Craig Mattick:
Welcome to another edition of In Play, I'm Craig Mattick. Today's guest dedicated some four decades to education and coaching in South Dakota. Originally a Provo Rattler who played in the state basketball tournament, he was an assistant football and boys basketball coach but also a girls basketball coach for nine years, and coached one of the all time greats to a state basketball title. He also coached a cross country state title, dedicated his career to the kids and the community from Pine Ridge. He's Charlie Zimiga, and Charlie, welcome to In Play.
Charlie Zimiga:
Thank you, thank you very much.
Craig Mattick:
Hey, that's a long resume already, how bout that?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah.
Craig Mattick:
You know, I'm fascinated about the history where you grew up. You grew up Igloo, South Dakota, and Provo High School, the Rattlers, Provo High School was there in Igloo, right?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, Provo High School.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, it was located in extreme southwest South Dakota, it's in Fall River County, it's south of Edgemont. It's about 90 miles south of Rapid City. But you grew up in Igloo, of course where Provo High School was, but Igloo was also the home to the U.S. Army Black Hills Ordinance Depot back in the '40s.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, that's right.
Craig Mattick:
Hundreds of earth-covered domes are still around that area today. What was it like growing up with Igloo and Provo High School?
Charlie Zimiga:
You know, it was very nice. Like you said, there was an army depot and everybody got along terrifically. There was no discrimination, nothing. It was just one big happy family there, and I met a lot of real nice people in this world.
Craig Mattick:
The old Provo High School wasn't there that long, it was basically the mid-'40s to the late-'60s. In fact, you played basketball though at Provo High.
Charlie Zimiga:
I did. And in 1957, I graduated and we had a chance, a good team enough to go to State that year.
Craig Mattick:
Provo made it to the boys tournament though in 1954. Did you remember that? You may have been a freshman. Hayti beat Provo 47-40 that year.
Charlie Zimiga:
I remember a few of the players of that team. At that time, we didn't have TV so our heroes were our hometown boys. We couldn't see Michael Jordan or anybody on TV, we didn't have anything, so our heroes was the local boys.
Craig Mattick:
Well, you were one of those heroes because Provo boys made the State B tournament three times in their history. '54 was when they made it the first time, they were runner-up. But your senior year, 1957, you made it to the B's. I'm assuming, was that in Sioux Falls?
Charlie Zimiga:
That was in Huron.
Craig Mattick:
In Huron?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes.
Craig Mattick:
Okay. Let's talk about 1957, you're a senior and the Rattlers made it to the Class B tournament. What do you remember about that trip to State?
Charlie Zimiga:
I don't know how to explain it, it was just very exciting because ... How can I say this? There were a lot of us native boys on there, and the people in Huron just took to us. We were kind of treated like celebrities when I went over there, and at the time I didn't know why. It was odd to have kids come and ask for your autograph and things like that.
Craig Mattick:
Wow.
Charlie Zimiga:
But it was nice.
Craig Mattick:
You know, they're still playing state tournament games there at the Huron Arena.
Charlie Zimiga:
Is that right?
Craig Mattick:
Great facility. You scored 17 points in the consolation championship. Who did you play that game?
Charlie Zimiga:
The consolation championship, I think we played ... I remember Bob Swanhorse was the ones that one won it, and Albie, we played them that first game and they took us pretty handily because we never seen anybody over six foot tall and they had a center that was probably six six or something like that.
Craig Mattick:
Who were some of the rivalry towns that you faced in basketball when you were at Provo High?
Charlie Zimiga:
Custer was a great rivalry, and Pine Ridge, and Hot Springs in football. But in basketball, it seemed like we were always ready for a battle with Custer. And then the other teams we played up there at Hot Springs and Deadwood and Leeds. Leeds and Deadwood were two different schools at the time, and so we just played all them teams. And we didn't play much Rosebud, St. Francis, and all them teams. We played mostly the Hills teams.
Craig Mattick:
What was the style of basketball that you played at Provo?
Charlie Zimiga:
We were noted for our pressing defense. Coach Jack Ecklund was a very good coach that we had, and he was a good and teacher. And off the press we would get it and just run down the floor and try to set it up and make it, and if we didn't then we'd set up and run our plays. So we were probably one of the first teams around to run that press that he introduced to us. Usually, we just get the ball out and the other team would let us go up the floor, but we start pressing people.
