Ryan Bozer:
It's Thursday morning. You're listening to Morning Edition with me, Ryan Bozer. And joining me is SDPB's Sports and Recreation reporter, Nate Wek, to bring another Your Morning In Play. We've been highlighting some incredible stories from the basketball court, Nate. And I'm very glad that you have another one to bring to us today.
Nate Wek:
Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. So last couple of weeks, we've obviously talked about a couple different individuals. Mark Senftner out of Sully Buttes and the legacy that he left after he passed away from cancer. Last week we talked about Miles Krajewski out of Yankton, the student basketball manager. And this week might as well talk about Ruth Dreamer, who is the head boys basketball coach at Oelrichs High School. She recently took the job. So it was her first year at the helm and they did have... With any new program and that kind of stuff, I mean, you're going to have challenges, you're going to have rough spots and stuff like that. But I think the one thing that really came out of this as far as the season as a whole is throughout the regular season Oelrichs lost to Edgemont three times. They had to then play them in the first round of the playoffs and then they'd actually beat Edgemont.
So they picked up a postseason win, which for a first-time head coach is actually a really big deal. You talk about building blocks and starting that winning culture, and not just for this season, but something that you hope will carry over to the next season. That's exactly as a first-year head coach what you'd like to see. So I thought that was pretty cool that that happened, and that happened early last week when Oelrichs defeated Edgemont. Now, Oelrichs has been eliminated from the boys B bracket. They got beat by White River in the next round. But again, getting a playoff win as a first year head coach is a very big deal.
Ryan Bozer:
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, you think of coaching, oh, they have everything they need, they're just sort of guiding the play, but not only is your team growing, the coach is growing with the team, right?
Nate Wek:
Absolutely. And so now just a little backstory, Ruth Dreamer grew up in Pine Ridge. Okay? She was... Basketball is obviously very, very big in Pine Ridge and on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. So it's a big deal in that part of the state. She was an 1800 point scorer in high school. So we're talking very good high school basketball player to score 1800 points. So as life has it, things change and stuff like that. So I had kind of asked Ruth when we were interviewing her, I said, "Can you just take me through the process of, I guess, how it happened that you landed here in Oelrichs?" And here's what Ruth had to say.
Ruth Dreamer:
This number calls me and they're like, "Hey. Are you coaching anywhere?" And I'm like, "No." And they're like, "Well, we need a coach." I'm like, "Where at?" And they're like, "Oelrichs boys varsity." I'm like, "Really?" And they're like, "Yeah. If you're down." I'm like, "Yeah. Sure. Let me come in." Did the interview the next day, got hired. And it was definitely a challenge because like I said, I didn't ever think I would, but it's exciting and it's fun. I really, really like it, especially with this group of boys. They're really eager to learn. So it's just been really, really an amazing experience.
Ryan Bozer:
I can really relate to sudden phone calls leading to amazing opportunities. That's something that really speaks to me. And it's all about trusting yourself and knowing your own skillset well enough to be able to say yes to that opportunity. And clearly for Ruth, I mean, that was the case, right?
Nate Wek:
Absolutely. And the other thing that really struck me too about her is she's not just trying to be a basketball coach, if that makes sense. She's also trying to sort of be maybe a little bit of a life coach as well. She teaches the kids, "Hey. You're an athlete right now. So look at what you're putting into your body. Are you... Fruits and vegetables, make sure you're getting enough of that. Put stuff in your body that's going to maximize your ability as a student athlete, including staying away from alcohol, staying away from tobacco, things that would be potentially harmful to your body." So these are the conversations and stuff like that that she's had with her team. And I think that's just a whole different side of it that you don't see when you're just watching, when you just go to a game.
Ryan Bozer:
Right. You see them play on a court, but you don't see the mentorship and the teaching and just the care that goes in off court, right?
Nate Wek:
Absolutely. So that to me really, I guess, struck me as something that's really cool with Ruth. And obviously too, the other aspect about her story that's cool is she's a female head coaching a boys varsity team, which you look around obviously right now in Pierre, they've got Brianna Kusler, who is the head coach of the Boys Governor's team. Jana Jones up in Philip was also head coach for the boys varsity team there for quite a few years years ago. But so it's not necessarily like this is something that hasn't been done before, but it's still something that's very rare, at least in South Dakota. So to see her stepping into that not being intimidated, I thought was super impressive as well. And I mean, just having a five minute conversation with Ruth Dreamer, you will walk away very impressed. I promise you that.
Ryan Bozer:
That's incredible. I'm hoping that her entire team is just soaking in all of the lessons and the skills that she's giving them both on and off the court and are able to take that and share it themselves at some point. What an incredible journey. And so we're talking about all these basketball stories, and I understand we might have more basketball stories made this weekend and next weekend because we have state basketball championships coming up.
Nate Wek:
Absolutely. Yeah. We've got... The girls state basketball tournaments will be... They start today and they go through Saturday. They're taking place from Brookings, Sioux Falls and Rapid City. B Girls in Rapid. The A girls are in Brookings. And then the AA girls are at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. So 24 teams. And if you want to talk about what the next couple of weeks look like, South Dakota Public Broadcasting will be airing 72 basketball games.
Ryan Bozer:
So just a few?
Nate Wek:
Yeah. Just a few. Yep. There's six tournaments in total with the three boys classes, three girls classes, and there's 12 games per tournament that get played out when you get to those placement matches or placement games and stuff like that. So yeah, 72 total games and all of them will be on television as well. The Class B girls this week are on SDPB1-TV. A girls will be housed on SDPB2, and then AA will be on SDPB3. Along with that, all of the games will also be broadcasted live as well on YouTube. Just go to our SDPB YouTube channel. And we're also going to stream them live as well online at sdpb.org/basketball, which at sdpb.org/basketball is also where we'll house all the statistics for all the games, event photos, all of the stories, all of the stuff like that. So be sure to check out sdpb.org/basketball for complete coverage here these next couple of weeks.
Ryan Bozer:
Fantastic. Well, I assume you have to go start getting ready to be court side yourself for the next several days.
Nate Wek:
Absolutely.
Ryan Bozer:
So I will let you go off and watch all the games happen. I will stay comfortable in the studio watching all the television screens we have here, but cheering from here.
Nate Wek:
Sounds good, Ryan. Well, I appreciate it.
