HOWARD — It’s been 29 long years, but the Howard Tigers have the state tournament fever again. 

For the first time since 1995, the Howard High School boys basketball team will play in a state tournament. The Tigers will play Wessington Springs at 1:45 p.m. CT in the opening round of the Class B boys basketball tournament at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen.

Howard’s first trip in nearly 30 years has drummed up memories for former players and coaches from the 1995 team. 

“I was awfully fortunate to have great kids, great families, a great community and our girls were pretty good in that time, too,” former Howard coach Troy Olson said. “They kind of had the tournament fever. But each one was special and you just went there to make memories and fortunately for the most part we got some good memories out of it.”

Howard’s 1995 appearance was its third of the 90s, with the Tigers finishing third in 1991 and ‘92. The Howard girls also enjoyed basketball success in the 1990s, highlighted by the 1993 Class A state championship. The Tigers also qualified for state in 1991 and were Class A runner-ups in 1995. 

The Tigers have had modest hoops success since 1995, with only the girls qualifying for state in 2020 and ‘23. 

The Howard boys finally broke through this season and former Tiger Ryan Krempges knows how special it is to qualify.  

“It’s something you will never forget,” said Krempges, a senior on the 1995 Howard boys basketball team. “Just the experience of being there with your friends, the community and especially small towns like Howard. It’s a big part of the community and everybody rallies behind you and it’s something you will never forget.”

Krempges and the Tigers gave Howard plenty to cheer about in 1995. The Tigers advanced all the way to the Class A state championship game, falling to Red Cloud 83-76 in Rapid City. 

Red Cloud, which now goes by Mahpiya Luta, is located 90 miles from Rapid City and its fans helped pack the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.  

“They had the crowd advantage,” said current Howard coach Nick Koepsell, then a junior reserve for the Tigers. “There were 7,000 people in there and I would say 5,000 of them were cheering against Howard that night. It was awesome. Seven-thousand people in any venue, but at a state championship game was unbelievable. I don't really remember that we didn't play all that well or intimidated or anything like that. They were obviously a really good team and we kind of ran into a buzzsaw.”

In a back-and-forth affair, Krempges scored a game-high 32 points and did not miss a shot in the first half. 

“It’s not like we weren’t making shots,” said Krempges, a 6-foot-7 all-state center. “For me personally, that was the best game I've ever had in my life. They were clicking on all cylinders for sure that night. Because we could not stop them.”

Lonnie Callies added 22 points for the Tigers, who finished 21-4 that season.  

Jesse LeBeau led Red Cloud with 24 points and Willie Richards added 23 points. Dave Brown followed with 20 points for the Crusaders, who went 23-2 in 1995. 

The Crusaders were also without first-team all-stater Jerome LeBeau, who injured his knee during the semifinals against Beresford. He played six minutes of the first quarter before reaggravating the injury. LeBeau was carried off the court to a standing ovation and returned to cheer on the Crusaders from the bench. 

“He was kind of a warrior that night and played when he could, but they were playing with a lot of heart that night,” said Olson, who is now a farmer in the Artesian area.

The Crusaders led for most of the game, but didn’t pull away until the third quarter. Richards’ layup with 59 seconds in the third period gave Red Cloud the lead for good. The Crusaders led by five entering the final period, while the Tigers never got any closer than three points. 

Brown hit 11 free throws in the final two minutes and 38 seconds to help Red Cloud hold off Howard. 

“It was just kind of a back-and-forth game,” Olson said. “We would come down and score two points and they’d come down and hit a three. … All of a sudden it got up to a six-point separation and then of course they had some great guards that year and held the ball out there and we could never get back into the game.”

The Tigers outlasted familiar foe Platte in the Class A opener. Howard defeated Platte by 30 points earlier in the season at the Parkston Classic. 

The rematch, however, was much closer and Howard earned a 67-62 comeback win over the Frank Cutler-coached Panthers. 

“Coach Cutler just out-coached me,” Olson said. “They were outplaying us and were down I think by seven with like a minute and a half to go and then things just went our way. We ended up beating them kind of in the last few seconds of the game. Coach Cutler had his team ready to go, but were fortunate enough to get past that first-round game.” 

Platte led 62-55 with 1:49 left, but Krempges hit a 3-pointer and Howard point guard Keith Rasmussen drilled two 3-pointers to spark the comeback. Howard sealed it with three free throws in the waning seconds. 

Krempges, who is now a physician assistant at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, remembers the final sequence for its nickname by the Howard fans.  

“In Howard, they call it the miracle minute,” Krempges said. “We were down six or seven with like a minute and a half to go. Then all of a sudden we started hitting some threes and getting some steals. They missed some layups and all of a sudden we were up a couple points and we ended up winning. That game definitely stands out to me.”

Callies, a 6-foot-2 all-state guard, scored 19 points against Platte. Rasmussen added 16 points and Jesse Kampshoff netted 13 points. Krempges netted 11 points and Mike Noordsy had eight points. 

It setup a semifinal tilt against Groton, which was led by twin towers Trent (6-foot-6) and Travis Traphagen (6-foot-4). The all-staters, who each averaged 20 points per game, were held to 10 points apiece against Howard. 

“They had the Traphagen twins and they were great ball players,” Olson said. “We were pretty locked in that night. We played well that night in the semis.”

Howard led 35-25 at halftime, extended it to 54-34 after three quarters and won 61-44. Callies led the way with 20 points, followed by 14 points from Krempges. Rasmussen scored 10 points and Noordsy had nine points. 

It set up the championship game against Red Cloud. The championship game, unbeknownst to Howard at the time, was its last appearance in a state boys basketball tournament. 

The Tigers went through some down years after the state tourney berth. But have slowly built back up the program, culminating with this year’s trip to Aberdeen. 

“I feel it’s kind of overdue,” Krempges said. “They’ve had some good teams that unfortunately fell short. It’s good to see the basketball tradition come back a little bit.”

As the Howard head coach, Koepsell has helped build the Tigers back up and said “29 years have been a long wait.” 

“People don’t realize it because we are kind of known as a wrestling and football town and school, but Howard does have a rich tradition of basketball too and that kind of got lost there for 10-15 years,” Koepsell said. “So it’s nice to bring that back. Hopefully it’s not another 29-year wait between this one and the next one.”