Some of the top northeastern South Dakota Class A, B boys basketball players since 1984

Editor's Note: Sports writer Roger Merriam is compiling a "20 Favorites" series highlighting some of his favorite athletes in a variety of high school sports since he started working at the Watertown Public Opinion in December of 1984. The series is about northeastern South Dakota athletes, but some played at colleges all over the state and others have moved to other areas.

To be fair, let's acknowledge from the start that I probably should be doing a "20 Favorites" story on De Smet High School boys basketball players alone. Likely the same with Castlewood.

I'm getting creative and honoring a few of the Bulldogs and Warriors, but there were so many.

The list is pretty extensive and still doesn't cover everybody who deserves mention, but here goes. Again the order isn't specific, except for the final few spots.

Up next in the "20 Favorites" series in Watertown High School boys basketball.

20. 0thers

There are a few I really wanted to give some mention too, but it's not everybody. I'll start with Andy Kleinjan of Sioux Valley, who was named South Dakota's Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year in 2002. He played at South Dakota State and coached in Watertown before heading to Harrisburg. He's one of many other Sioux Valley players who could have made the list.

Also, it seems like an omission to not include any Hamlin High School players but a lot of Chargers' success came before I started at the Public Opinion. Since 1984, Hamlin's boys have played in the state tournament only three times (1990, 1993 and 2023) and didn't play in the winner's bracket until this March. Mark Stevenson quarterbacked Hamlin's first state championship football team in 1989 and also was a leader for for the 1990 basketball team that also included his brother Matt. Mark's son Tyson was a key member of the 2023 team. Travis Wadsworth was a key player on the 1993 team and his daughters Lexi, Kylee and Kami were honored in the "20 Favorites" area girls basketball story.

Jason Seurer, Chad Bergan, Brent Wherry and Kim Hofer were standouts for Milbank boys basketball teams in the late 1980s. The Bulldogs did make it to state in 1987. Milbank was rated No. 1 in Class A in 1988 before falling to Sisseton in the region. Seurer went on to play quarterback at the University of South Dakota, Bergan played basketball at Northern State, Hofer (who was like 6-10) played football and basketball at what is now the University of Sioux Falls and Wherry was a standout distance runner. And don't forget Kalen DeBoer, the University of Washington's head football coach, led the Bulldogs to state in the 1990s.

More: Roger Merriam's look at some of his favorite Watertown High School girls basketball players

19. Jason Lutz, Bristol

That was close. After a couple of weeks of research through the archives and whatever memory I have left, I finally remembered Lutz. The 2000 Bristol High School graduate played for his father Loren and certainly put his name at the top, or close to it, of the best Bristol players of all-time.

He is in the exclusive 2,000-point club in South Dakota high school basketball, having scored 2,040 points in his career.

18. Tyler Lee and Spencer Huggett, Roslyn

Roslyn had a ton of basketball and football success in the 1990s and 2000s under coaches Kent Schuster and Tom Lee.

Huggett did all he could to help the Vikings make it to the state B tourney in the late 1990s, but it didn't help until teams that featured Tyler Lee (Tom's son) made it in 2000 and 2001.

I grew up watching Tom Lee play for Huron College in the 1970s. I was thinking Tyler played at Northern State, but couldn't verify that. Either way, the two Vikings were really good high school players for the Vikings.

17. Eric Heismeyer, Estelline

I was all set to put Heismeyer on my area football "20 Favorites" list that is yet to come, because I remember the 6-foot-5, 260-pounder went on to play at North Dakota State University. But he had graduated by the time Estelline made it to the state Class 9B football championship in 1994. He was a sophomore and junior on Estelline boys basketball teams that won consolation titles in both the 1990 and 1991 state B tournaments.

Further research unveiled some health issues at NDSU that included doctors stopping his heart and trying to restart it by electric shock, which took four tries before it worked. Caffeine issues also contributed to the heart issues, so he had to give up Dr. Pepper. He still returned to the football field and made the starting lineup at tight end and played in 13 games before a lump in his neck turned out to be cancerous.

Heismeyer was a nominee for McDonald's All-American honors in basketball in high school and could play. Plus there's a lot to his story.

