By Ryan Deal

605 Sports

The special occasion featured family, friends and players, who all had a hand in Senftner’s impressive coaching career. He guided the girls basketball teams to 11 state tournament appearances, winning state championships in 2007, ‘08, ‘16 and ‘17. The Chargers also finished as state runner-ups in 2012 and ‘15. Senftner, who also coached at Roscoe, Gregory and Timber Lake, accumulated a girls basketball coaching record of 481-190. He’s the sixth all-time winningest girls basketball coach in state history. 

As head football coach, Senftner guided the Chargers to state runner-up finishes in 2015, ‘17 and ‘18. He accumulated a 101-42 record in 14 seasons. 

In between the basketball doubleheader against Wolsey-Wessington, Lynn along with Mark’s son Scott Senftner, brother Tom Senftner and mother Jean Senftner were honored at half court. 

Mark’s coaching accomplishments were rattled off, a group photo was taken with former players and their patented “It’s Great To Be A Sully Buttes Charger” chant buttoned up the ceremony. 

“What a special place this is and to know his name is on there, it’s hard to absorb all of that right now,” Lynn said. “I can think of 20 people sitting here who could have had their name on this court and the excitement and sports love was going on way before Mark got here. I do think he put his special touch on it. But this was an amazing night.” 

Chloe Lamb, a former Sully Buttes all-stater and state champion, was among the Chargers at the event. Lamb, a current assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of Mary, strives to pattern her coaching style after Senftner and her Charger roots. 

“I like to think a lot of the way that I am coaching is from him and I hope it is, that will make me a better coach,” Lamb said. “But I am just trying to embody everything that he was. I think growing up here and having him as a coach, those things are in my soul. I am super grateful. I got really lucky that the Senftner family was part of my family, too.”

Tom, who made the three-hour trip from Bismarck, North Dakota, regularly made the trek to Onida to watch his brother’s teams in the past. The court dedication reinforced how special the small town in central South Dakota is to him. 

“Onida is a special place,” Tom said. “It really is and when Mark first came here, there’s a couple of ways it could have went and it went the positive way. Because this is a tough place to coach and luckily Mark was in a situation where he had some years under his belt. He knew what he was doing and he stepped in and did a really nice job.”

Growing up in McLaughlin, Tom said his older brother was all about sports and “He wanted a ball or a bat in his hand all the time.”

Senftner’s sports drive, coupled with Sully Buttes’ rich athletics history, were the perfect fit and it was punctuated on a special night in Onida. 

“He couldn’t have asked for a better career and a better ending to a career than at Sully Buttes,” Tom said.