Pierre honors former teammate Aiden Van Balen with special jerseys on championship night
Pierre Governors Cooper Terwilliger (12) runs towards the end zone in the first half of the 11AA state championship game Friday, Nov. 13, 2026 at the DakotaDome in Vermillion. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)
VERMILLION — Title No. 10 is for Aiden.
En route to Pierre’s 10th Class 11AA state championship on Friday at the DakotaDome, the Governors opted to wear their alternate jerseys made in honor of Aiden Van Balen, a teammate who passed away in a car accident in the summer of 2025.
“With everything they’ve gone through the past couple of years, they really wanted to do it this way,” said Pierre coach Steve Steele. “They wanted to be undefeated, they wanted to be the No. 1 seed where we could wear the jerseys. I was just very proud of those guys for doing that.”
The jerseys were created last season following Van Balen’s tragic passing. The jerseys feature a Hawaiian-themed pattern in honor of Aiden’s love for board shorts and Birkenstocks.
“It’d be the middle of winter and there’d be board shorts and Birkenstocks,” Steele said of Van Balen. “You’d be getting on a bus to go to football and he’d have board shorts and Birkenstocks. That’s kind of the design we went for is the board shorts idea.”
The jerseys have been donned a few times since, but no game was more important than Friday night, which would’ve been his final game.
“It was definitely special,” said junior Porter Hunsley. “This being his senior year, being able to come out and wear these jerseys that symbolize him, it’s a great moment for sure.”
Senior tight end and classmate Cooper Terwilliger added how it was a way to give Van Balen the senior night he never got.
“To lose our teammate two summers ago was a tough thing for this senior class,” said Terwilliger. “It was extremely important to just be able to represent and be here on the highest stage on his last senior night. Representing his family is a special thing and he’s along for this journey as well.”
The team has only bonded and gotten closer since Aiden’s passing, according to Steele. And from the start of their preseason camp where the idea came about, to earning the No. 1 seed to wear Aiden’s jersey on the biggest stage, he’s proud of the way his team came together to play for a bigger cause.
“There’s a lot of guys on this team that were really close friends with Aiden,” Steele said. “For them to go to something bigger than themselves. That’s always your goal as a coach is to get kids caring about something that’s not themselves necessarily, and to see these guys rally around Aiden, rally around Jakob and his family, that’s all you can hope for as a coach. They’re tremendous kids.”