By Matt Gade

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — Brynn Nelson was known as a serious competitor, who didn’t like to lose, but when she wasn’t competing you were hard-pressed not to see her with a smile on her face or having fun.

This past September, the Rapid City Stevens Raiders lost a student, friend and competitor in Nelson. To honor the memory of their teammate the Raiders track team is taking Nelson with them this season. 

Head coach Paul Hendry and the Raiders are wearing wristbands featuring the name of teammate Brynn Nelson.

The wristband reads on one side “Strong Alone, Unstoppable Together” and on the other “In memory of Brynn Nelson.”

Nelson, who passed away in September, was a senior for the Raiders and a two-time Class AA gold medal winner in the javelin.

“It means a great deal of just how much that this whole community at Stevens has for each other, like in the despair of it all happening, I think everybody came together. And track was her sport,” senior teammate and friend Brienna Brewer said of the bracelets. “I think them still bringing her along with us throughout this entire season is just a great, great feeling for her, being her best friend. And just seeing when that happened and just kind of where we're at now — we're just a team, and everybody goes through their own struggles, but in the end, everybody does care about you, no matter who you are.”

Rapid City Stevens head coach Paul Hendry shows the team the wristbands in honor of their late teammate Brynn Nelson. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

During Friday afternoon’s practice, Hendry and the Raider coaching staff offered up the bracelets for students to wear and hand out to others who may want to show their support by wearing the wristbands.

“When Brynn passed away, it kind of hit us hard,” Hendry said. “We had some thinking to do, or how could we honor her? How could we help not just the people on our team that were kind of suffering and not just with this, but other things that were going on in their lives. … We just know a lot of our kids go through a lot, and so we kind of just talked about, you know, making this kind of a platform where we can just support each other and make people aware of it.”

Hendry said the Raiders are hoping to debut new pink uniforms at the Queen City Classic in Spearfish on April 11. 

Members of the Rapid City Stevens track team show the rest of the team their blue and pink uniforms during practice on Friday. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

Nelson is the current Class AA state meet record holder, having broken her own state meet record in the javelin with a throw of 138-6 last year. In 2023, Nelson won the Class AA gold medal with a throw of 136-3. 

As a freshman, Nelson finished fourth in the event with a throw of 120-0, the first year that javelin was added to track and field.

“She was an amazing athlete,” said Brewer, who also competes in the javelin finishing 5th at last year’s state meet. “Brynn brought the light to the team. Everybody around us seen it. And I even had some parents from Spearfish say that they were sitting behind me and her, and we were laughing because that's pretty much all we would do is laugh. They were sitting behind us and just said that they would smile, seeing us laugh, and hearing us giggle and stuff.”

Rapid City Stevens' Brynn Nelson finished first in the javelin during the SDHSAA state track meet last May. In fifth place is teammate Brienna Brewer. (Photo courtesy South Dakota Public Broadcasting)

Originally the team ordered special pink and blue uniforms last season with the intent to bring awareness for breast cancer, but a screw-up in the order prevented the Raiders from using them. 

Now, Hendry hopes the uniforms will serve as an awareness for people struggling in general. 

“Maybe these spark conversations,” Hendry said. “We're hoping that we are winning a lot of events, and so they stand out even more. Maybe some kids, other kids from other teams, can ask why you guys got pink, you know, and they can kind of spread the message to them. Maybe just fans that are in the stands too, sitting by some of our parents, and our parents hear them asking what those are for, and they can kind of tell them why we're wearing them.”

Hendry is also trying to get a bench installed at Sioux Park near the part of the park where the javelin event is typically held. 

That project is going to take some time as Hendry is working with the Rapid City parks department in getting the appropriate paperwork filled out and in trying to get the funding necessary to purchase a bench.

The Nelson family has also established a scholarship memorial fund in Brynn’s honor with the purpose of providing “an annual scholarship to the high school gold medal winner in girls javelin at the South Dakota state track meet.” 

Rapid City Stevens' Brynn Nelson competes in the javelin competition during the SDHSAA state track meet last May. (Photo courtesy South Dakota Public Broadcasting)

The memorial fund, established through the Black Hills Area Community Foundation, is the only source to donate to the memorial fund.

People can donate to just the fund or purchase a “Be like Brynn” hoodie with the proceeds going to the fundraiser.

https://brynnnelsonmemorialfund.org/

“I think that's amazing,” Brewer said of the scholarship. “I'm so excited to see how the results will be at state and for whoever wins it. We don't know yet, and that's exciting to see, but I think it's just great, because I think Brynn was a giver, and so seeing that her sport will be given to other people that really enjoyed sports, it’s just amazing to see.”

The Raiders opened their season on Thursday with the West River AA preview meet at Sioux Park. Their next meet on the schedule is the Douglas Early Bird Invitational on April 4 in Box Elder.