Emma Dohrer’s job is not to be the main star.

But if the Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles are going to be at their best, they’re going to need Dohrer’s unsung contributions.

Dohrer is a senior for the Golden Eagles’ girls’ basketball program, which enters this weekend’s state tournament as the No. 5 seed and will compete in her final golf season later this spring.

And while her name is rarely at the top of the scoring charts – though that number is not never – it’s her consistency that makes the Golden Eagles fire.

“My dad has always told me, you’re going to have to do the dirty work,” Dohrer said.

It’s a role she has embraced, not because it was the only one left on a basketball roster featuring top scorers Taryn Hermansen and Lauryn Burckhard or on a golf roster featuring perennial favorite Olivia Braun, but because that “dirty work” brings consistency that empowers the team as a whole.

“I know this is cliche to say, but she is the calm to the storm,” said Central girls’ basketball coach Paiton Burckhard. “You don’t do the things that you do well without an Emma on the floor. She has just been phenomenal for us all year. She has to handle pressure, she has the ball in her hands more than anybody else on the floor and sometimes that’s really stressful. She does a really nice job of handling that pressure and remaining calm through all that stuff.”

That sense of easy, unbotheredness is simply another piece of the role Dohrer has embraced, albeit one that doesn’t have a category on the stat sheet.

“I just want to be that player that brings the calm,” Dohrer said. “When the other girls look at me, everything is fine.”

Which is not to say Dohrer can’t fill up a box score when the situation calls for it, whether it’s from the 3-point line or the free throw line, or handing the ball off for someone else’s points.

Burckhard pointed to the Golden Eagles’ recent SoDak 16 win over Rapid City Central as a microcosm of what Dohrer means to Central’s success.

“She was phenomenal in that game, and I think that summarizes the kind of season she’s had for us,” Burckhard said. “Not all the time is it recognized that she handles the pressure the way she does or that she has as many assists as she does or she’s organizing the floor. That stuff doesn’t get recognized or put on a stat line, but without her, things look a lot different for us.”

Burckhard said Dohrer’s basketball IQ lends itself to an anticipatory style of defense, meaning she will consistently be assigned to guard other teams’ best players. It also makes her versatile on the offensive end of the court.

“She could run the 5 position if she needed to,” Burckhard said.

Dohrer’s 5-foot-7 frame rarely calls for her to play the power forward spot, particularly with two players on the roster she will happily feed the ball to.

“We have two of the best posts in the entire state,” Dohrer noted.

Still, her knowledge of their position, role and strengths are valuable assets with the ball in her hands.

“We’ve played together ever since third grade,” Dohrer said. “We’re friends on the court and off the court, and our chemistry off the court makes us better teammates on the court.”

“Having her on the floor is such a huge, huge strength for us,” Burckhard said.

That same approach applies to her role on the golf team, as well. While Braun continues to win at the state and sometimes at the national levels, Dohrer brings a steady, consistent feel to a team that won it all last spring.

But when Dohrer inevitably takes her leave of the Golden Eagles – she is headed to Lake Area Tech next January – she hopes her legacy is anything but a stat sheet.

“I just hope God shines through me in everything I do,” she said. “I want to be more than a teammate. I want to be their friend.”