16. Greg Ching, Castlewood and Damon Wilkinson, De Smet

We're staying with big men here who, like Heismeyer, also could play some football. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound Ching went on to play football at the University of Nebraska but he won't make the "20 Favorites' list for football because his senior season was the fall of 1984 before I arrived in Watertown. Ching was also very much a force on the basketball court for the Warriors.

Fast forward to the present where the 6-9 Wilkinson recently completed a run as a very important member of De Smet's boy basketball teams that won the past three state Class B championships. He was the focal point this past winter. There was talk of him getting some Division I football offers as a lineman, but he'll instead continue his basketball career at South Dakota State.

More: A look at some of northeastern South Dakota's best girls basketball players since 1984

15. Jeff Hanson, Wilmot

Dale Schultz racked up more than 380 wins as the head coach of Wilmot High School's boys basketball teams from 1977 through 2006.

The highlights included two State B tournament trips in 1987 and 1989. Hanson played on both teams. As a senior in 1989, he set a new State B tournament record by scoring 35 points in a first-round game.

The Wolves, who also had a lot of success in football, deserve somebody on one of my "20 Favorites" list and Hanson's the guy.

14. Chad Steinocker and Damon Opdahl, Summit

These guys were more than 30 years apart but certainly are notable figures in the boys basketball history of Summit High School.

I believe Steinocker was only a junior on the Summit team, the only one in school history, that qualified for the 1990 state Class B tournament. Thirty-two years later (2022), Opdahl was a junior guard on the Waubay-Summit team that won the consolation title in the State B tournament.

Opdahl is the step son of coach Mark Amdahl, who led Summit's girls to an impressive run of success and has did great things with Waubay-Summit's boys program.

Double-doubles and triple-doubles weren't part of the equation when Steinocker played, but Opdahl regularly achieved such honors.

13. Coy Nelson and Derrick McCauley, Waubay

When I was a kid growing up in Huron, one of my earliest recollections of high school basketball in the state came by watching the battle of big men Chad Nelson of Yankton and Brian Shanks of Huron. The 6-11 Nelson played at Minnesota and Drake and later was drafted by National Basketball Association teams twice (New Orleans Jazz in 1978 and Atlanta Hawks in 1979). The 7-foot Shanks started at South Dakota State and ended up at Northern State. Shanks and the Tigers defeated the Bucks and Nelson 50-48 in the 1973 state A championship. After back-to-back runner-up finishes, Nelson and Yankton won the state A title in 1974.

Now fast forward more than a decade later when Chad's younger brother Coy was playing at Waubay High School. He wasn't able to get Waubay to its first State B trip since 1955 but did all he could for the Dragons. Coy was a three-time Class B All-State first team selection who I'm sure had countless double-doubles.

The 6-2 McCauley earned Class B All-State first team honors as a junior at Waubay in 2003 and then played for head coach Derek Robey at Aberdeen Central in 2004. He averaged more than 20 points per game that season and also earned Class AA All-State first team honors. Robey, now O'Gorman's head coach, said McCauley had moves he had never seen before.

12. Maurice and Matt Petersen, Deubrook

Deubrook High School is located in the town of White, which earned State B tournament trips in 1922, 1930 and 1937. The consolated Deubrook School (now Deubrook Area) has made only two State B trips (1988 and 1989).

Maurice was a 6-foot-4 senior leader for the Dolphins in 1988 when they won the State B championship with a 71-59 win over Midland. A big guy who had the skills to shoot and play outside, earned Class B All-State first-team honors after averaging better than 19 points per game.

Maurice's brother Matt was about the same size and I believe a junior on the state championship team. He returned the next season to lead the Dolphins back to state.

I believe the Petersens played at Dakota State, but I couldn't verify.

11. Michael Jerde, Grant -Deuel

I remember Jerde as a quarterback for Grant-Deuel High School football teams and the Wildcats definitely had a lot of success on the gridiron.

Then I was reminded of how good Jerde was on the basketball floor and that he played in college at Southwest Minnesota State.

He earned Class B All-State second team honors in 1988.

10. Justin Peters and Mike Paulson, Milbank

Officially, I believe Peters is the only reserve to make the list and in case you don't remember here's why. In 2005, the Bulldogs completed a 24-1 season by winning their first state Class A championship since 1967. Still, they needed a miracle to get out of the region and Peters, a 6-foot-5 junior reserve, provided it.