Craig Mattick:
More of the run and gun type offense?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, it was. It really was, but if we didn't get anything, we had to set it up. We couldn't just run around the floor trying to get somebody open. We had a certain pattern to run our plays.
Craig Mattick:
What was your role on the basketball team?
Charlie Zimiga:
Well, as the point guard and then on the point guard, I was the head of our press, we were the first ones to use a full court press. We call it diamond and one. And so, during Christmas vacation we went to Wyoming to Newcastle or someplace over there, Gillette, and Jack, our coach, gave a clinic on full court press because the people wanted to see it and the coaches wanted to see it and stuff. So that was kind of exciting.
Craig Mattick:
Well, Provo, not a very large high school. I think you had what, 28 classmates?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, they were all about that size, 28 kids in a class. And everybody just got along terrifically. It was something like a movie show town, the kids got along and you had Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry and all of that music running around. So it was very exciting.
Craig Mattick:
After Provo, you graduate in 1957, it's college time. Is it then when you went to Black Hills State?
Charlie Zimiga:
No, I enrolled in Chadron College.
Craig Mattick:
Okay, why Chadron?
Charlie Zimiga:
There was two of my buddies and three girls, classmates, that went down there. And then the coach in Chadron come and seen me in Igloo, and so I went there. I was a pretty decent football player, but I went down to Chadron and I seen the size of these freshmen there. And I walked on down to the gym and played basketball. I said, "I'll wait for basketball season." And so I played some basketball, but I don't know, I just didn't have it in me, that excitement, anymore. So I just played it out that freshman year, so then I transferred.
But I had some trouble with funding with the scholarship I had, so I didn't go to back to [inaudible 00:09:48], I just went to work after that. And I met my wife and got married, and ended up going to Pine Ridge in 1963, and they hired me as a boys counselor at the dorm.
Craig Mattick:
And you never left.
Charlie Zimiga:
And I never left. My dad said, "Charlie's the only one in our family that kids and dogs like. He just gets along great with the kids and the dogs." And then I was working in Hot Springs at the Chevy garage, and I guy I went to high school with was working at Pine Ridge in the dorm. He was a supervisor, and he offered me a job. And I went over there, I was a night attendant because it was hard to get a night attendant to work over there, but I needed a job inside. I worked all the construction jobs outside and stuff.
So I worked there a year and I got on at days, and I just loved the kids. I loved going back to work. And they treated me nice, and I was supposed to go there and teach them something and they taught me.
Craig Mattick:
Wow.
Charlie Zimiga:
But it was a nice situation. I couldn't believe I forgot my first name was Charles, when I got there everything was Mr. Zimiga, Mr. Zimiga. All the girls and boys was Mr. or Mrs. Zimiga, and it was very enlightening to hear that, and I got along swell there.
Craig Mattick:
By the way Charles, I did just happen to find out 1957 when you were at the state basketball tournament, you played Cresbard that first round.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah.
Craig Mattick:
Cresbard, not a close game, it was 73-55. High-scoring game.
Charlie Zimiga:
They had our number. We just could not rebound them. We couldn't get close to the ball. They were tall and lanky and fast.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, they went on to win the title too.
Charlie Zimiga:
Canistota was our next game, wasn't it?
Craig Mattick:
It was Canistota, and you blew them out, it was 72-30.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah, and they let us play like we could, where Cresbard, just their defense and offense was tremendous. Yes.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, and the Consolation Championship where you scored 17 points, that was Lake Norden.
Charlie Zimiga:
Lake Norden, yes.
Craig Mattick:
71-62 the final.
Charlie Zimiga:
I can't remember, Lake Norden, this young guy played then there, and he was a good player, very good player. But he just didn't have the help.
Craig Mattick:
Well, I'm glad I could come up with the Cresbard Comets winning that title that year, the team that you played. When you're in college, you're trying little sports here and there. But when you're looking at what you wanted to do, did you always want to be in education?
Charlie Zimiga:
And I did, I really did. Even when I was in high school, I was supervisor of our community playground, so I worked with little kids while I was in high school. And I just had fun with the kids, so it just took me on to wanting to be a teacher. I was interested in that. But I was kind of handy at drawing, and they geared me to architectural drawing and drafting and that's what I was headed for. But I changed my mind after I start working with kids.
Craig Mattick:
[inaudible 00:13:59] and a coach at Pine Ridge. 1963 when you got to Pine Ridge, were you coaching right away?
