By Rich Winter

605 Sports

PINE RIDGE — Pine Ridge senior wide receiver Domonic Ghost Bear was a terror at recess at Mahpiya Luta Elementary School.

For years, he pestered his parents with ‘recess stories’ and his prodigious ability to play the receiver position. Initially Ghost Bear’s parents had athletic plans that didn’t include playing football. 

“He kept asking us if he could play football,” Eddie Ghost Bear said. “We wanted to protect his basketball career. We were hoping this love of football would go away but it never did so finally late in his seventh-grade year we told him he could play football.”

Domonic Ghost Bear’s love for football never wavered, in fact, it only grew stronger as he was glued to the television every time his favorite player Stephon Diggs, of the Houston Texans, was playing. 

“I played receiver during recess and I knew I was good at it,” he said. “I kept telling my dad about my love of football so he would let me play. I just fell in love with seeing other receivers run around and score and knew I wanted to be like that.”

When you grow up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation big-time college football programs don’t come knocking at your door. Throughout his four years of playing high school football, first at Lakota Tech and now at Pine Ridge, Ghost Bear has always been playing with purpose and a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

On a run-heavy 2021 Lakota Tech team that featured all-state running back Quincy Means, Ghost Bear caught 16 balls for 317 yards and a touchdown. The following season Ghost Bear had 22 receptions for 467 yards and seven touchdowns while playing for the Tatanka.

“That sophomore season was supposed to be his breakout year,” Eddie Ghost Bear said. “The coach didn’t register him for all-state consideration and we felt like he could have been an all-stater that year.” 

While there were no post-season awards, college coaches did notice and suddenly Ghost Bear found himself fielding offers from colleges like the University of Wyoming and South Dakota State University to attend elite summer camps.

“I just felt like these camps were an opportunity to compete and I love to compete,” Domonic Ghost Bear said. “I felt like I had to show these coaches how good of a player I am and how good a player from this small town of Pine Ridge could be.”

Ghost Bear transferred to Pine Ridge for his junior season and found himself catching passes from basketball all-stater Marvin Richard III. His statistics ballooned to 60 catches for 877 yards with 12 touchdowns. 

Easily the top receiving stats in the All-Nations Football Conference, Ghost Bear was not named to the all-conference team in 2023. Basketball is king on reservations in South Dakota and Eddie Ghost Bear said he feels like many players aren’t getting the notoriety they deserve. 

“The sport of football is not taken seriously on the reservations,” Ghost Bear said. “We have tons of kids that could go play in college but we don’t take it seriously as far as the simplest things as entering stats. Last year, Domonic, Marvin and even Anthony Steele didn’t get the accolades they were supposed to get. It’s not basketball so it’s not a big deal around here.” 

Ghost Bear has already exceeded his yardage numbers from a year ago and enters this week’s game against Todd County with 15 touchdowns. 

Pine Ridge coach Teddy Pedregon said that the talents Ghost Bear possesses don’t come along very often.

“Kids like Domonic come along once every blue moon,” Pedregon said. “He excels wherever we put him and he’s one of those athletes that has size, speed and strength and is a fierce competitor.” 

Ghost Bear said he had an opportunity to play for Rapid City Christian this fall but instead chose to stay home and continue to show the younger generation that big-time football can be played in Pine Ridge.

“There are some amazing players like Ty Valandra in this league and I hope that Ty and myself are showing other native kids how it can be done,” Ghost Bear said.

The Thorpes (5-1) host Todd County (5-1) on Thursday, Oct. 10 in a game that has massive playoff ramifications for the Class 9A division of the All-Nations Football Conference. Pine Ridge winds up its regular season next week at Tiospa Zina before what fans hope will be a long playoff run. 

The Ghost Bear family knows that time is ticking on their sons’ high school football career and said their being proud of him has nothing to do with catches or touchdowns but just watching their son have fun.

“We’ve enjoyed watching Domonic progress as a person but still be humble,” Eddie Ghost Bear said. “Watching him suit up and put on the pads is everything and we are soaking it all in as a family.” 

Ghost Bear has yet to make any kind of decision on his academic and athletic future. He listed the University of Wyoming, University of North Dakota, South Dakota State University and North Dakota State University as Division I programs that have expressed interest. He also listed the South Dakota School of Mines, University of Sioux Falls, Augustana University and Wayne State University as other colleges of interest.mot