The Bulldogs had lost to second-rated Clark during the season and were close to taking second loss in the region championship when Peters fired an 80-foot heave at the buzzer that went in and forced overtime. Milbank won the game and continued the run to the state title.

Peters’ shot was the No. 1 play on ESPN Sportscenter’s Top 10 daily highlight show. I'm pretty sure nobody else on this list can match that.

Paulson was a really good Milbank athlete in the early 2000s who scored 1,096 career points for the Bulldogs.

9. Jordan Cornelius and Rick Hellwig, Sisseton

In 1963, a Sisseton team capped a 25-0 season by winning the state Class A championship. That was the state's biggest class at the time. The program has enjoyed its share of success since then, but has no other state titles.

The Redmen, however, do have state Class A runner-up finishes in 1988 and 2014.

In 1988, it was Hellwig who led the way. He came up huge in the team's upset win over No. 1-ranked Milbank in the region championship. The Redmen reached the state championship game before falling 58-50 to Vermillion.

Cornelius sparked a similar run by Sisseton in 2014. The Redmen reached the state championship game before falling 52-48 to Madison. I know Cornelius later played at Wayne State (Neb.), but I'm not positive if Hellwig continued his basketball career in college or if he did, where.

8. The Vincents, De Smet and Sioux Valley

The list starts with Bill Vincent, a member of De Smet's 1990 team that played in the state Class A tournament, and his brother Buster, who if I read things right was a sophomore when he canned two late free throws to help the Bulldogs win the 1996 District 3A championship. Bill and Buster may well tell you that there's more "favorite" players from De Smet in the past four decades.

Here's the catch, the Vincent brothers are not only tied to the hugely successful De Smet program but have been a major part of developing another hugely successful program at Sioux Valley. Bill has been the head coach of the Cossacks for the past quarter of a century and has racked up more than 450 career wins. Buster has been an assistant with the team the past few years.

There's more. Bill's son Taiton was a standout for the Cossacks and graduated in 2017 before playing at Augustana University. Buster's sons Kelton and Oliver were standouts on Sioux Valley teams that finished second in the state Class A tournament in both 2021 and 2022. Kelton (a 2021 graduate) is now playing at Northwestern (Minn.). Oliver, a 2023 graduate, is heading to Dakota Wesleyan University.

7. Mitch Boeck and Jordan King, Arlington

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a dynamic duo — at least those not involving siblings — that was so dominant for one high school during my time in Watertown.

The 6-foot-4 Boeck and 6-0 King not only helped lead Arlington's football team to back to back state Class 9AA championships in 2004 and 2005, they also led the Cardinals to the 2006 State B boys basketball championship. King was the quarterback and Boeck an end-receiver in football.

The two friends continued to play basketball together at Northern State University.

6. Jacob Prouty, Skyler Flatten and Derek Brown, Clark-Willow Lake

Man, that's a good trio there. Prouty, a 6-foot-1 guard, led the Cyclones to a runner-up finish in the state B tournament in 2018 and the first state title for either school as a senior in 2019. The two-time All-State honoree racked up 1,517 points, 455 rebounds and 353 assists in his career before playing at Dakota Wesleyan.

Flatten, a 6-6 guard, was a two-time Class A All-State first team honoree who led the Cyclones to state tournaments in 2012 and 2013. He was named the state's Class A Player of the Year in 2013. He averaged better than 20 points per game each of his final two seasons of high school and also pieced together a pretty successful career at NCAA Division I South Dakota State.

I was all set to put Brown on my "20 Favorites" area football list, and still might, because I remember doing a story on him passing for a bunch of yards as a senior. Then I read he was a three-time Class A All-State first team honoree in basketball who scored 1,884 career points, was named the 2010 South Dakota Class A Player of the Year and played four years at the University of Sioux Falls. Did I mention that his uncle Steve and father John were both standouts at Hamlin High School who went on to play at South Dakota State.

5. Jeff Nordgaard, Dawson-Boyd (Minn.)

The 6-foot-7 Nordgaard, who led Dawson-Boyd to the 1991 Minnesota state Class A basketball tournament, has something over every other player on this list.

After becoming the first Minnesota high school player to ever record a quadruple-double, Nordgaard went on to star at Wisconsin-Green Bay and even earned some Division I All-American honors.

He was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 1996 National Basketball Association draft and did play in 13 games for the Bucks in 1997-98. He enjoyed a lengthy pro basketball career in Europe (mainly France and Poland). He even took out Polish citizenship and played for the Polish national team.