Charlie Zimiga:
No, I wasn't. I just worked in the dorm. I worked there for 10 years in the dorm, and about maybe three or four years a man came back named G Wayne Tapio. He came back and he started a little league of basketball and a little league of football. So we had eight teams in Pine Ridge of kids eighth grade on down, so we coached these little league teams. And he organized it and got it going, and I became a coach. Since I worked in dorm, they just made me the coach for the dorm kids. I had a very good coach in Jack Ecklund, and I took things from his program that I learned and used it, and it worked pretty good. And that's where I started coaching was the little league guys.
Craig Mattick:
How many boys were in that dorm that you were in charge of?
Charlie Zimiga:
There was around 200 boys from the first grade to the senior in high school.
Craig Mattick:
Wow, that's a lot of responsibility Charlie.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah. We had a good crew of people working there, real nice people to work with and they were good working with kids too so it made it easier.
Craig Mattick:
You did coach football and some boys basketball.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah, this G Wayne Tapio, when he came in charge of the dorm, so he got the job as athletic director at Pine Ridge High School. And he wanted me to come over and help him coaching football, and so I went over with him, transferred over from the dorm to the high school and started there. And I was the assistant in the athletic director activities in setting up games and ordering materials for the sports program there. And that's where I started in coaching then.
Craig Mattick:
Girls basketball wasn't a sanctioned sport in South Dakota until 1975. When did you become the head girls coach for Pine Ridge?
Charlie Zimiga:
In 1987. When I started at Pine Ridge, like I said, I just did things I did in high school. And then come along Jess Mendoza who took over boys and girls basketball.
Craig Mattick:
Because yep, the girls were in the fall remember, and the boys were in the winter. And you're an assistant with Jessie Mendoza at the time in '87?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes. And he came I think in '80 or '79 and up to then, I was just going on things I did. And he came in with a system that worked, the fundamentals were there and all this stuff and the training and the conditioning. So from there on from I think '79 to '87, he was there, I learned a lot in coaching and coaching kids. So when he left, he won the boys state. I was assistant coach to him and the JV coach, and he won that year for the boys and then he left. And so when he left, [inaudible 00:17:59] then come to my house and wanted me to coach girls basketball. So that's what I did, they came and recruited me, and so then I took over the girls basketball team.
Craig Mattick:
1987 though, with Jessie Mendoza and you're the assistant, Pine Ridge boys, you go undefeated. You win a state title. You beat Lennox that year, 60-53.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, and what a game I tell you. We were behind, Lennox was an awful good team. And we were behind in that and we come out and we had a boy named Willy White that just got all spirited up and went out there and did everything on that court. And he really brought us through. Well, we had other good players too on that team.
Craig Mattick:
But you were also the assistant girls basketball coach, 1981 and '82 and '83, Pine Ridge girls made the state tournament. Those three years were the first times that Pine Ridge girls were at state. But it was 1987, your first year as the head coach, you went on a three-year run making the state girls basketball tournament. And of course, 1987, you make it to state and you have this eighth grader on the team, SuAnne Big Crow.
Charlie Zimiga:
Right.
Craig Mattick:
Did she score 31 points in the region final to get you guys to go to state?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes. And she scored 63 or 67 points in one game against the women.
Craig Mattick:
What did you see? Did you see something special about her when she was an eighth grader?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes. You know what I had seen something special about her, she was in cross country running and I had the cross country team. I didn't see her play basketball. The coach came out to where we was practicing, he wanted to practice with us, and her and another girl. And they run so smoothly, and there's a book that's called ... This guy wrote an article on SuAnne and he's got in there where I first met her, and I see that she was running and I was watching her come around the corner, come around, and then all the sudden she stopped and she said, "What are you looking at?" I said, "A runner," and that's the first time I met her. What a wonderful child, holy smokes, she was terrific. But she was just athletic, but she worked her tail off to be what she was. People see them on Friday night or game night, see them doing this and that, and they think, "Oh, gee. Holy smokes, I wished I had that talent." But she worked hard at getting that talent going.
