“Will the Pierre Governors win a seventh straight football title?” This is a question that many are asking as the 2023 high school football season in South Dakota draws near.
Last week, all three classes of 9-man football and Class 11B began football practice for the upcoming campaign, and then on Monday, the three top classes in the state could begin their practices. And while most teams begin by handing out equipment, going through drills, and start installing formations and plays, the Governors team does something a little bit different every year.
“We are out at Oahe Downstream [Recreation Area] right now. We take those first three days, and we take the team out camping,” said Steve Steele, Pierre head football coach. “We’ve got all the kid’s phones and car keys, and it’s entirely pretty much a team bonding [event] and chemistry. We don’t spend really any time on what we would consider a traditional football practice. We’ll start that on Thursday, but we really use these first three days of allowable practice to really just focus on building a team and building the chemistry and the camaraderie.”
A day full of “Fun” pic.twitter.com/wDPCvjvLLA
— Pierre Governor Football (@pierre_football) August 8, 2023
The Governors did hold a short morning football practice on Monday before heading to the campground.
Some of the activities during the team bonding event are group challenges, hanging out by the water, and a bean bag tournament. For Coach Steele, the creation of ‘team chemistry’ and ‘team camaraderie’ are instrumental into the success of the program.
“That’s just part of our philosophy, that’s the most important thing. We feel every coaching staff’s good enough to put out a good scheme here every year, and every team’s going to have their athletes,” Steele explained. “And we feel that this is something that can set a team apart, is the ability to work together well, to believe in each other, to trust each other, and to be able to problem solve.”
While some may question spending allowable practice time to go camping, for the Governors, this system and culture has worked. In Steele’s seven year’s as head coach of Pierre TF Riggs, he’s led them to six straight state titles (’17-’22).
“I think what’s made this special is that we haven’t just had a really amazing best team in the state every year. We’ve won with a lot of different groups of kids, and a lot of different skillsets and weaknesses,” stated Steele. “I think that’s made this really special and fun. And I think someday we will look back on it and see how special it was. But, right now, we’re still in the midst of it, and obviously, we know this probably won’t last forever.”
This year’s Pierre Governor football team will look different than the past. They graduated 18 seniors from last year’s squad, including stand out quarterback Lincoln Kienholz, who is now with the Buckeyes football program at Ohio State. Kienholz broke numerous school records, and became the state’s all-time record holder in passing yards for a career. He was also a three-time Joe Robbie MVP, which means he played a crucial role in three of the Governors six state championship runs.
For the 2023 season, coach Steele has already named his starting quarterback.
“It’ll be Cade Kaiser this year. Kaiser, he played quarterback on the JV level and as a freshman a few years ago. He was a guy that wanted to put his hat in for the job and just did an outstanding job over the course of the spring learning and in the summer, getting the throws in and learning everything that he needs to learn” exclaimed Steele. “We are redesigning things for him, so we want to feature his strengths and not the previous guy’s strengths.”
Last season, Kaiser scored twelve touchdowns as a receiver for the Governors. He also caught 35 passes, had 735 total yards, and received all-state honors.
Garrett Stout, who quarterbacked the Governors to state titles in 2018 and 2019, also started off as a receiver, and transitioned to quarterback, so this is a move that Steele is familiar with during his time at the helm.
Whatever happens this year for Pierre, whether they win a seventh straight 11AA title or not, coach Steele knows that what they have going is special – and it extends off the field.
“We had a moment at the [Dakota Dome] last year where we walked out, you look up and it’s just jammed. I think that was one of those moments where you just realized that what we’ve done is special,” explained Steele. “This community, we’ve always traveled well. There’s always a ton of community support here, but to just go to those games and to see just the complete sea of green there is just incredible. So finding ways to continue to prolong things and to continue to do it again.”
The Pierre Governors will open their 2023 season on Friday August 25th in a road game against Aberdeen Central. They’ll host their home opener the following week against Brookings.
