By Rich Winter

605 Sports

In just their second year as a high school the Lakota Tech Tatanka sent both their girls and boys teams to the Class A state tournament. Oglala Lakota county, home to high schools, Lakota Tech, Red Cloud, Pine Ridge and Little Wound is the poorest county in the United States. 

When a team qualifies for state, it is more than a big deal. 

“It’s special when a Native team makes state because it brings light back to the Reservation,” Beau Donovan, Lakota Tech senior said. 

Lakota Tech Athletic Director Yamni Jack traveled to Brookings last week for the Class A girls tournament. This week it’s Rapid City where he’ll be singing the Lakota Flag Song and keeping track of the Lakota Tech boys who open the Class A tournament at 6:00 p.m. Thursday against St. Thomas More. 

Amidst the chaos of taking in two state tournaments Jack has felt the buzz in his school. 

“The kids are proud and happy,” Jack said. “Just knowing that this is only our second year our kids are fired up.” 

Lakota Tech is located five miles east of Pine Ridge. A year ago they were the only school in the district to play basketball during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

The Lakota Tech kids had to fight for that playing time last year. 

“Our kids had to follow all the guidelines,” Jack said. “We told Tribal County we would hand sanitize and wear masks at all times and the kids went through all kinds of extra measures just to play.” 

Despite having a brand new facility the Lakota Tech boys and girls played every game on the road during the 2020-2021 season. Lakota Tech girls player Tobi Carlow talked about the challenges last season brought. 

“Last year we were constantly on the road and it was exhausting,” she said. “This year we got to play on our home court where we put in all the work and it feels great to play in that gym.” 

Tobi Carlow helped the Lakota Tech girls to a berth in the Class A state tournament.

Even this season Tatanka basketball had some extra hurdles to overcome. 

“This year each athlete got to have 2-4 tickets for their family,” Jack said. “The gym could only be 50 percent capacity and spectators and students had to wear masks at all times.” 

Lakota Tech high school was originally designed as a Career and Technical Education (CTE) school. 

“You see the stats and the unemployment rate is 70-80 percent on our reservation,” Jack said. “The goal of our school is to put young people in a position to succeed by following a career path during high-school.” 

Jack said that education may sometimes look like students studying math while applying learned knowledge to their auto mechanics class.

“We want kids to get on a pathway to finding success after high school,” Jack said. “That can be from hospitality to police work to First Responders or even ESports and other technology based education.”

There will be a buzz across small towns in South Dakota that have teams playing in the state tournament. On the Pine Ridge Reservation Donovan hopes the next generation will be watching. 

“Seeing your family or someone you know do it on the big stage shows that you can do the same thing,” he said. “That’s how I felt watching my older cousins play at state.”