Craig Mattick:
1987 though, that state tournament, first round you take on Ipswich, you lose by five. Consolation semifinals, you lose to Lemmon by two. And then the seventh place game you lose to Salem by four. Three really close games that year.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, we just couldn't put them away. They were just ... I don't know what it was, it was just couldn't put the teams away. And then we did have some very good girls along with SuAnne that were under Jess's regime of girls, and they knew the game because I coached the same thing as Jess did, so they knew everything and they did a really good job. And then we had the height too, we had two girls that were pretty tall. And so we did well them years there.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, you go back to the state tournament in 1988. In the first round, you beat Lead by eight, but then you lost to Milbank in the semifinals by three. I think Milbank went on to win the tournament that year.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, they did. Yeah.
Craig Mattick:
And then a loss to Tri Valley by 12 in the third place game. Was that 1988 team a lot alike the '87 tournament team?
Charlie Zimiga:
It was. Them two years, I had them girls and that took me to state in them two years. We added SuAnne, I think she played when she was in seventh grade for us, but there was some stipulation in our system that held her back to junior high basketball.
Craig Mattick:
But then the big year, 1989. By the way, that was the first year all three classes of girls basketball was played in Sioux Falls.
Charlie Zimiga:
That was. That was kind of exciting. It was good if you was in the winning bracket, on the winning side.
Craig Mattick:
Because you were at the arena, yeah.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah, and then the only thing I deflect about it was that if you did lose, you would play in some gym, they were nice gyms, everything, but you were at the arena and everybody liked to play at the arena in Sioux Falls.
Craig Mattick:
It was the third straight year the Lady Thorpes were at the state basketball tournament. SuAnne Big Crow is a sophomore. I think you're the number two seed in that tourney behind Milbank. What was special about that season leading up to the state tournament of '89? What was that team like that you had?
Charlie Zimiga:
They all came, they had a job to do, a certain job to do, that I just embedded that into them. If you were the point guard, you got to bring your point guard up. If you steal the ball or do something else, that's extra, but you have to basically be our point guard or you have to be our wing person, you have to be our center. Whatever position that girl played, I instilled in their head that that's what we had to do. You had to do a good job in that position, and they did.
And we had some scary games because at regionals, SuAnne Big Crow, she fouled out in the fourth quarter. And so we had to go that fourth quarter without her. And in a way, it was a blessing to us because we knew we could play for a while without her, not the whole game but still we didn't want her fouling out. That's the only thing about my plan of attack on the full court press was we got into a lot of foul trouble, and so we had to watch that.
Craig Mattick:
At that state tournament, first round, you beat Flandreau by 15. In that game, SuAnne scores 36 points, which ties the most points scored in a first round tournament game. Carla Allard, Bennett County, scored 36 in 1986. And those records still stand today Charlie.
Charlie Zimiga:
That's what I heard. I've heard that, yeah.
Craig Mattick:
That's 39 years old now, those two ladies with that scoring record.
Charlie Zimiga:
Mm-hmm.
Craig Mattick:
Semifinals, Pine Ridge, you beat Parkston by 15. And that brings the big matchup, number one versus number two against Milbank. It's their third straight trip to the title game. What was your strategy going into that game know that Milbank probably was the better team that evening?
Charlie Zimiga:
Well, I knew we couldn't press them because we always got in trouble, foul trouble, when we pressed, and referee problems. So every quarter just the last two minutes, I would press them, and that would keep us in the game. And then I told them we had to rebound because they were taller than us. I said, "Forget about rebounding, box out. Forget I even say rebound, just box out." And it helped us out.
Craig Mattick:
What was Milbank trying to do to prevent SuAnne Big Crow from scoring?
Charlie Zimiga:
Well, they would double team every time. As soon as she got the ball, they'd go and get her. And it kind of confused her a little bit for a while there because just in the third quarter it was there, she just kind of stood around. I mean she wasn't moving much, but she was supposed to do certain things. And so we got her out of that situation where she just wasn't doing anything, and then she came back to herself again. But the thing was every time we pressed them, they had a hard time bringing the ball down and they didn't have the outside shooting. So we laid back and tried to keep the ball from coming inside.
Craig Mattick:
Well, the game is tight throughout the whole game. Milbank scores a bucket late, 10 seconds to go, and it's all tied at 40. Describe what happened in those last 10 seconds.
