On Wednesday, Rapid City Central announced the hiring of Allen Bertram to be their new head girls basketball coach, pending approval from their school board.
“I’m excited for it. It’s a great opportunity to build a program that needs a little help, needs a little shot in the arm,” stated Allan Bertram. “I knew that I would eventually get back on the sideline again, but I was going to be picky and choosy about where it was be at and when it was going to be. I wanted a situation that was going to be a challenge.”
The Rapid City Central girls basketball program has never won a state title. This past season, they didn’t qualify for the ‘AA’ state tournament. By bringing in Bertram, the school is finally hoping to reach the promise land for girls’ hoops in the Mt. Rushmore State.
“Coach Bertram is going to be a fantastic addition to Rapid City Central. He is an achiever that is not afraid to put in the hours it takes to be competitive at the AA level. He sets high expectations and holds himself, his athletes, and his coaches accountable. More importantly, he knows how to build relationships through hard work and dedication to the program and his student athletes,” said Rapid City Central Activities Director Jordan Bauer. “He is a genuine, confident, postitive, extremely hard worker that will fit in great with the culture we are working to build in Cobbler athletics. I’m beyond excited for Coach Bertram to get to Rapid City to begin re-building our Cobbler girls basketball program.”
Bertram has head coaching experience in South Dakota that extends over a decade and a half, 17-years to be exact. He has 225 career wins as a head coach with time spent at Andes Central, Todd County, and Chamberlain high school, where he spent twelve of those years. The new gig comes with some additional perks as well – it’s an opportunity to live next to the Black Hills.
“I love to hike! You can go out and hit a different hiking trail each weekend out there, and never see the same one twice,” exclaimed Bertram. “There are some really cool perks out there that a person is going to be able to do to get away from the everyday life situation, so as a family we’re looking forward to that kind of thing.”
Along with being a long-time coach in South Dakota, Bertram has more recently gained a reputation for being the director of operations for the basketball academy called ‘Sacred Hoops.’ Not only is Sacred Hoops the largest basketball program in the state with roughly 600 athletes participating in summer hoops leagues every year, but nearly 4,000 athletes do workouts with the organization on an annual basis as well.
The elephant in the room is whether or not Bertram would continue with Sacred Hoops, while at the same time, coaching at Rapid City Central. The answer is easy – ‘yes!’
“Sacred Hoops will be no different. I still will be directing it and overseeing it, but we’ve put really good people in our regional spots,” Bertram said. “We’ve really been able to spread the responsibility out so that when this happens I can focus on Sacred Hoops when I need to focus on Sacred Hoops and I’m able to focus on Rapid City Central when I need to focus on Rapid City Central.”
Allan Bertram will take over his new role on July 1st, the beginning of the new fiscal year, once the school board of Rapid City approves the hire.
