Savage Words: Happy the Sea Lions embraced our chilly temps

It wasn’t that long ago when seeing anything South Dakota on a national sports show was absolutely non-existent.

Before South Dakota State and USD went Division I, you never, ever, ever, saw a mention of the Jackrabbits, or Coyotes, or anything South Dakota related on ESPN, or CNNSI (for those of you who remember that sports network).

But that all changed in 2008 when SDSU and USD went DI. In 2009, Sioux Falls played host to the Summit League basketball tournament. I was living in Indianapolis, and I watched the championship game between North Dakota State and Oakland from the old Sioux Falls Arena. 

That alone was amazing to me. The Arena, the same venue I’d watched countless high school and college basketball games as a kid, was now live on ESPN. That was a big deal.

But the weather was nasty on that March night 16 years ago…like, South Dakota-blizzard nasty, with wind chills that dipped into the danger zone.

I recall sitting in my living room, watching the game from the Arena, when during a break, ESPN went back to its studios for some analysis.

One of the talking heads on ESPN said something like: “The weather is so bad up there. Why would the NCAA make those poor kids go there and play with weather like that? I feel sorry for them.”

Feel sorry for them?

For as proud as I was, sitting in Indianapolis, watching a game on ESPN from the Arena, that line was a gut-punch.

But I guess he wasn’t wrong. It was bad outside.

The same thing has happened twice for the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team. Basketball Hall-of-Famer and USC head coach Dawn Staley brought her top-ranked Gamecocks to Sioux Falls to face SDSU at the Pentagon. And it snowed. Snowed really, really hard.

I covered those games for the Associated Press. The last time, in December of 2022, it snowed so hard that I was certain the game would be cancelled. But I’m also certain Staley didn’t want to hang around Sioux Falls any longer that she had to. She actually made reference to the snow in her post-game comments.

So here we were again, last week, when the NCAA played its Division II National Volleyball championships at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls.

And of course, the temps dipped to an almost unbearable point. It was so bad that many locals dared to venture out into the below-zero wind temps.

Those elements were especially tough on Point Loma Nazarene from San Diego. The Sea Lions arrived in Sioux Falls last week for the tournament, where the wind chill temps were 100 degrees colder than San Diego, where the Santa Ana winds brought unseasonably warm temps to Southern California.

Needless to say, the wind chills in Sioux Falls was an attention-getter for the players, coaches and staff who made their way up from Point Loma.

“It literally took my breath away,” said Mariah Hughes, a junior outside hitter from Temecula, about halfway between San Diego and L.A. “We freak out when it gets to 60 degrees. When we qualified for the tournament, we started looking at the weather app on our phones. The sun emoji was replaced by snow. It freaked us all out.”

The Sea Lions’ stay in Sioux Falls was extended as they made a run in the tournament, advancing all the way to the National semifinals. 

As they were advancing in the tournament, they were also stuck shivering with Jack Frost as he made his way to Sioux Falls in mid-December. 

But I’ll give them credit. Despite dealing with temps that were very foreign to them, the Sea Lions seemed to embrace it ...s eemed to relish in it, to a degree.

They didn’t get out as much as they wanted, but they did visit Falls Park, and ventured out of their downtown hotel to visit a few restaurants and coffee shops.

“I actually loved it. There’s a good half of my wardrobe that I normally can’t wear at all. I packed just about every long sleeve shirt and jacket I had,” said Point Loma Associate A.D. for Communications Tim Heiduk. “I’m of the mindset that when you go somewhere, you gotta go experience all it has to offer. I put seven layers on and said, ‘Alright, let’s go.’”

On one of their final nights in Sioux Falls, along with the cold temps, it snowed. It was the first time for many of them to see snow actually fall from the sky. Some had visited Big Bear in California for skiing outings, but that was often man-made snow.

So, to see it actually snow was new for the Sea Lions.

“A few of them ran outside, watched it snow, and did snow angels,” Heiduk said. “The smiles on their faces were cool to see.”

Unlike the ESPN announcers from 2009, I don’t share in their discontent over Sioux Falls’ weather. I’m happy the folks from Point Loma got to experience my hometown and the weather that comes with it.

And I don’t feel sorry for the Sea Lions for enduring our weather.

Probably mostly because as I write the final period on this column, they’re back home, sitting on a beach.

And I gotta go shovel.