Charlie Zimiga:
Okay. The girl on our team, Mary Watkins, she got the rebound on a free throw and she went to dribble and hit her knee and went out of bounds. And so we could've had the ball, they got the ball, and they scored on us and tied the game. And they held the ball a little bit, held the ball, pressure, and then this girl went out on a wing and she hit a long shot and bumped it right in. So SuAnne got the ball and went down the court, and I jumped up and I hollered to one of my players, I'm glad they didn't hear me. I said, "Call time out," and by that time they all just come running down the floor. And they went in and I knew SuAnne was going to take the shot, I knew that for sure, so she stopped and shot it and missed it, and it bounced around. And then here the ball returned to her again, and she went up and shot this jump shot and it went in. I became smaller from all that weight trying to get that game for us.
Craig Mattick:
Pine Ridge wins its very first basketball title. What was the celebration like for you?
Charlie Zimiga:
It was tremendous. It was very ... The people in Pine Ridge were so ... It was tremendous. Just the traditions that we have in Pine Ridge and stuff the native people have, it's a recognition that we brought to them. And it's indescribable how that is when you win something like that, especially for the first time ever in the high school. And I got phone calls all day long from people, different teams, congratulating us, and we got from all the native American teams in South Dakota sent us congratulations. And then the colleges, the junior colleges and stuff around, and just general people telling how proud they were that the girls had won it. It was very exciting. Yeah, we kind of rode high on the hog there for quite a while with that in our stomach.
Craig Mattick:
I know we talk about SuAnne Big Crow a lot, but you had other members of that team that was pretty darn ... You can't win with just one, and you had some pretty good players on that team too.
Charlie Zimiga:
Oh yes, yes we did. We had some very good, like I said, for their position, they played outstanding. And our center, she won us a lot of games that she might not have scored the most points, but she scored at the best time. And in our press, they were very knowledgeable about how to press and how to setup our game. And we had some good three point shooters. And when you go to state tournament, all the crowd and everything kind of holds you back a little bit, and I kept, "Just say that you're in your own gym and you're going to go out there and just relax and do what you do at home," because they always played good at home. And they just gelled together as teammates. We had one girls, she's five foot six or something, and she was one of our best rebounders. And I would just praise her for her rebounding and she just worked hard getting rebounds, offensive or defensive, and that was Darla.
Craig Mattick:
That would've been Darla Janis.
Charlie Zimiga:
Darla Janis [inaudible 00:33:04].
Craig Mattick:
Or Janis, I'm sorry, that's right.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah, yeah. And she was a good cheerleader out there, she fired up the girls, and she did an outstanding job rebounding, and she had a hard time making free throws, very hard time. So at the end of the year, she worked hard, worked hard, and when we got to the state tournament, her free throws were there. They were there. She had one in the championship game that hit the back of the rim and bounced straight in the air and come straight down and went in. That was a good feeling for me to see that free throw go in, just little things like that. And Happy, our point guard, she made sure everybody was setup before she run a play and do this to make sure they was in the right position and who was supposed to break and all that stuff. She did a very good job of doing that.
And then we have the other one, Mary Walking, and she was a good three point shooter. But she was on the off side of the ball and she'd work that area very good by getting rebounds and shooting on the outside. And then our center, she was tall but we ran up against some very tall teams, and she would work herself and get them rebounds and start that fast break up the floor and go. And they were a very good team. And of course SuAnne was there, the spark plug of everything, and she needed each and every one of them girls to get it going. She needed them girls.
Craig Mattick:
SuAnne would go on to become one of the state's top scorers. She averaged 30 points a game her senior year. But the Lady Thorpes did not make it to the state tournament the last two years of SuAnne's career. Which team or teams kind of got in the way?
Charlie Zimiga:
Yeah, well, see she was a sophomore when we won it, and her class of girls weren't that handy at basketball. I mean we could play. Next year in '90, we had a fairly decent team, but when we came to the district tournament and that, it didn't gel right. We still had it for kind of a good team then, it wasn't as good as the year before, but we just couldn't finish off games and we got beat in districts by Red Cloud and they went to state. And I think they got second or something that year in state tournament.
And then her senior year, definitely she was the only thing we had. You don't want to put down the other girls or anything, but still, they didn't mesh good together. And so we took it on the chin her senior year in basketball.
Craig Mattick:
SuAnne would score just over 2,500 points in her career, but of course, we all remember too was huge in promoting cultural understanding and goodwill. She would've been 51 this year, Charlie, her birthday is in mid March. Of course, SuAnne dying in a car accident in February of '92 at the age of 17. Spirit of Su Award given out at every boys and girls state basketball tournament in South Dakota. Charlie, what are you thinking about every year when you see the Spirit of Su Award given out?
