Jill's Journal: Smile, Coach, your team won a state title!

There’s been plenty to smile about in recent weeks here in Brandon Valleyland. 

Our winter sports season teams have certainly left a succession of ‘pawsitive’ prints on the wrestling mat, the powerlifting floor, the alleys and on the basketball court once again. We’ve crowned individual and team champions, along with a state runner-up girls’ basketball team that in my mind, are the true winners day in and day out. I surely can’t understand the sting of falling a single-point shy at the buzzer that our players and coaches had to endure, but I can say without question, the Lady Lynx will be a force to be reckoned with next season. Mark my words.

Hudson Parliament and Gabby Klein shone in their respective spotlights at the state powerlifting competition. What more can be said about “the beast” and the strength and mindset he possesses to squat with 650 pounds on his back? And cheers to Gabby, who’s likely won the first of many state titles to come in her prep career.

And yes, we crowned a champion on the wrestling mat again this season in junior Elijah Schunke. He capped off his season with an undefeated mark, and that’s surely a feat to marvel and one that serves as inspiration to Lynx grapplers coming up the ranks.

Teammate Brendon Oehme fell just short of snaring his second consecutive state title. This was the sophomore’s third year in the circle, but surely, it won’t be his last.

And of course, last week belonged to the Lynx boys’ basketball team, who put together back-to-back-to-back strong defensive efforts to eliminate one team after another team times three. On Sunday, as we always do when a BV team brings home the state title hardware, we gather in the activities center to celebrate the achievement. While the message of the speech makers largely remains the same – the journey that got them there, the team camaraderie, the memories, the hours and hours of practice, and the folks behind the scenes who did behind-the-scenes stuff – this team will be a hard one to forget.

It won’t be their record or game scores that I’ll remember. Instead, it will be stories shared by the coaches, the players and administration that will stick with me, along with the memories I captured through the lens of my camera.

One of too-many-to-mention memories took place after the quarterfinal and semifinal victories. Although a senior, Lual Kiir, a kid who didn’t see much varsity playing time all season long, was given the honor of placing the “Brandon Valley” sticker on the bracket board.

I thought that was a classy gesture. It made me smile and proud to connected to Brandon Valley.

At Sunday’s “welcome home”, I smiled once again when Coach Craig Nelson shared a really cool story about Lual and his never-give-up attitude. As the welcome home crowd learned, Lual had tried out for the basketball team three times before his senior year, and this year, he finally earned a jersey number.

Another vivid memory from the weekend – and Sunday, too – were the red-and-white bibbed overall-moms. I don’t know how many pictures I took of you, but you surely were a presence in the stands. I know each of your sons won’t soon forget the vision.

What can I say about our student fan section and the Lynx cheerleaders who let our team – and everyone else know – the Lynx were in the house, and they meant business this year. I smile a lot when I hear your chants, and have even taken to mumbling “You can’t do that” when an opposing player fouls one of our BV Lynx.

I also have to give mention to Jack Rice, one of the student managers on the bench, who I enjoyed number of conversations with during pre-game warm-ups and half-time breaks. As Coach Nelson mentioned on Sunday, Jack was on edge during the games, but relieved when the wins were secured.

On Saturday, I sat down next to him and said, “Jack and Jill, what do you think about that?”

As he often does, he smiled and then dropped his face into his hands, which was his signal that my “Jack and Jill” line was like a bad “dad joke.”

I, of course, smiled at his reaction.

Coach Nelson shared with Sunday’s “welcome home” crowd that he learned that he needs to smile more. The advice came from the reporter with South Dakota Public Broadcasting in one of their interviews over the weekend.

“I’ll try to smile more,” he promised.

And that, too, made me smile.