July 1: Merle Aske has resigned as the girls’ soccer varsity coach. Aberdeen Central started its girls’ program in 2006, and Aske has been the head of it since the start. He led the Golden Eagles to two state titles in 2011 and 2012. Long-time assistant and former AC player Kentra Hanley will take over the program.
July 4: Lake Norden honored Burt Tulson, manager of the Lake Norden Lakers’ amateur baseball team since 1976. He has managed more than 1,300 games and won more than 800 of them. The baseball field at Lake Norden Memorial Park is now named Burt Tulson Field for the man whose coaching career has spanned more than 50 years.
July 5: The Badminton World Federation celebrated World Badminton Day by issuing a “Raise a Racket for the sport we love” poster featuring some of its best players in the world. Among the six players pictured is Yankton native and Paralympian gold medalist Miles Krajewski.
July 5: Former USD All-American pole vaulter and 2020 Olympic silver medalist Chris Nilsen won the 2026 Fly Athens title in Greece. He cleared 19.39 feet.
July 6: An Aberdeen middle school art teacher is the creator of the “Struttin’ Stormy” mascot that represents the 2026 National Hockey League Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. Simmons Middle School teacher Ross Hettinger created the alternate version of Stormy The Ice Hog, the mascot of the pro team based in Raleigh, N.C.
July 7: Rapid City native Shane Van Boening won the 2026 USA National Pool Championships Men’s 9-Ball title in Dubuque (IA). It was another milestone championship in his legendary and Hall of Fame career. Van Boening defeated a field of the nation’s top billiard players.
July 11: In the first round of the 2026 MLB Draft, the Houston Astros took former Sioux Falls Roosevelt ace pitcher Jack Radel with the 28 th overall pick. Radel was an all-conference and All-American player for Notre Dame over the last three seasons. It’s the second year in a row that a former Sioux Falls Roosevelt pitcher went in the first round, with Marcus Phillips going 33rd overall to Boston in 2025. Radel and Phillips were teammates on the Sioux Falls little league team that made it
to Williamsport in 2017.
July 15: All nine teams in the Missouri Valley Football Conference have a game against an FBS opponent this fall. It is rare for all the MVFC teams to have an FBS foe in the same season. USD will play at Boise State Sept. 19 and SDSU will play at Northwestern of the Big Ten on Sept. 5. One of Northwestern’s stars and team captains is former Sioux Falls Jefferson and SDSU standout Griffin Wilde.
July 19: One of the world’s best billiards players, Shane Van Boening of Rapid City, went undefeated to defend his 2026 Making It In America One Pocket Championship in Iowa.
July 19: Aberdeen standout dirt track auto racer Mike Stearns capped a big few days by winning his third Modified feature in a row at Casino Speedway in Watertown as part of its weekly line-up of Sunday night races. On July 16, Stearns earned $3,000 by winning the 40-lap Modified feature in the 15th Summersota Nationals in Watertown. On July 18 at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, Stearns won the Late Model feature.
July 25: USD graduate Emily Grove finished as the women’s pole vault national runner-up at the USA Track and Field Championships in New York. She cleared 15 feet, 5 inches, and finished as the national runner-up at the USA indoor and outdoor championships in 2026. Current USD sophomore Anna Willis finished tied for sixth by clearing 14-3.5. Meanwhile, USD assistant coach Maggie Ewen finished seventh (59-8.5) in the women’s shot put.
July 26: USD graduate Chris Nilsen won the seventh national championship of his career. The 2020 Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault won that event by clearing 19 feet, 1 inch at the USA Track and Field Championships in New York.
July 27: Pierre native Grey Zabel of the Seattle Seahawks was named to the All-Under-25 Team for the 2026 season.
July 28: Pierre native Grey Zabel and his Seattle Seahawks will be featured on HBO’s popular NFL training camp series “Hard Knocks” starting Aug. 4. The Seahawks are the defending champions.
July 28: Ground was broken for a new $5 million-plus on-campus soccer field at SDSU. Dakota Layers Stadium is named for the lead donor, which is the Flandreau-based egg-laying facility. The new facility, scheduled to be open in fall 2027, is directly to the east of Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, adjacent to Erv Huether baseball park.
July 29: Due to injuries and other things, former Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standout Jack Strand (Minnesota State-Moorhead) opened camp for the Atlanta Falcons by taking number one reps at quarterback. Earlier this year, Strand signed with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent. NSU nipped Moorhead 49-48 last season with Strand having a hand in 30 of Moorhead’s points. NSU’s Graham Borden batted down Strand’s two-point conversion pass for the win with no time remaining to preserve the Wolves’ win.
July 30: Huron football stadium was damaged in severe wind storm on July 2. Huron school officials have to remove the stadium lights so the Huron High School varsity football team will play afternoon home games during the 2026 season.
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.