Charlie Zimiga:
I just think of that girl. We lost something. We lost something very special in her when she left us. And she was the type of girl that was so outgoing and so generous, and it hurts when I see her award give out because I know she aint here. But if you would meet her, if she was talking to us on this broadcast, she would smother me out politely and just take off and talk to you like you would never believe.
There was this coach in Spearfish, him and I became good friends, I can't remember his name right now. And when he came down to play us at Pine Ridge, during the JV game, SuAnne and I, I was sitting behind our team and then he came over and sat behind, we was visiting. So SuAnne comes over and moves me over and sits between us, and she carries this conversation on with this coach she never met, I just introduced him to her. And she starts talking to this coach and about his family and how many kids he had and, "I hope you have your girl play basketball," and things like this. She just went on and he was talking to her and he'd look at me and smile.
So finally I said, "Well, SuAnne, you better go get dressed. We got a game." "Oh, all right," and she left. And when she left he said, "Oh my, what a pleasant surprise. What a treasure that is," he said, and I agreed with him. She was nice to everybody. The little kids in Pine Ridge just adored her. She was something.
Craig Mattick:
Nine years as the Lady Thorpes basketball coach, 147 wins, 62 losses. Why did you step away as the head coach?
Charlie Zimiga:
All them years, I used to get migraine headaches. When you get in a migraine headache, you got to be in a dark room and just lay down and cure yourself. But here I was sitting on a bench, you know how it is at a basketball game under all the lights and the people hollering and everything.
Craig Mattick:
Yeah, loud. Yeah.
Charlie Zimiga:
Yes, loud. So I would just grit my teeth and get through the game, and then go on to the next. And then I would kind of hate, on trips I would hate to go on trips because if I did get, I had to watch what I ate and everything like that. And kind of the health thing said it was time, and I hated to, but I just said I was going to retire. When I said, "I'm going to retire and not coach anymore," and I surely really missed it. I missed the practice and things like that, and coaching. And the kids, especially the kids. I had kids at Pine Ridge High School here, they were wonderful kids, they made me feel like somebody. Because there was guys that coached and had a long career, 20 years or so, and never make it out of district. And they work hard and everything, and I know it has to do a lot with talent because these guys were nice, good coaches but they just didn't get the talent all them years.
And in girls basketball, I went on to districts and regionals, and went on to state, at least to play in a state and win one. It's very rewarding, but I got to give credit to them coaches that don't get that opportunity to do that.
Craig Mattick:
Pine Ridge Lady Thorpes would win their second basketball title, it was 2009 beating Dell Rapids. And of course, your good friend Dusty [inaudible 00:41:54] was the coach of that team. Were you at that game?
Charlie Zimiga:
No, I wasn't. I wasn't at that game. I was still trying to get myself cleared around, and so I didn't travel very much at that time. And I had chances to go, people wanted to take me, and everything, so we had it on the radio and everything so I just said, "I'll stay home and listen to it on the radio."
Craig Mattick:
Had to bring back some great memories.
Charlie Zimiga:
Oh, geez, yes. Mm-hmm.
Craig Mattick:
Well, one more for you, Charlie. You sit back once in a while and you consider how many kids that you were involved with over the years, some four decades at Pine Ridge. It's got to be in the thousands. What are you thinking about when you think about all that time you spent with the kids at Pine Ridge?
Charlie Zimiga:
I'm thinking I wished I could've done more educational-wise, seen more of our kids go to college and survive because there was nothing more I could more want in athletics from them to go out in this world. But as far as their education, I didn't see that many go on just to not to be a good athlete in college or anything, but just to get a good education, come back, and have a good life. And it's just a hard situation to go in there and get things done with these kids because once they're in high school, when they're in high school, the world is good to them. It's just everything is just coming their way and people are catering to them and everything and helping them out. And once they get into the real world outside, the outside world, it becomes a little difficult for them. And I think a lot of them we lose there.
I wouldn't trade what I did for anything in the world of working and stuff because now I see them and they're, like you say, that's 30-some years since won the state tournament, them girls and boys, they have families of their own and they're up in the gym hooting and hollering for their kids. But I'm sure glad I stumbled onto this job, coming into the dorm and being here in Pine Ridge, and I'm still here.
Craig Mattick:
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