Experience is Ben Kramer’s buzzword when he describes the Hot Springs Bison. 

The Bison brought back a wealth of speed and size from last season’s 8-3 campaign, which ended in the Class 11B semifinals. Hot Springs returned 13 letterwinners, eight starters on defense, seven starters on offense and 14 motivated seniors. 

“It’s the experience. It’s the leadership,” said Kramer about the Bison’s strengths. “When you get beat in the semifinal game, it makes those guys that were juniors last year a lot more hungry. They don’t put up with a lot of 50 percent effort stuff. It takes a lot of pressure off us as coaches as well to have that kind of leadership in our locker room.” 

As a result, the experienced-Bison are 2-0 this season and No. 5 in the latest Class 11B South Dakota Prep Media Football Poll. The Bison have picked up two convincing wins over Redfield (55-0) and McCook Central/Montrose (41-0) to open the season. 

“In my opinion, experience is everything and when you have a bunch of experience coming back, this is the product you get and we are sitting in a good spot right now,” said Kramer, who has a 95-70 coaching record at Hot Springs. 

Hot Springs running back Camron Maciejewski (1) carries the ball against McCook Central/Montrose's Carter Randall (32) on Aug. 26 in Salem. (Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

The Bison are powered by running back/linebacker Camron Maciejewski, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior that’s garnering interest from regional Division I and Division II programs. Maciejewski, an all-state linebacker as a junior, is a four-year starter and makes plays on both sides of the ball.

This season, he’s bulldozed over and around defenders, to the tune of 302 yards and six touchdowns. He’s also got a nose for the football and is constantly around the action on defense. 

He’s complemented by senior quarterback Colin Iverson, a 5-foot-8, 175-pound bowling ball. Iverson waited for the offensive keys behind his brother and all-state athlete Preston Iverson, a freshman at Dakota State University. 

Braden Peterson, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound senior running back, has logged 182 rushing yards and four touchdowns this season. Peterson will help shoulder the load in the backfield after the graduation of all-state running back Landon Iverson, a freshman at Dakota Wesleyan University. 

Kramer didn’t expect much of a dropoff offensively and the staff has fine tuned the scheme to fit their personnel. 

“It’s not that different and we use the guys that we have,” Kramer said. “They complement what we did last year. We probably have a little more speed than we did and we definitely have a lot more experience.”

Hot Springs quarterback Colin Iverson looks for an open receiver on Aug. 26 in Salem. (Ryan Deal / 605 Sports)

The offensive and defensive lines are anchored by all-stater Caleb Rickenbach, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound senior lineman. Rickenbach, a three-year starter, is joined on the offensive line by starters Kayden Hansen (6-1, 180), Dawson Kleppe (6-0, 230) and Aidyn Janis (6-3, 220).

“Up front, we lost a couple of guys and we had some plug and play guys there, too,” Kramer said.  

The Bison will play at Lakota Tech on Sept. 1 and will then host Class 11A No. 1 Dell Rapids on Sept. 8 in a big cross-class matchup. 

The Quarriers, who won last season’s Class 11A state championship, defeated the Bison (41-21) last season. But Hot Springs rattled off six straight wins before falling in the Class 11B semifinals. 

“That’s definitely a measuring stick game for us to see where we are at,” Kramer said. “We know what they have. Dell Rapids is Dell Rapids. That was kind of the turning point for us last year, even coming off that loss we did a lot of good things against, obviously, the best team in Class 11A. So we took the positives in that game and it’s kind of the plan this year is to try to create some more positive plays offensively and defensively.”

As far as Class 11B, the Bison are again in the picture and another deep postseason run could be on their horizon. 

“It looks like it’s kind of wide open,” Kramer said. “No one has really kind of separated themselves from the pack. It’s going to be a fun year. The top five as it sits right now are probably going to be the top five once playoffs come around. It will be exciting for sure.”