001 LNI MVP playing for champion Cheyenne-Eagle Butte.
Dec. 20: Parker named its high school gymnasium floor after two of its retired Hall of Fame coaches: Gayle Hoover and Jill Christensen, both of Parker. When Hoover retired after 34 seasons as the Parker boys’ basketball coach, he was South Dakota’s winningest boys’ coach with 577 wins. After 36 seasons at Parker, Christensen remains as South Dakota’s winningest volleyball coach with 837 victories.
Dec. 21: The Texas women’s basketball team (14-0) defeated SDSU 70-51 in Brookings. It was the highest-ranked team ever to play in Brookings. The Longhorns were rated second in the nation at the time and were the national runners-up last season.
Dec. 21: Under first year coach Ben Johnson, the Chicago Bears (11-4) clinched a playoff berth for the first time in five seasons. Don Johnson, Coach Johnson’s father, is a 1970 graduate of Madison High School who played football at South Dakota State.
Dec. 22: The Dell Rapids St. Mary community and basketball program honored Joanie Lacy for 50 years of keeping book for the Cardinals. She also has helped the school in many other ways as well.
Dec. 22: Rosemary Bellum has resigned as the Watertown volleyball coach. She is the winning coach in program history, having guided the Arrows to a 192-80 record in nine seasons (2017-2025). Watertown has won two state championships in program history, one with Bellum as a senior player in 1993 and one with her as coach in 2019. She spent more than 30 years in the Watertown program as either a player, assistant or head coach.
Dec. 25: Former SDSU quarterback Chris Oladokun made his first NFL career start in a regular-season game. Denver beat his Kansas City team 20-13 in a nationally-televised game, but most agreed that Oladokun held his own against one of the NFL’s best defenses. He threw his first NFL touchdown in the game after being with Kansas City, mostly on the practice squad, for the last four seasons and winning two Super Bowl rings.
Dec. 26: Northwestern (7-6) of the Big Ten Conference defeated Central Michigan 34-7 to win the GameAbove Sports Bowl. Junior wide receiver Griffin Wilde was the game’s MVP with 10 catches for 97 yards and two touchdowns. Wilde is a Sioux Falls Jefferson graduate who was an All-American at SDSU who helped the Jacks win the 2023 FCS national championship.
Dec. 29: No. 1 Arizona handled the visiting SDSU Jackrabbits 99-71 in men’s basketball. It was the first time in program history that the Jacks played the DI nation’s No. 1 rated team (13-0).
Dec. 31: The NDSU men’s basketball defeated USD 84-61 in Fargo in the Summit League opener. Due to a massive amount of injuries, USD only had seven players available. Isaac Bruns became the 52nd Coyote to score 1,000 plus career points in the game. His brother, Paul Bruns, surpassed the milestone in 2024.
Dec. 31: Former SDSU quarterback Mark Gronowski led No. 23 Iowa to a 37-24 win over No. 14 Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl. He was the game MVP with 266 yards of total offense with three touchdowns as Iowa finished 9-4. Gronowski led the Jacks to FCS national titles in 2022 and 2023. Gronowski ends his career as the winningest starting quarterback in college football history with a record of 58-10.
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.
