By Matt Gade

605 Sports

HAMLIN — Growing up for Hamlin senior Easton Neuendorf and his sister Addie, a junior, basketball was basically their life.

With their dad, Todd Neuendorf having been a head boys basketball coach the past 19 years and an assistant for another 11 along with their mom, Jaime, a longtime assistant coach on the girls side, it’s no surprise that the Neuendorf children get their love of the game from their parents. 

Addie said she can’t even remember a time when she didn’t have a basketball in her hands.

“With both my parents being coaches, instead of going home after school, we would go to practice with my parents, and we kind of just dribble and shoot on the sidelines while they were doing while they were coaching,” she said.

The same goes for Easton, who served as a ball boy for his dad when he was coaching at Aberdeen Roncalli.

“When I got the job at Roncalli, Easton, he was in a car seat. So when I first got the job, there he was, and he went to practice and sat in the car seat,” Todd said. “They didn't go to a babysitter. The gym was the babysitter. So they've been in practice. You know, they always were at a gym after school. They went to practice with us. So yeah, they probably have been around the ball the whole time. They didn't have much of a chance to do anything else.”

Looking back at it now, Easton wouldn’t have it any other way.

The two-time all-stater said that their time in the gym with their parents is where they not only get the love for the game, but also their competitiveness.

The competitiveness between Addie and Easton especially is intense, the family won’t even play board games together.

Todd said it’s impossible to say who’s the more competitive of the two.

“We can't take them to the gym to work on shots. Like, one person can't take two kids. Like, Jaime has to take one and I have to take one. So it's a wash,” Todd said. “Unfortunately, they take after their mom and dad. So they're both really competitive.”

“I feel like when we're at the gym together, we don't do a lot of one-on-one stuff, because we both butt heads, and it usually turns into a fight,” Addie said. “So we kind of just stick to rebounding for each other, not much of like competition against each other, unless it's like a shooting competition or something like that.”

That competitiveness has led the Neuendorfs and their Hamlin Chargers to the Class A state tournaments in both boys and girls basketball this postseason.

A season ago, the Charger girls failed to qualify for the state tournament and Easton said he never saw his sister more focused than she was then.

Also on the girls team is Easton and Addie’s youngest sister, Paxton, an eighth grader.

Hamlin Chargers head boys coach Todd Neuendorf hugs his daughters Addie, left, and Paxton after defeating Sioux Falls Christian for the 2024 Class A state championship on March 16, 2024 at Summit Arena at The Monument in Rapid City. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

“That for sure put a fire in her,” Easton said. “After the season, (Addie) said ‘I'm not doing this again where I have to sit and watch the state tournament at home. I want to be playing in it.’ She and Paxton all summer, we're in the gym, shooting and working and making sure they weren't at home watching.”

Both Addie and Easton play the point guard position for their respective teams. And while they each have no problem shooting the basket, it’s their vision on the court and ability to spread the ball around that makes them stand out. 

“She creates a lot of attention,” Hamlin girls coach Tim Koisti said of all-stater Addie. “So she's always willing to set a screen for someone or give up the ball for somebody that's open if they're defending her. And that's what I tell her, is just be a point guard. Score when you can, facilitate when you can and she seems to be just as happy making that assist or creating for her teammates as she is hitting the big shots. Good players just seem to step up when it's crunch time.”

As a freshman, Addie and the Chargers came out as the 2023 Class A state champions. While Addie and the Chargers missed the tournament last season, Easton and the Charger boys knocked off top-seeded Sioux Falls Christian for the 2024 Class A state title.

The Chargers fell to Sioux Falls Christian the previous two times they met during the 2023-24 regular season.

Getting to win one with their kids on the team was extra special for the Neuendorf family.

“I thought to myself, I want to win one with my son,” Todd said. “Then last year, we had that opportunity, and you win that one with your son, it's unexplainable. And Addie won one with Jaime, and it just fuels you, like it's an addiction, like you can't explain. I don't know what it's like to be addicted to something, but I can only imagine.”

“I see it like, basically winning is fun, and then last year we went to the state tournament, and that was more fun,” Easton said. “But honestly, I hate to lose more than I want to win, if that makes sense.”

As competitive as they are, Addie and Easton are also their biggest supporters. 

“It gets a little nerve wracking sometimes, but I'm just trying to be the best supporter I can be,” Easton said of cheering from the student section.

Following the win over Sioux Falls Christian, Jaime Neuendorf hugs her son Easton as his sister Addie, left, celebrate winning the Class A state championship on March 16, 2024 at Summit Arena at The Monument in Rapid City. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

The Chargers girls team will open the 2025 state tournament on Thursday as the No. 4 seed against fifth-seeded Mobridge-Pollock at 1:45 p.m. at Black Hills State University in Spearfish.

The Chargers boys come in as the two seed, facing off against seven seed Hill City, which qualified for the state tournament for the first-time ever.

“Any teams that are in the state tournament are really good. So number one focus is that we got to win that first one,” Koisti said.

Earlier this year both Addie and Easton, who each have scored over 1,000 career points, committed to continue their basketball careers at the college level. 

Easton, who also holds the Hamlin career assist record, committed to Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa. Addie committed to Northern State University in Aberdeen.

“The other night when we played Sioux Valley here, Easton, was (already) committed, and Briar Cliff coach drove all the way down to watch that game and turn around and go back and Northern has been up here a number of times and watched Addie,” Todd said. “It does make you feel good. It makes you happy that your kids, with the time they've put in, that somebody has recognized that they're rewarded for it.”