MADISON — The inaugural “The Rock” Legion baseball tournament kicks off on June 26-28 in Madison.

The Rock was created to honor and memorialize the life of Ken Prorok, a Moody County Chief Deputy Sheriff who lost his life in the line of duty in 2024.

The idea was started by Madison Legion coach and South Dakota Highway Patrolman, Isaac Kurtz, last fall. Between shared career paths and having sons on the same team (Quincy Kurtz and JD Prorok), Kurtz wanted to find a way to memorialize Ken’s name during the baseball season.

“He knew Ken very well just with law enforcement and having boys the same age,” said Madison Baseball Association President Eric Hortness. “He kind of started the idea in the fall and he had the idea for the trophy and thought it would be a good way to memorialize Ken, with Ken being a huge baseball fan. We thought this would be a good way to keep his name going forward in baseball.”

The MBA got to work with the hopes of having a field of eight teams for the inaugural tournament.

“Originally our goal was eight and just running with one field,” Hortness said. “But then as interest kept coming, we said ‘Well, we’ve got two fields in town, let’s see if we can get it up to 16’. We were able to get to 16 teams pretty quick and run two fields, both in Madison.”

The tournament features four pools, named Honor, Service, Justice and Integrity pools, with 16 teams from around the state and region.

Photo of the trophy given to the winner of "The Rock". (Courtesy photo / Eric Hortness)

Nine teams from South Dakota including Madison, Parkston, West Central, Beresford, Groton, Dell Rapids, Volga, Vermillion and Winner, along with five Minnesota teams, a Nebraska and North Dakota team as well.

“Like anything, the first year is always the toughest to get teams,” Hortness said. “But with this type of tournament and the reasons why we started the tournament, teams were excited to come and be a part of it.”

Along with the tournament, The MBA will be giving out two $500 scholarships to two players who will be playing college baseball or pursuing a degree in law enforcement.

“Our local Fraternal Order of Police and the South Dakota Highway Patrol both donated $500 to the tournament,” Hortness said. “Our idea the whole time was to give out some scholarships similar to the Entringer basketball classic that happens in the winter. We’re going to do two $500 scholarships, with the hope and the idea that this thing grows and we can give out a few more every year.”

The tournament will kickoff on June 26 with games being played at Flynn Field and Baughman Field in Madison. Following the 11 a.m. games on Friday, an opening ceremony will be held at Flynn Field.

“As many teams that can make it, and there’s going to be a good number of them there for that,” Hortness said. “We’re going to have them all out on the field. We’ve got the highway patrol honor guard out on the field with the colors. We’ll have the national anthem, the Prorok family out on the field to say a few words, and that’s when we’ll announce the scholarship winners as well.”

Following two days of pool play, the top team in each pool will play in the three-game championship bracket on Sunday at Flynn Field, with the championship game slated for 3 p.m.

A full schedule of the tournament can be found HERE.