Savage Words: 2025 has belonged to the Brandon Valley boys

As I write this, the Brandon Valley boys currently hold the state championships in basketball, baseball and football.

No other sportswriter who covers a school consistently in the history of our state can write the same thing.

It’s never happened. The calendar year of 2025 has belonged to the BV boys. It’s been close in the past, but never has a school held all three titles in the same year.

Call it the ‘Triple Crown,’ and now Brandon Valley has it. 

Although baseball isn’t a sanctioned varsity sport on the SDHSAA level, the South Dakota High School Baseball Association began recognizing baseball as a varsity sport in 2001. So I can only go back 25 years, and for those 25 years, nobody else has done it.

Here are the others that have claimed two-of-the-three in the same calendar year: 2001 SF Washington (baseball, basketball), 2006 SF Roosevelt (basketball, football), 2010 Bishop O’Gorman (baseball, basketball), 2011 Roosevelt (baseball, football), 2012 O’G (baseball, basketball), 2014 SF Lincoln (baseball, football), 2016 Colome (football, consolidated with Winner for baseball), 2018 Brandon Valley (baseball, football), 2018 Bon Homme (baseball, football), 2019 O’G (baseball, football), 2021 Harrisburg (baseball, football), 2022 Dell Rapids (baseball, football), 2023 Pierre (baseball, football), 2024 Hamlin (basketball, football), Howard (basketball, football), 2025 SF Christian (basketball, football). 

But the Lynx? They took it a step further when they nabbed all three after the football team defeated Lincoln last month at the Dakota Dome in Vermillion.

“It’s impressive,” head football coach Matt Christensen said. “It’s just a great combination of talent and care for each other.”

And the confidence seems to be oozing from this bunch of Lynx. After winning the basketball title in March, they cruised into the baseball season and mounted a comeback for the ages in the semifinals over O’Gorman when they were down to their final strike. Of course, they advanced with seven runs in the Top of the 7th and a night later defeated Jefferson for the title.

“They have a lot of confidence right now,” baseball coach Jeremy VanHeel said. “They feed off of each other.”

Obviously, things have to come together for such a run that the BV boys are on right now. Call it talent, coaching, resources.

And call it depth, because the Lynx have a lot more talent, coaching, and resources on the horizon.

“We have a lot of good things going right now,” said Brandon Valley basketball coach Craig Nelson. “We have talent, number one, which contributes to it. But you gotta have a good weight room culture, you gotta have good coaches, you gotta have good admin. We have good community support. We have lots of resources, just being near Sioux Falls. All of it factors into it.”

Nelson took it a step further, but I’m not so sure.

“I think you gotta have a little luck, too,” he said. “You’re going to have some close games, and you have to find a way to win them.”

I’ve been around this stuff a long time.

Something tells me there’s a lot of prep work that goes into Brandon Valley’s luck.

So, congrats fellas. You’ve had a heck of a year in three different sports. No one else has ever done it.

Oh, and then there’s Mikah Peters.

Lynx, keep this momentum going. You’ve already set marks that likely won’t be topped for some time, if ever.