But in the end, the Kernels’ path still led to Rapid City.
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A series of preseason injuries, including two season-ending setbacks, dealt a blow to team morale before the Kernels even played their first game. Then came a 1-3 start to the year.
With the team needing a reset, head coach Dave Brooks laid out the map.
On a simple printout of South Dakota, Brooks plotted a route from Mitchell to Rapid City, but not via the direct line provided by Interstate 90. Instead, he plotted a path with a detour south through Parkston and then west along South Dakota Highway 44. The mostly straight and gently meandering path of I-90 was replaced by a much less direct route, one that winds and zigzags through the terrain of the West River and Badlands until reaching its destination.
The map illustrated a point Brooks wanted his team to believe better than words at the time: It won’t be easy, but we can still get where we want to go.
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“We had a tough and pretty surprising start to the season. That start didn’t go the way we planned,” sophomore Londyn Hajek said. “What (Brooks) did made sense, and I think it was good for us to realize that it wasn’t going to be an easy road. We were going to have to figure out some things and get some wins, and I think we did a good job of that.”
The mapped route was divided into segments, and with each victory, the Kernels took a yellow marker and colored the area around the path, which was drawn with a thick line in black ink. It quickly became a staple of the Kernels’ postgame locker room routine, a regular reminder of how far the team had come on its journey.
“Just coloring the next mark was knowing that we are that much closer to our goal,” Hajek said.
“This is a pretty good group and everyone bought into this idea,” Brooks said. “The next thing I know, they’re the ones reminding me that we need to mark the map.”
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At the end of the Kernels’ SoDak 16 win over Spearfish, the win that qualified Mitchell for a fourth straight trip to the Class AA tournament, the team did not have its normal post-game huddle. That meant completing the final leg of the journey on the map was saved for Monday in practice.
“It really confirms that we made it to state,” said senior Addie Siemsen. “That was our goal and despite the obstacles we had throughout the season, the hard work has paid off.”
As the No. 7 seed in the Class AA girls basketball state tournament, Mitchell faces a difficult task as she tries to unseat two-time defending champion and No. 2 seed O’Gorman.
At 20-1, the Knights have not lost since their season opener against Brandon Valley, the No. 1 seed in the Class AA group. That loss in December snapped a 50-game winning streak for the Knights, who are 108-9 over the past five seasons.
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Meanwhile, Mitchell enters the tournament with a 13-8 record, including a 65-34 loss at O’Gorman to end the regular season on Feb. 26. In that matchup, the speed and activity level of the Knights’ team, particularly on the defensive end of the floor, put the Kernels at a disadvantage early on and they never recovered.
“His pressure and speed surprised us a little bit, but I think after seeing him, we won’t be as nervous this time,” Hajek said. “We’re going to work on our game plan and I think we’ll be able to give them a tough game, win or lose, in that first round.”
Also on the Knights and Kernels side of the group are No. 3 Sioux Falls Washington and No. 6 Sioux Falls Jefferson. The Kernels played both teams at MHS Gym this season, beating Jefferson 60-55 on Feb. 3 and falling 51-41 to Washington on Feb. 17.
No matter which side of the bracket the Kernels move to after the quarterfinals or who the opponent is, the goal is to end the season (the last for lone senior Addie Siemsen and outgoing coach Brooks) on a high note. In each of the last three seasons, Mitchell has won at least one game in the tournament, and last year they won a pair after a first-round loss to take fifth place.
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“If you don’t win them all, you really want to finish 2-1. We don’t just want to be happy that we did it, we want to play well while we’re there,” Brooks said. “But no game will be easy.”
“We know what it takes to win games in the state tournament,” Siemsen added. “I really think that will help us this weekend.”