By Rich Winter

605 Sports

DOLAND — On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Doland senior Kyla Logan hopped on the bus for her first day of school for the year. Like she’s done hundreds of times Logan slapped on her headphones to drown out the noise of the smaller children. 

And then things went black.

“I was on the bus for about 10 minutes,” Logan said. “I don’t remember getting picked up but I woke up on the couch with my mom asking me if I was OK.” 

Tuesday’s spell was nothing new for the Logan family who has become all too familiar with Kyla’s grand mal seizures. Diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 10, Logan and her family have been dealing with the seizures for the last eight years. 

Logan’s mom, Andrea, says the family has become accustomed to the seizures but says for anyone that has never experienced one the spells can be downright terrifying. 

“The first time we witnessed one there was complete panic,” Andrea Logan said. “For anyone that’s never witnessed one they can be pretty intense.”

“When she has a seizure her whole body convulses, her lips turn blue and her eyes kinda roll back in her head,” Andrea Logan said. “When she comes out she is gasping and blowing bubbles out of her mouth. They last about 60-90 seconds and some take longer to come back from others.” 

When Logan was 10 years old her parents and teachers noticed “staring spells” that Andrea Logan described as “If someone would zone out in the office or would look like they were daydreaming.” They decided to take their youngest daughter to the doctor and while there Kyla Logan had a “staring spell” that the Logan’s later learned was an absent seizure. 

The doctor ordered an immediate CT scan (a noninvasive imaging procedure that uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed pictures of the inside of the body) and the results showed nothing abnormal.

“At the time he pretty much diagnosed it on the spot that Kyla either had epilepsy or tourette syndrome,” Andrea Logan said. “It took us about two months to get to see a neurologist and she was diagnosed with epilepsy in January. By February she had her first grand-mal seizure.

While dealing with health problems that most children and parents couldn’t imagine, Logan refused to give up on her first love in sports, wrestling. With a boat load of siblings, most of them brothers, wrestling was a natural fit. 

“I was probably a fourth grader when I started wrestling,” Logan said. “I have nine brothers and everyone of them at least gave wrestling a try.” 

Opponents of Logan call her a physical presence, a trait both daughter and mom came from the sibling rivalries.

“She has one older brother that is 21 years old that is still at home,” Andrea Logan said. “Every once in a while they still get into it and I just say don’t break anything and don’t break each other.” 

Following the initial diagnosis doctors urged Kyla’s parents not to limit her in any way. In addition to her wrestling prowess, Logan participates in rodeo and competes in barrel racing and pole bending. 

Logan continued to wrestle in AAU tournaments until her eighth-grade year (2020-21) when girls wrestling became a South Dakota High School Activities Association-sanctioned sport. In the infancy of girls wrestling in South Dakota, Logan won a state championship (140) that season when she beat Canton’s Rachel Mastalir 9-2 in the championship match.

Several hours after winning a state championship, while staying with in-laws in Spearfish, Logan experienced a seizure. 

Andrea Logan said that some people with epilepsy have sensitivity to light while others have a metallic taste in their mouth. For Kyla Logan there is no advance warning to the seizure that is about to occur.

Kyla Logan explains what she feels when a seizure takes over.

“When it happens everything goes black and I don’t remember anything,” she said. “I usually wake up and I’m kinda foaming at the mouth and there are usually people standing around me. I have a bad headache and some body aches and people are usually looking at me and asking if I’m OK.” 

When Logan began wrestling as a fourth grader, her classmate and best friend Reganne Miles, also from Doland, joined her on the mat. While Logan was winning a state title in 2021, her teammate and friend Miles finished second (129) that same season.

The pair of girls have become much more than classmates and teammates. 

“When we were in elementary school if Kyla had to go somewhere by herself the teacher always sent her with me,” Reganne Miles said.

For Andrea Logan, having a friend by her daughter’s side at school and at sports events and other functions takes a lot of worry out of life. 

“Reganne is on top of this,” Logan said. “She often tells her mom what kind of day Kyla is experiencing, things like Kyla is having absences or Kyla was out of it. Reganne has always been there and she’s pretty good at reading body language and is pretty in tune, even when Kyla is not aware.”

Kyla Logan and her teammate Reganne Miles both won titles at the Dell Rapids tournament in December - Photo courtesy of Andrea Logan.

For her part, Miles has become a student of epilepsy and her friend’s protector. 

“We are very open and she’s told me things,” Miles said. “I’ve observed things and mood switches and along the way I’ve learned a lot about epilepsy.”

Learning a lot about epilepsy has become a common theme for the schools of Doland and Groton. Doland maintains their own AAU wrestling program but students from Doland travel to Groton every day and are coached by Groton Area’s Darin Zoellner. 

At a dual meet in November that was being livesteamed, Logan experienced a seizure.

“Kyla was sitting on the stairs and just kind of toppled over,” Andrea Logan said. “The team surrounded her and made a big circle around her with their backs to Kyla and facing the crowd so spectators couldn’t see.” 

Kyla Logan says if she has a seizure at practice the team usually leaves the room while coaches attend to her. After that she says she usually goes and sits in the coaches room until she feels better.

There is no current cure for epilepsy and in the last eight years Logan has been on a variety of medications her mother refers to as “Russian Roulette.” All told Kyla Logan has been on between eight and 10 medications with none of them being completely effective. The one medication that worked the best could only be used for a certain amount of time as Andrea Logan said doctors were worried that it could cause birth defects if her daughter even decided to have children. 

During the 2023-24 season while wrestling at 144, doctors switched medications during the early part of the season. The initial medication made her gain weight and the new medication caused her to lose weight rapidly.

“I lost 20 pounds in about two weeks,” Kyla Logan said. 

And yet the Doland student-athlete never gave up on her wrestling dreams. 

In 2022, as the state of girls wrestling advanced, Miles finished eighth at the state tournament (132) and Logan finished fifth (142). Miles took a year off from wrestling in 2022-23 and that season Logan failed to place. Miles finished fourth (152) at the 2024 state meet while Logan failed to reach the podium. 

As Logan and Miles enter the twilight of their senior years, both grapplers have designs on reaching the podium one more time. Both girls, along with Groton Area’s Liza Krueger won titles at the McCook Central/Montrose Invitational on Jan. 3. 

Logan defeated Ipswich/Bowdle’s Sophia Knittel, a state runner-up (126) in 2024, 10-8 in the championship match (132) in Salem. 

In the latest Dakota Grappler rankings Logan is ranked fifth (132) and Miles is ranked fourth (165).  Both girls are hoping to put an exclamation point on their senior seasons. 

Until then Kyla Logan has the rigors of high school to contend with. She said school can be hard as it is hard to maintain focus for long periods of time.

“She’s taking a drug that is slowing down her brain firing,” Andrea Logan said. “Sometimes it is hard to look at a kid that looks normal and you forget what they might be dealing with. It’s really hard to say exactly how her memory and focus has been impacted.” 

Despite challenges in academics, Logan is hoping to go to college and find a career she enjoys.

“I want to go to college but don’t know how I’m going to make it work without a drivers licence and with how much I rely on other people,” she said. “Ultimately I don’t want to be stuck in an office all day and I want to do something I enjoy.”