Basketball players at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Photo from Facebook
A note from the editor's desk
By Brandon Ecoffey
Lakota Country Times Editor
lakotacountrytimes.com After weeks upon weeks of writing columns columns about some of the most pressing issues even the most hardened writers need to take a break from that kind of content. Luckily, I have always had basketball to turn to. Throughout my life I have always used the game of basketball as an escape from everyday life. This summer was no different as I found myself attending a number of high school hoops games that were taking place at local team camps and leagues. As always there are a number of players at both Red Cloud and Pine Ridge (the other Rez teams had were not in attendance at the games I was), but what stood out to me were the number of Native ball players suiting up for nearly all of the Rapid City area schools. It is not a surprise to anyone that there is talent within our native communities located off the reservation but it is a fairly recent phenomena to see so many of our youth playing for these schools. Like many in our community basketball has been a sport that I have gravitated to and come to understand fairly well. My fascination with the sport has afforded me the opportunity to play with some great players and to coach some of them as well. So when I was offered the chance to walk the sidelines for one one of our reservation teams I jumped at it. During the weekend the team I coached played against Douglas High School, Sturgis, Hot Springs, and both Rapid City schools. Every team we faced (with the exception of Sturgis) featured several Native athletes featured as the best player.
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Over the course of my life I have only seen a handful of Native players take the court for schools like Stevens or Douglas but those times are changing as the talent of Native players is being appreciated for the first time in Rapid City since the days of Dave Strain who was at Central High School from 1963-86. Strain's teams won two state titles in 1969 and '80 and were runners-up six times. Under Strain's guidance Central played in the state tourney 18 times, a total that was at the time second best in state history. And the Cobblers produced more all-state and all-tournament players than any high school in history at the time. Strain has always been the first to admit that his best teams always had Native players on them. If Rapid City schools are to return to a time when they were bringing home state titles, they might have figured out how by tapping into the potential of their town's Native athletes. (Brandon Ecoffey is the editor of LCT and an award winning journalist who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He can be reached at editor@lakotacountrytimes.com) Find the award-winning Lakota Country Times on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter and download the new Lakota Country Times app today.
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