The last of the VanHemerts: Brandon Valley family graduates last of 8 in their brood

For 20 years straight, a Brandon mom and dad have cheered on their children from the sidelines – all eight of them. That long stretch of “bleacher time” comes to a close this year as the youngest VanHemert – Aaron – graduates.

“I think I’m ready for this to be over,” says Linda VanHemert, the family matriarch. “I think the time that it will really hit me is the last season event that we go to,” which will be the State Track & Field Meet that Aaron will compete in as a BV Lynx.

Married 38 years last week, seven of Lyle and Linda’s children are BV graduates, beginning in 2008 with Luke. Ashley, the oldest, is a Sioux Falls Christian grad.

Raising a large family was always the plan for the VanHemerts. There’s a 20-year spread between Ashley, now 38, and Aaron, who is 18.

Despite raising kids over two decades, Linda says she’s cherished every moment along the way, even those sometimes dreaded back-to-school shopping sprees.

“I miss the days when they were younger, because when we would go in stores, they would kind of go in tallest to shortest, like little ducklings,” she tells. “I would get a lot of compliments on how well they behaved. The older ones would always take care of the younger ones. I miss that part. Everyone always says, ‘Wasn’t it hectic?’ and it was, but it was so worth it.”

With a handful of track and field meets to go, you can bet the VanHemerts will be in the stands until the very last race. 

“With Aaron, it’s so fun seeing him excel,” Linda says of the 2023 BVHS senior who holds the No. 3 spot in the 300 hurdles and seventh – possibly up a notch or two – in the 110 hurdles. “We still have ESD and state to go yet, and he might go to college and run.”

Linda, a former track and field athlete herself, may have been the inspiration behind her children’s involvement in the sport. 

“All of the kids participated in sports, some more than others,” she tells.

The family’s preferred sports are soccer, cross country and track and field. All of the kids played soccer.

“And a lot of them hurdled, like Aaron,” Linda notes. “The older ones ran cross country, so I would be there with babies in the stroller going from side to side.”

“I thought I was the one with the stroller and you were just running side to side,” Lyle chimes in.

After Ashley graduated from Sioux Falls Christian, the VanHemerts enrolled the rest of their kids at BV, and say they  haven’t regretted the decision.

“When we moved to town, if they ever did go to a public school, we wanted them to go to a smaller district,” Linda said.

Their eldest, Ashley, resides in Bozeman, Mont. She was involved in an unfortunate gun attack in 2018 impairing her ability to work fulltime. She works a few hours a day in a middle school lunchroom.

Luke lives in Omaha, where he works from home for Mutual of Omaha. 

Terrill, who married two years ago, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Jenna. He works in computer support and Jenna is a physical therapist.

Carissa and her husband, Alex, call Watertown ‘home.’ They are parents to Isaiah, 2, and are expecting a second child at the end of this month. A stay-at-home mom – like her own mother – Carissa works part-time from home.

Caleb also resides in Bozeman, where he is self-employed buying and selling vehicles.

Micah and his fiancée, Kylie, will say their “I do’s” on June 9. He graduated from the University of Sioux Falls and works for Eide Bailly. Kylie is a neonatal nurse at Avera.

After studying for two years at Mount Marty University, Jesse left school – by God’s calling – and started his own landscaping business.

“He said that God said he would support him in business, and so far, he’s done really, really well with the landscaping business. He’s keeping busier than he knows what to do with,” Lyle said.

And finally, Aaron, the last of the VanHemert clan, has yet to decide which path he’ll pursue.

“He’s still filling out his FAFSA forms,” Lyle says.

Lyle says there is one thing that he will not miss.

“Those emails from a teacher that said, ‘They missed an assignment.’”

When the VanHemert’s growing family is all together, Lyle describes it as “controlled chaos.”

“The boys, of course, always have to wrestle to see who’s the strongest,” adds Linda. “It’s funny, Aaron started out the smallest and now he’s the tallest, so roles change along the way. It’s fun getting everybody together, and now we have a grandson, so once he’s old enough we’ll go to his activities. It’s just going to keep going.”