By Rich Winter

605 Sports

MCLAUGHLIN — McLaughlin’s Sandy Steele just about gave up on her hoop dreams.

Frustrated with her lack of playing time Steele went into the locker room following a junior varsity game her sophomore season and said she was done. 

“I threw my jersey off and quit,” Sandy Steele said. “The junior varsity coach Rony Leaf came up to me and said we don’t cry and we don’t quit.” 

Steele was crying but she picked up her jersey and finished out the season. 

Steele got a late start to basketball, only picking up the sport in eighth grade to be around her friends. Saddled on the bench for most of her first two years of high school Steele’s love for the game started to grow when she was asked to play on Wambli Meeter’s travel team, the Lady Heat.

“My freshman and sophomore years I felt like I never got to play the way I wanted to,” she said. “The summer before my junior year I played for a coach that let us play the way we wanted and he always told us if we messed up just to not do it again.” 

Playing alongside her McLaughlin teammate Mari Richards and alongside girls like Pamela Meeter, Cadence Bernie and Tyrianna Hawk Bear, all from Tiospaye Topa, Steels' game blossomed. 

Coming into her junior year Steele found herself in the starting lineup, ahead of two seniors she had previously sat behind. She averaged 6.5 points per game on a team that finished 15-7.

Steele went back to work and continued playing summer ball under the direction of Meeter. 

“It was my AAU coach that allowed me to play freely,” Steele said. “He told me do whatever works for you and that gave me confidence. If I messed up it was ok and he told me that if I had the shot to take it and all of that gave me confidence.”

Fueled by a newfound freedom in her game Steele became a dominant scorer in her senior year at McLaughlin. Steele opened some eyes at the Lakota Nation Invitational in December with a 30-point outburst against Little Wound. 

For the season she averaged 22.5 points per game, 9.3 rebounds per game and three steals per game leading McLaughlin to a 15-4 regular season record. McLaughlin dropped to Class B this season and defeated McIntosh in the first round of the Region 8B playoffs. In their SoDak 16 qualifying game the Mustangs lost to a Lemmon team they had defeated 72-48 on Jan. 31.

“I looked up at the clock at the last minute and we just couldn’t do anything,” she said. “The entire starting five were seniors and we all just cried because it was so heartbreaking to lose at home like that.” 

Steele’s basketball career isn’t over as she recently announced that she will be attending United Tribes Technical College next fall, along with teammate Mari Richards.