Currently a 6’7” senior on the Yankton Bucks boys basketball team, Matthew Mors recalls first surveying the championship banners hung in the Yankton gym as a fourth grader with his father, Ryan. Ryan had recently taken the helm as Yankton’s athletic director, moving the family from Freeman where he had coached golf and girls basketball. Father and son noted that 1978 marked the last state championship win for the Bucks boys basketball team. “My dad turned to me and asked, ‘Think you can help us get one?” says Mors. “I said, ‘Yeah. I think so.’”
Mors helped hoist the championship banner as a varsity freshman when 11th-placed Yankton beat No. 4 Harrisburg 39-37 in 2018. This fall, he heads to Madison, Wisconsin to play for the Badgers men’s basketball program. The Big 10 school started recruiting Mors as an eighth grader, as did Colorado, Creighton, Iowa, and Iowa State.
Like Matthew, the providential banner anecdote is making the national media as the sports press shares the story of our local boy making good. And as with many high-achieving student-athletes, it’s a family affair. Matthew, and his younger brother Michael, also a student-athlete, grew up in gyms. Dad (Ryan) played football for Northern State University, where Mom (Aimee) played soccer. Aimee teaches middle school physical education. For vacations, the family attends major sporting events: Christmas in Denver to see the Broncos, as well as the Nuggets vs. LeBron and the Miami Heat; San Antonio for the Final Four; weekends watching the Twins in Minneapolis. “Sports has been part of our family,” says Aimee. “I played traveling soccer, traveling basketball, and I did all that as a young child too. We kind of revolve all of our vacations around sports. In the summer, we’re playing baseball.”
In addition to playing baseball, Matthew plays football and runs track. “Since I was a kid, I was just playing everything with a ball, a bat, anything.” Signs of his passion and discipline emerged early. “In fifth grade, I had to cut 10 pounds so I could play quarterback,” he says. “I know it’s probably not what most people do, have a fifth grader try and cut weight to play quarterback, but that’s what I wanted to do. So, my family said all right. I ate one Lunchable® a day, for a week, which was torture, but I remember afterwards I got a steak with bacon wrapped around it. After the weigh-in, we went to Pizza Ranch and I just ate as much as I could.”
Yankton head boys basketball coach Chris Haynes has coached Mors for six years.
“When you have a kid that’s as talented as he is, at 6’7”, and has got a good frame, and strong, with his ability to handle a basketball, shoot the basketball, play with his back to the basket, a great passer – it’s just a unique combination of skill sets that really makes it fun to coach.”
While the athletic prowess is substantial, Haynes says the positive traits extend to Mors’ conduct. “A lot of times when kids are young you hear, ‘Oh, this kid’s going to be the next great thing,’ and maybe they don’t reach it because they’re so good so early that they taper off or they don’t continue to work at it. That has not been the case with Matthew. He’s continued to develop and continued to get better every single year. What really stands out is the type of kid he is. His character and his work ethic are very high. He had every opportunity to kind of be a hot dog, or arrogant, and rub people the wrong way. He’s never done that.”
His parents’ pride extends to off the court. “He’s just a really good kid,” says Aimee. “And we’ve been fortunate that he’s turned out the way he has.” Ryan adds, “Matthew’s been a parent’s dream growing up. He’s a kid that always did his homework. He did everything that we’ve always have asked him to do at home. And just a fun kid to be around. Always nice, respectful to not only us as his parents, but his teachers in school, in Sunday school, to grandma and grandpa. Just a very polite, nice kid that we’re proud to have raised.”
Mors’ high school career has had twists and turns, yet he remains equable. He traces inspiration for his freshman varsity start to a memory from his dad’s tenure as head girls basketball coach for Freeman. Pre-season, the Flyers were ranked first in Class B, but were experiencing multiple injuries. “They had a lot of hopes for that year,” says Mors. “I just remember how devastating it was. Everyone was getting hurt. It was super unfortunate. And, they made the best of it. They had some younger people who had to step up. Erika Sage was starting as a seventh grader and I just thought, ‘Well, if she’s doing it then, why can’t I do it too?’” He admits that nerves made for an eventful entrée to varsity. “I puked the first practice. It wasn’t even anything really that hard, it was just that I’ve never been up this early playing basketball and going live. It’s what I remember most from that first practice.” Mors went on to help the Bucks win their first state tourney in 40 years.
As a sophomore at the semifinals, Mors’ two free throws with 10 seconds remaining gave Yankton a lead over O’Gorman that would have taken the Bucks to the championships. Luke Ronsiek’s floater at the buzzer gave O’Gorman a win that became the stuff of epic social media controversy due to the timing of the shot and rules that did not implement instant replay. “Props to Luke because he made the shot,” says Mors. “We could have stopped him, and he did nothing wrong. He did everything he could and got to the basket. In the locker room, we’re just sitting there with broken hearts and looking back on it, it was such a good life lesson.”
Nevertheless, the life lesson hungered the Bucks for a palpable championship victory next time. But a pandemic shuttered schools and preempted sports and life nationally. After the push and pull of training, postponements and the unknown, Junior Mors found himself in tears as he lifted weights in the family garage. “We just worked so hard for it, all of us, and I thought that that team we had last year was quite possibly the best team that I’ve been a part of, and we never got a chance to show it.”
On the cusp of the Bucks’ next chance at a state championship in his senior year before he heads to Wisconsin, Mors is asked for what he’d like to be known. “I want to be remembered, not as a basketball player or a really good athlete, but as a really good person. And I’ve always put that at the front of my focus my whole life, where I want to put other people in front of myself and what I’m doing. And that comes from my family and just being raised right. I remember my mom has just said numerous times, ‘People aren’t always going to remember you by you playing basketball, but by your actions and how you treat people.’ I’ve worked my whole life to get to where I am right now, then some. When I get to Wisconsin, I’m going to continue to work hard and push myself to be the best player and person that I can be every day.”
Everywhere, for Everyone: Live Events on SDPB
Anyone, anywhere can watch televised South Dakota High School events live online at SDPB.org or on SD.net.
Anyone can include far away fans like South Dakota-born Tom Brokaw. Brokaw discussed in a recent interview with Randy Dockendorf in Yankton Press & Dakotan how he tuned into SDPB from Florida to cheer on the Bucks in their 2018 victory.
“Brokaw said he regularly reads the Press & Dakotan, keeping up on his hometown’s news. A former YHS basketball player, he sent kudos to the Bucks team upon winning the 2018 State “AA” title.
‘Congratulations to the Bucks for Yankton’s first state basketball title in 40 years!” he said. “I’m on the Gulf Coast of Florida, but I was able to watch the game on SDPB (South Dakota Public Broadcasting) online. A little nerve wracking at the end, but Yankton stayed steady — much better than some of my March Madness picks.”
He signed the message, “Once a Buck, always a Buck.’”
Join Tom Brokaw and tune in for the 2021 state basketball tournaments on SDPB.