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Tales of the Gridiron: Everyone Starts Somewhere

high school football players

The state high school football playoffs are underway. Teams from around South Dakota are pushing ahead with dreams of playing for a state title. With every team, there is a story, and with every story - there's a beginning. Football players had to start somewhere, and these young kids from Lead/Deadwood are just one example.

Jarred Burleson is a peewee football coach in Lead/Deadwood who played football for the community from 1999-2002.

“The junior peewee group, we’ve got a lot of pretty close nit kids that do different activities. A lot of them are very sports oriented, so they move from the different sports with each other,” said Burleson. “And that’s just really great when you have kids two-three sports in a year. It helps build that comradely and help them work together a lot better.”

Burleson said he still loves the game of football and explained how special it is to watch young kids getting in touch with the sport.

Nate Wek is currently the sports content producer and sports and rec beat reporter for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism Broadcasting and a minor in Leadership. From 2010-2013 Nate was the Director of Gameday Media for the Sioux Falls Storm (Indoor Football League) football team. He also spent 2012 and 2013 as the News and Sports Director of KSDJ Radio in Brookings, SD. Nate, his wife Sarah, and three sons, Braxan, Jordy, and Anders live in Canton, SD.