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BY JAMES D. [email protected]
EDITOR’S NOTE: This articleoriginally appeared in the Aug. 13edition of the Press & Dakotan. Ithas been updated to reflect the on-going season.
A sixth place finish in theSouth Dakota State Class AABoys’ Golf Tournament a year agohas been a motivating factor forthe Yankton Bucks this off-sea-
son. With seven golfers with statetournament experience comingback for the Bucks, that isn’t asurprise.
Yankton looked to build onthat success as it began the 2012campaign on Aug. 13 at the LynxInvitational.
The Bucks strung together afourth place finish in the EasternSouth Dakota Conference, thenfinished sixth at state in 2012.
BY JEREMY [email protected]
Following the graduation ofnine seniors, the YanktonGazelles volleyball team turns itsattention to a pair of power hit-ters to carry the torch.
And by the sounds of it, sen-iors Mikala Hora and KelseyFitzgerald are ready to do justthat.
“We’ve got people who reallywant it,” said Fitzgerald, a 6-footoutside hitter. “We know it’ll betough right away, with so manynew girls, but we’re fired up.”
Yankton, coming off a 16-5season a year ago, returns onlytwo players with significant var-sity experience — both on thefront row. Also back from lastyear’s varsity squad are KelseyButler (Sr.) and Brooke Wuebben(Jr.).
Between the varsity and JVrosters this season, Yanktonboasts eight juniors, six seniors,two freshmen and one sopho-more.
“In a lot of ways, it’s startingfrom scratch,” head coach LeasaWoodward said. “We’ll have topiece things together a little bit.We’ll have to be patient and seehow the kids react.”
Ultimately, how the Gazellesplay around their two front-rowsluggers will be the story of theseason, Woodward said.
Hora, at 5-foot-11, is movingfrom outside hitter to the middle.A 2-time first team Class AA all-state selection, she led the statein kills per set (5.4) and rankedthird in total kills (316) and hit-ting percentage (.331) as a junior.
Fitzgerald ranked fourth lastyear in kills per set (3.7) and sev-enth in total kills (234). Defen-
sively, she had the ninth-mostblocks in Class AA with 51.
Woodward likened the situa-tion to a football team having agreat receiver, but needing asolid line and a quarterback toget them the ball.
“We have to find two touchesbefore they can see the ball,” shesaid. “That’s our goal, to makesure we’ve got solid kids aroundthem who can get it done.”
Put another way, the two atthe front row will have to adjustto new setters, Hora said.
“It’ll be different, definitely,but we have a lot of hard-work-ers,” she said. “We’ll be all right.”
With so many changes, theGazelles might not be expectedby opposing teams to make a runfor a state tournament berth,Fitzgerald said.
“It’s nice because nobody ex-pects us to do anything,” shesaid. “All the pressure is off us.We played tight last year, youcould really tell.”
When it comes to where theGazelles fit into the EasternSouth Dakota Conference (ESD)picture this fall, it’s hard to tell.They saw Brookings, Huron andMitchell in an ESD team campover the summer. Woodwardpointed to Aberdeen Central, lastyear’s third-place finisher at thestate tournament, as the leaguefavorite.
Another change for theGazelles comes on the sideline,as Tiffany Beste will serve as a
volunteer assistant. Beste, whoteaches at Yankton MiddleSchool, spent the last seven sea-sons as the head volleyballcoach at Watertown.
Assistant coaches Amy Long,Carmen Robinson and Chris Hov-den are also back.
When it comes to Yanktoncompeting for the state tourna-ment, it’s not something they cango ‘back’ to. That’s where themotivation lies this year, Horasaid.
“It’s our chance to be thatteam that slides into state,” hesaid. “It always seems like there’sone team every year that youdon’t expect to get there.
“That’s going to be us.”
You can follow Jeremy Hoeckon Twitter at twitter.com/jhoeck
PAGE 2 PRESS & DAKOTAN / PLAIN TALK ■ FALL SPORTS 2012
8/31 Wisner-Pilger A9/7 Ponca H9/14 Stanton H9/21 Hart. Cedar Cath. A
9/28 Homer A10/5 Lutheran High HE H10/12 Battle Creek A10/18 West Holt H
8/30 Wynot Tourn. Wynot9/4 Madison/HCC H9/6 O’Neill H9/8 Boone Cent. Tourn. Albion9/11 Boone Central A9/13 Pierce A9/18 Laurel-Concord-Coleridge A9/20 Battle Creek/Wisner-Pilger
Battle Creek
9/22 Norfolk Catholic/LutheranHigh Northeast Norfolk
9/25 Lutheran High NE A9/27 West Holt A10/4 Wayne A10/9 Creighton A10/11 Guardian Angels CC H10/15-16 Knox Co. Tourn. Crofton10/22-26 Mid-State Conf.
