Hall of Fame: Scholten was 3-year letter winner in 3 BV sports

Kory Scholten considers himself fortunate to have played alongside some of Brandon Valley’s best student-athletes.

The 1999 Brandon Valley High School grad had a role in a variety of Lynx football, boys’ basketball and track and field stories of success, and in the process, became a three-year letter winner in each sport.

“I was on some pretty good teams. I think that more than anything is the reason. I was just part of a good group of dudes,” says Scholten, one of three individuals being inducted into the Brandon Valley Athletic Hall of Fame this year. “I’m absolutely honored, and I will say it means something. But looking back, I like going in as a team, like with the football team and the basketball team. I feel like when you’re the quarterback, you get an extra little boost just because you played that position, and I feel like any one of my friends, the linemen, we were all equally important to that team.”

Scholten filled the role of quarterback, doing whatever he could to help the Lynx to play for two state championships in back to back seasons. BV claimed runner-up in 1997 and won it all in 1998, his senior season.

“We never liked to lose,” he said. “But if I had to pick, I’m glad we lost when I was a junior and won when I was a senior, just because as a senior you feel like you’re more important when you’re the older one on the team. When I was a junior, there were so many guys that were outstanding: Austin Hansen, Joe Ford, Beau Fitts, all those guys, and I was glad to be a part of it.”

Scholten gives huge props for his success to the offensive line.
“The cool thing about that is the relationship (I had) with the offensive linemen. They were probably my best friends off the football field, too. As a quarterback, you need those linemen, you trust those linemen. They were my best friends and that’s probably what I remember the most,” he said.

Unlike today’s version of the Lynx, Scholten also saw action on the other side of the ball as a defensive back. Although he didn’t play every snap – or even some games at all – whenever Coach Mike Klinedinst and staff knew they needed “a taller guy back there,” they called Scholten’s number. He is, after all, 6-foot-4.

“I don’t think it was an ability thing. I think it was just nice to have a guy back there than can knock the ball down,” he said.

Scholten describes the Lynx in his senior year as “not very good during the regular season.”

“We had won five games and lost four, we were pretty average,” he said. “Then it just started clicking.”

In their test of the post-season, the Lynx knocked off Yankton, a team they had beaten previously. They followed that up by winning the next three games against teams they had lost to in the regular season.

“We went out to Pierre and beat them, and we had lost by a touchdown earlier in the year. Then we went out to Rapid City and won the game 6-0, and we had lost at home to Rapid City. And Brookings was also undefeated and we had lost prior, so we avenged three losses. Every one of those last three games were meaningful,” he said.

Brookings and O’Gorman were BV’s biggest rivals, and after learning Brookings had defeated O’G, Scholten said the Lynx played with some newfound confidence.

“I don’t know if we would’ve been able to beat them (O’G); it was a tough match-up,” he said. “But we were pretty confident we could get Brookings the second time, because we didn’t feel we had played them well the first time.”

For his efforts in his senior campaign, Scholten was named ESD All-Conference and All-State Honorable Mention.  

BV’s football success trickled over to the basketball court, where Scholten was part of the third-place team in his sophomore season and state champs as a junior. As for how the team fared in his senior season, Scholten is quick to answer: “We didn’t have Austin Hansen anymore, to be perfectly honest.”

“In ’98, there were so many seniors on that team. There were three guys that started, but then there was probably five or six other ones on the bench, and when you lose eight or nine guys, that’s going to be tough to come back from,” he said.

The ’98 Lynx drew a big following all the season long, including the long haul across the state to Rapid City.

“It was almost like a home game out there (in Rapid City), there were so many people out there. I think we had the biggest crowd of any other team there,” he said.

Scholten and company played in the “cracker box” gym, what is now referred to as the Auxiliary Gym.

“It just felt like everybody was on top of you,” he remembers. “It’s a beautiful new gym, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t seem like it in the old days.

There were many games where the gym was filled to capacity and the doors were locked long before tipoff.

“I think it was Coach (Gary) Munsen from Mitchell, who would tell a story that he’d come out to scout a game when we were playing O’Gorman, and he couldn’t get in. He obviously had connections so he could get in, but the door was locked before he got there,” Scholten said.

Scholten well remembers taking the floor against a Mitchell Kernels team who was led by future-NBA player Mike “Skinny” Miller.

“Anytime you play Mike Miller, it’s pretty memorable,” he said. “Anytime you have to try to guard him, it’s memorable.”

It was during his sophomore season that Scholten was pulled up to varsity, and although he didn’t see much court time, he remembers watching his teammates battle Miller at the Corn Place.

“I don’t know if it was overtime or not, but it was back and forth and back and forth,” he said. “The next year we played Mitchell three times and beat them all three times.” Miller was a senior that year.

And the Lynx were loaded with talent.

“When you look at that basketball team, all five on the ’98 team played college sports somewhere. Joe (Ford) played football, three other guys played basketball and I ran track. That probably doesn’t happen all the time where you get five college athletes on the floor at one time,” he said.

Track surely wasn’t Scholten’s favorite sport, but ironically, it’s the support that gained him a college scholarship. And it was the prompting of his dad, Keith, that ultimately led him to the track.

“I think it might have been my freshman year and dad said, ‘If you’re not going out for track, you’re working on the farm every day.’”

As it turns out, Scholten detested farm work.

“So, I went out for track,” he said.

Hurdles and triple jump became his events of choice.

“I was not very good when I started hurdling and Coach (Mark) Stadem was a really, really good coach,” he said. “I also got to watch Joe Ford every day, and he was a state champion, so two pretty good guys to learn from.”

Although he never won an individual state title, he lists the finals of hurdle races among his best memories of the sport.

“I wish I could’ve won one at one point, but there were just some athletes in there, especially when I was a junior, like Joe Ford, who was one of the best hurdlers of all time,” he said. “There were some battles. I remember my senior year, there were four of us that would just beat each other throughout the year, and if the state meet had been the next week, it might have gone a different way. We just went back and forth, and that’s fun. I would’ve like to win every race, but it was that competitive.”

Chad Rhode of Watertown had his number in the triple jump for three years in high school and another four in college.

“I never beat him in seven years of triple jumping,” Scholten said. “I’d go to every meet and give it my best. I would’ve liked to have beaten him, but he was better.”

In his senior season, Scholten was crowned the ESD Conference champ in the triple jump, and collected second and third at state in the event. In all total, he won six state medals. The hardware includes third and sixth place medals in the 110 hurdles, and fourth and seventh in the 300 hurdles. He also garnered All-State laurels his junior and season seasons.

He went on to run track at South Dakota State University and Dakota State University. His freshman collegiate year he received all-conference honors in the triple jump, and was a five-time NAIA national qualifier at DSU.

Scholten returned to Brandon Valley to teach and serve as the triple and long jump coach. In his younger years, he had jumping contests with the student-athletes, including Darren Niklason.

“Several times we jumped against each other, and I might have got him a couple of times, but when Matt VandeBerg came along, I tried to do it and I was like, ‘Nope,’” he said.

Although humbled to have his plaque be put up on the BV Hall of Fame wall, Scholten said he’s “pumped to walk down that hallway and be able to see” his nephews or his daughter on a record board, and someday, his sons.

“I want to see them all over that hallway,” he said. “I’m one of those parents who wants them to have that whole experience.”