Little Wound girls, Pine Ridge, Red Cloud boys on summer tour

RAPID CITY - Little Wound High School girl's basketball team just finished up the summer league Monday night at Rapid City Stevens high school; eight teams participated from around the region every Monday night through June. Red Cloud and Pine Ridge boys wrapped up their summer high school league at Stevens last night; both teams played 10 games over the five week league.

The leagues at Rapid City and weekend team camps have offered an opportunity for high school teams to work on their game, to build team chemistry and to stay active and in shape through the summer months.

"We really want to keep our student athletes busy during the summer, working on their individual skills, lifting weights on a regular basis, playing open gym and participating in summer team camps when possible," said Matt Rama, Red Cloud boy's coach, "we graduated seven seniors, so the work has begun to build a new team, build chemistry, develop new roles for the players and bring in younger players ready to move up to varsity; summer off-season work benefits each of our players and the team as a whole, to be competitive around the state, you have to have a strong off-season program."

Little Wound girl's coach, Ted Standing Soldier, Jr. is looking forward to his second year as the head girl's coach at the school in Kyle. Nine girls have participated in the summer program including Kanisha Rooks, Tangerine LeBeau, Tawnie Shay Hunter, Kirsten Clifford, Annissa Around Him, Marissa Around Him, Aileen White Face, Alanna Brown Bull and Alyssa Looks Twice.

"Our summer program keeps the girls busy, it's a chance for them to grow, to mature, get experience and deal with a variety of game situations," said Standing Soldier, "it's been really positive, it is a good opportunity for them to work on their game and to become a better team."

The Little Wound girls are 18-6 on the summer, going 8- 2 in the league at Stevens, 4-4 at the team camp at Chadron State College and 6-0 at Black Hills State University. They are planning to go to a one day camp at Dakota State in Madison, a team camp at Central Wyoming Community College in Riverton and wrap up the summer season with a camp at Northern State University in Aberdeen.

Red Cloud boys are 36-10 on the summer; they went through the league in Rapid City undefeated, took second at the Chadron State College team camp, losing only to Chadron, went 4-2 at Augustana College in Sioux Falls losing to Sioux Falls O'Gorman and defending State AA champs Watertown, went 4-2 in Spearfish, losing to Gillette and Pierre, two large schools, won the Tech team camp downing Chadron and won last weekend's Dickinson State University's team camp defeating Dickinson in the championship.

Red Cloud held a three week basketball camp at the school for players from 2nd grade to 12th grade, Mackenzie Casey, Clint Sargent and Josh Cassaday, players from SDSU helped with the camp one week while Red Cloud's graduating seniors, Art Vitalis, Lester Gotheridge, David Giago, Billy Scott and Christian McGhee helped the last week.

Red Cloud sent both a varsity and a JV team to the league and the team camps so far this summer. Varsity players included Carl Swallow, Kiley Weston, Mike Twiss, Jeremy Blacksmith, Henry Crow, Wade O'Bryan, JD Plume, Steve Vitalis and Truman Rossman while the JV has included Lyle Jacobs, TJ Hollow Horn, Jon Ross, Brandon Two Bulls, Junior Marshall, Daylon Black Bull, Dallas Tobacco, Tyrel Tail and John Richards.

Red Cloud plans to attend the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology team camp, July 11-13, has a trip scheduled to Washington D.C. and New York City and will wrap up the summer as two teams participate in the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) in Phoenix.

In addition to playing in the high school basketball league in Rapid City, the Pine Ridge boys participated in team camps at Chadron State College, University of South Dakota in Vermillion, Black Hills State University and plan to travel to University of Sioux Falls July 11-13. Players participating have included Roman Leftwich, Eric Long, Daulton Buckman, Zach Long, Hobart Locke, Roger Big Crow, Orie Brown, Brad Hussman and Sonny Red Cloud. A number of the players will travel to the Lori Piestewa tournament and NABI in Phoenix.

We are trying to build a program here at Pine Ridge," said Bill Pourier, Pine Ridge boy's coach for the past two years, "we have been able to have the gym open this summer and taking the team around the state for team camps gives our younger players some good experience; we are in a tough district with Little Wound and a tough region with the defending State A champs Platte-Geddes, if we are going to be successful, we have to have an off-season program."