Category Archives: Sports

Colome volleyball team improved its record to 6-1 with a victory over Chamberlain last Tuesday. The scores were 25-15, 24-26, 25-21 and 25-17. Libby Petersek scored 19 points with 6 aces.

Elizabeth Yeaman and 8 points and 2 aces.Makayla Shippy had 8 points and one ace. Saydee Shippy had 10 kills followed by Libby Petersek 9 and Baylie Hoffine, 8.Yeaman and Heath had 2 blocks. Shippy had 29 assists. Baylie Hoffine had 29 digs and Petersek, 16. Colome won the junior varsity match 25-23, 26-24 and 15-11.

The next action for Colome will be against Avon.

Winner Area boys cross country team won the Big Dakota and Chamberlain Invitational champions Thursday in Chamberlain.

Leading the boys was Kade Watson as he placed 4th. Joseph Laprath took 10th; Kylar Meek, 12th and Chaz Blotsky, 51st.The Winner girls team placed fourth at the meet. Sidda Schuyler led Winner with a 9th place finish followed by Aryn Meiners, 22nd;and Melanie Brozik, 23rd. In the junior high girls race, Lena DeMers took 33rd.Hayden McMurtrey placed 8th in the junior varsity boys race.

Matthew Calhoon took 31st in the junior high boys race. The Winner Area boys cross country team took first place at the Lyman Invitational on Saturday. Kade Watson took first place to lead the runners. This is his first championship of the season.

Joseph Laprath took 4th place, Kylar Meek, 8th, Chaz Blotsky, 21st and HaydenMcMurtrey, 27th.The Winner girls varsity placed third. Sidda Schuyler placed 11th, Aryn Meiners, 15th and Melanie Brozik, 20th.Lena DeMers placed 13th in the junior high race.

In the junior high boys, Matthew Calhoon took 16th place. The next meet for the runners is Sept. 25 at the Rapid City Invite at Hart Ranch.

Ryder Halligan led the Winner Area golfers at the Chamberlain Invitational on Sept. 3. Halligan took fourth place with a 93. Karson Keiser took 8th place as he shot a 97. Both Halligan and Keiser received medals. Maxton Brozik took 14th with a 102 and Landon Calhoon took 16th with a 103. Winner High School junior Kaden Keiser placed 18th and shot a 108.

As a team, Winner took third place just one place out of second. Winner had a score of 395 and Mobridge/Pollock had a 394. First place went to Chamberlain with a 360.Winner had several middle school golfers place. Mason Beehler led the middle school as he placed 5th with a 49.

Carter Craven was 8th with a 54 and Brody Calhoon was 9th with a 54. Roper Moore shot a 60.The next action for the golfers will be Sept. 10 at the Big Dakota Golf tournament in Mobridge.

Colome football team lost a close game to Tripp-Delmont-Armour/Andes Central/Dakota Christian Friday night in Colome.

The Cowboys were defeated 26-20 after making a comeback in the fourth quarter.

The game was tied 14-14 at the half.

Colome opened the scoring on a one yard run by Michael Supik. Tripp/Delmont came back and scored plus making their two point conversion to give them an 8-6 lead. With 8:46 left in the second quarter, Tripp/Delmont scored to take a 14-6 lead. However Colome’s Riley Shippy returned a kickoff 65 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 14-14.

In the third quarter, Tripp/Delmont scored 12 points and held Colome scoreless.

The Cowboys scored its final touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 27 yard run by Shippy.

The Cowboys had 211 yards of total offense and were lead by Bertram with 84 yards. Shippy had 80 yards and Michael Supik, 45 yards.

The Cowboys 11 first downs.Leading the Colome defense was Sully Shippy with 13 tackles. Shippy and Bertram had 10 tackles each. Supik had 8 tackles and Brayden Seegers 7.

The next action for Colome will be Friday night at Platte.

The Winner/Colome high school trap team recently handed out awards that were earned from the spring clay target season.

In the girls division, Katie Welker was the overall high average female in the state. She also won first place for girls in the conference and was the high overall shooter in the conference.

Megan Brozik earned second place for girls in the conference and Faith Covey was third place in the conference. In the boys division, Elijah Everette was the first place shooter for boys in the conference and Tane Pravecek was third place.

Welker and Everette were both named to the all state team.

As a team the Winner/Colome team took first place in the conference. There were 14 members of the team. Others members include Jack Anderson, Parker Baker, Matt Brozik, Jesse Larson, Juli Larson, Austin Olson, Hunter Osborn, Cole Rank and Hunter Shippy.

The team will begin shooting the fall league in September.

The 2020 Pigskin Preview features a story on they 40^th anniversary of South Dakota High School Activities Association football playoffs and football championships.

November of 1981 brought the first ever state football championships.

The magazine  features a story on Harvey Naasz, long time Winner High School football coach.

Naasz was the coach of the Warriors who defeated Vermillion 31-21 in the first Class 11A championship in 1981. It will mark the 40^th anniversary of that historic Winner football victory.

The story tells how Naasz fondly remembered his 1981 team and their road to the championship.

“All year long we knew we had a good team,” he said. “We were undefeated. The year before we also went undefeated with 18 seniors who did not get to play in a championship game but we had 18 juniors on that team who were now a year older. In the playoffs, we had to beat Mobridge and Belle Fourche to be able to get to the Dome.”