4. Dustin and Brooks Little, Castlewood

The Warriors have been very successful, especially during a historic run from 1998-2003 that included five state B tourney trips, two undefeated state championship seasons (1999 and 2001), two runner-up finishes (2000 and 2003) and a third-place finish in 2002 that included a two-point semifinal loss to eventual champion Stickney. Coach Galen Swenson's teams came every so close to winning five-straight state titles, going 132-12 in that span.

So many good players, so many good athletes. I don't even want to start listing, because my memory isn't that strong.

We do have the Littles, who were smack dab in the middle of this run. Brooks, a 2003 grad, later became the University of South Dakota's receiving leader in football before also playing a year of basketball. Dustin, a 2004 grad, played basketball at USD and is now the head athletic trainer for the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers.

3. The Sikkinks, Castlewood

Ryan, Dallas and Trevor. If the Littles were smack dab in the middle of Castlewood's great run in the late 1990s and early 200s, you could say the Sikkinks (Ryan and Dallas) helped get it started.

Ryan was a senior Class B All-State first team honoree on the 24-0 state championship team in 1999. I'm pretty sure Dallas played a role on that team and also earned Class B All-State first team honors as a senior on the 24-0 state championship team in 2001. They later played together at Black Hills State University.

Younger brother Trevor also earned Class B All-State honors (second team) as a senior in 2011 after leading the Warriors to the state B tournament.

2A. De Smet past (Cory Roth and Josh NcNames)

If I missed many of Castlewood's leaders these past 40 years, my failure will be even more magnified with the Bulldogs. Roth and McNames are two I remember quite vividly from the 1990s. Yes, I also remember George Mollner and he'll get some ink in another "20 Favorites' story.

McNames, a cat-quick point guard, led the Bulldogs to the 1995 state B championship before embarking on a Hall of Fame career at Black Hills State University.

Roth, who I believe was 6-foot-4 or 6-5, helped De Smet win the 1999 state A championship that included an absolutely wild 81-78 overtime win over Little Wound in the semifinals that included 27 points from Roth.

2B. De Smet recent (Kalen Garry and Rett Osthus)

If Roth and McNames head the list of Bulldogs from the 1980s and 1990s, then Garry and Osthus are the leaders from recent years. The Bulldogs made only one state tournament the opening decade of this century, but have now won three-straight Class B titles.

Garry and Osthus, 2022 De Smet graduates, were four-year regulars who played on the 2019 state B runner-up team and the 2021 and 2022 state champions. The 6-3 Garry was a four-time All-State honoree and three-time Class B Player of the Year who ended his prep career as De Smet's all-time leading scorer with 2,091 points. He is now playing at South Dakota State.

The 6-1 Osthus earned Class B All-State honors twice and finished his career with 1,161 points. His father Doug played on De Smet's 1987 championship along with Jeff Gruenhagen, who has guided De Smet's resurgence in recent years. Both Doug and Jeff also are worthy of being on this list.

1. Paul Johnson, South Shore

What? Who? I can hear the voices now, but I'm telling you if you got to see Johnson play in high school in the late 1980s, you wouldn't be saying such things.

Here's the deal and it's why Johnson tops the list of my "20 Favorites' high school boys basketball players since 1984. He was the leader of a 1988 South Shore team that was No. 1-rated before getting upset in the district by Castlewood. He made the Class B All-State first team that year and also may have made the team as a junior.

Johnson is No. 1 because I'm taking credit for helping my alma mater (Sioux Falls College, now the University of Sioux Falls) get a notable four-year career out of him.

After seeing Johnson play in high school, I was so mesmerized that I contacted Orin Schueler, my college baseball coach at USF who also served as the men's basketball coach, and told him about Johnson. For the old-timers, Schueler coached Sioux Falls Lincoln's boys basketball team when I was in high school.

Recruiting was much different back then and I don't know how many coaches came calling for Johnson. It's way different now, but Johnson is the only player I "technically" helped recruit. Seriously, though, I felt honored that he didn't get overlooked and he got the chance to continue his basketball career at the next level. Not many made the athletic trek from South Shore to Sioux Falls.

Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on Twitter @PO_Sports

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: 20 Favs: South Shore's Johnson, De Smet, Castlewood top area boys cagers