Norfolk/Pierce
Crofton Warriors Football
Crofton Lady Warriors Volleyball
8/23 O’Neill St. Mary’s A8/31 Hartington A9/7 Pender H9/21 Neligh-Oakdale H
9/28 Creighton A10/5 Elgin Pub./Pope John H10/12 Niobrara-Verdigre Niobrara10/18 Plainview H
9/4 Osmond H9/6 Allen/Wausa H9/10 Wausa H9/13 Winside H9/18 Hartington H9/20 Humphrey St. Francis A9/27 Elkhorn Valley/Osmond
Tilden
10/2 Lynch/Santee Lynch10/4 Madison A10/6 Randolph/Winside Winside10/9 Wynot H10/11 West Boyd A10/15-16 Knox Co. Tourn. Crofton10/22-26 Lewis & Clark Conf. TBD
Bloomfield Bees Football
Bloomfield Bees Volleyball
BY CHRIS [email protected]
After back-to-back six-win seasons, theYankton Bucks took a step forward last fall,posting a 7-4 record, their best effort sincethey ended the 2007 season at 8-3.
With a contingent of experienced playersreturning this year, another above .500 sea-son seems within grasp, but the Bucks willhave to battle their way through an intimidat-ing schedule to once again join the ranks ofSouth Dakota’s elite 11AA football programs.
One of the biggest hurdles facing theBucks, in what will be the last season of thecurrent 11-man classification — with an11AAA class being added for the state’s eightlargest schools, will be how to replace theover 1,500 yards of production from lastyear’s team lost to the graduation of ConnorFitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons, who rushed for790 yards, caught passes for 526 and re-turned kickoffs for another 270, accountedfor 104 of Yankton’s 282 total points scoredlast fall.
Bucks head coach Arlin Likness likes whathe sees out of senior Chance James as a for-mer backup with some varsity experience.Evan Schroeder (42 carries, 315 yards, 19 re-ceptions, 261 yards) and James Hisek are alsosenior backs who will be asked to contribute
much more in the Bucksrushing and receiving at-tack.
Despite the lack ofrushing production re-turning from last year’steam, it should be notedthat Fitzsimmons, al-though battling injuriesthroughout his junioryear, had less than 150combined rushing andreceiving yards in 2010before his breakout sen-ior campaign last fall.
Another reason foroptimism heading into this season is the finaloffseason of polishing for senior quarterbackMichael Rucker. Rucker, a pocket passer (herushed for only six yards in ‘11), set newYankton single-season passing records forcompletions (111), attempts (203), yards(1,552), as well as a new single-game recordfor passing yards with 315 against Huron inweek two. Rucker is also less than 200 yardsaway from eclipsing Mike Stotz’s career markof 2,336.
Although far from perfect — he threw 12interceptions against 10 touchdowns last sea-son — Rucker’s ability to challenge defensesin the passing game should allow the Bucks
running backs to find more open runninglanes.
“He is definitely one of our leaders,” Lik-ness said of Rucker. “This season we are look-ing for an increased completion percentageand a decrease in interceptions.”
Protecting Rucker in the pocket and pro-viding holes for the backs will be an offensiveline anchored by seniors Adam Spencer,Kellen Soulek, and Logan Van Winkle.
Yankton opens their season with a pair ofEastern South Dakota Conference road gamesbefore welcoming the Watertown Arrows totown for the home opener on Sept. 7.
The real challenge of the regular seasonwill be the second half, as the Bucks travel onthe road to take on defending state championSioux Falls Roosevelt and early-season 11AAtop-five and ESD favorite Brandon Valleywhile also hosting Sioux Falls Washington inbetween those road trips.
“Brandon Valley has to be one of the fa-vorites along with the Sioux Falls schools,”Likness said. “We have to prove to ourselvesthat we want to get to that level.”
As far as the goals for this 2012 Buckssquad; fairly simple. “We want to be the bestteam that we can be by playoffs,” Likness said.
Because late October into November iswhen the games really count.
You can follow Chris Riley on Twitter attwitter.com/ChrisCRiley
Bucks Look To Continue Climb Up RankingsFootball: Yankton Finished 7-4 In 2011
BUCKS: Michael Rucker (16)
BUCKS: Jace Guthmiller
GAZELLES: Mikala Hora (11) and Kelsey Fitzgerald (10)
Hitters Power Young Gazelles
FRONTLINEATTACK
Senior Sluggers Fitzgerald, Hora ReturnFor An Otherwise Young Yankton Squad
online■ Join ChrisRiley And TheP&D Sports StaffFor Live ChatsDuring EveryBucks Game.yankton.net
Yankton Golfers MotivatedAfter Sixth Place Finish In ‘11
YHS GOLF | PAGE 3
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