Naasz recalled memories involving the Warriors rivalry between Winner and Vermillion. “We had beaten Vermillion 6-0 earlier in the season in DakotaDome so we were familiar  with them. “I knew it was going to be a good match up as Coach Culver was a good coach. Once when we found out we had to face Vermillion again I thought whoever scored 14 points was going to win the game. Lo and behold we scored 31 points and even on the first play of the game. We faked off tackle and ran our left end deep so John threw a pass to Dean Novotny who ran it in for the touchdown.”

While Winner led the entire game, Coach Naasz shared two integral plays that sealed the championship for the Warriors.

“With five minutes left in the game, Jack Sharkey ran off tackle 50 yards for a touchdown to give us some breathing room,” Naasz said. “We knew we finally had them when we intercepted a pass with just seconds left in the game and ran out the clock.”

Coach Naasz said the championship was especially poignant for him and his family. “It was kind of a family affair for me,” he said. “I was coaching my son Brian as he was a senior that year. My son Bart was on the team the year before and came down from Northern to watch. My son Brad was a sophomore on the team as well. My wife Karen was from Vermillion.”

Coach Naasz spoke about what it meant to be a state champion and what it meant to the community of Winner.

“It felt great,” he said. “I don’t think I quit smiling for two weeks. Bart and I went out to the football field on the Sunday after we won and saw a bunch of kids playing football. I remember talking to them and saying they too could be in the Dome if they worked hard. It was a very big deal to win the championship,” he said. “Our community really rallied around us. Players would walk into stores and they were get cheered. Our fans loved following our team.” Naasz went on to win some other state football championships.

Experience and depth paid off for the Winner Warriors as they opened the football season with a 52-7 victory over Stanley County on Friday. On a hot night the Warriors put the pressure on Stanley County even though they struggled in the first part of the game. It was a night that football players were just happy to play a game.

This is the first athletic contest at Winner High School in the last five months. COVID-19 has changed everyone’s lives and that change has also involved the sports world.So Winner is following all the rules of the South Dakota High School Activities Association and the CDC to ensure they have a complete season. Some of those rules involved wearing masks on the bus trip to Ft. Pierre and assigned seating. Temperatures were taken of each player as they got on the bus.

The first points did not come onto the scoreboard until 1:43 left in the first quarter when Riley Orel scored on a 26 yard run. Shortly after Winner’s score, Stanley County counter as Evan Nordstrom ran 76 yards for the touchdown. Stanley County kicked the ball for the extra point and took the lead 7-6.One of coach Dan Aaker’s goals this year is preventing big plays from halting Winner drives. However, the Warriors gave up four big plays in the first half. Once the Warriors got clicking there was no stopping the No. 1 rated team in Class 11B.

Preston Norrid had a big 17 yard carry to setup a Winner touchdown at the end of the first quarter. With 4 seconds left, QB Brady Fritz carried the all in on a 15 yard TD run. The Warriors were now up 14-7. The Warrior running backs are so deep and that depth and ability to give the ball to multiple runners showed up in the second quarter as Winner scored three more touchdowns. Orel scored on a 4 yard run and this was followed by Karson Keiser on a 7 yard run and Sam Kruger on a 46 yard run.

Winner led 34-7 at the end of the first half.“We built up a nice lead at the half and we wanted to finish the second half strong. The only negative was the amount of penalties in the third quarter,” said the coach. A touchdown run by Orel in the third quarter was called back due to a penalty. Winner responded with Evan Farner scoring on a 2 yard run and giving the Warriors a 42-7 lead.

In the fourth quarter, Winner scored a safety as the Buffaloes lined up for a punt. A lot of younger kids got into the game in the second half. Aaker said the sophomores got a taste of varsity football.The last touch down was scored by Aaron Gilchrist on a 6 yard run as he went over the top to make the score.

The Warriors had 510 yards of total offense.Sam Kruger was the offensive leader as he picked up 147 yards on 9 carries. Orel had 95 yards, Keiser, 61 yards and Preston Norrid, 56 yards. In passing, Fritz was 1-4 for 21 yards.Leading tacklers on defense Farner, Orel, Norrid and Landon Thieman, all 4; Keiser, Joey Cole both 3.

The Warriors will travel to Rapid City on Friday and play St. Thomas More. This is a big rival between the two schools. Last year Winner defeated STM twice, once in the second week of the season and in the quarterfinals of the football playoffs. “This is a game we get excited for and the community is excited about,” said Aaker. The coach says STM has good athletes and their offense is challenging for the Warriors. Aaker says Ryan Wojcik is one of the better players in 11B. Coach Wayne Sullivan’s son is the starting quarterback for STM. “For us it will be controlling the line of scrimmage and playing physical football,” said Aaker. The coach says it will be a huge week of practice.

The weather will be hot so the team will need to concentrate during practice. “Our guys know who we are playing and it is a big game for both programs. It is a game where we will find out where we are at,” said Aaker. The Warriors are hoping to take the next step forward and get better this week.

Justin Zeigler and Erin Early were the overall winners of the Ron Waller memorial member-guest golf tournament at Winner Country Club this weekend.

For the rest of this story please pick up your copy of the Winner Advocate! Call (605) 842-1481, email winneradvocate@hotmail.com!