By Rich Winter

605 Sports

SIOUX FALLS — Eleven years ago Kyle Courtney took the reins as head coach of the Rapid City Christian boys basketball program with the intent of playing team basketball. 

Upon arriving on campus, Courtney introduced the “1 Heart” concept as a means of always putting team first.

“The 1 Heart thing was just my way of really trying to tie in that it’s about the team,” he said. “It’s about unselfish play and playing together and it’s amazing what you can accomplish when no one cares about getting the credit.” 

After finishing fourth at the 2024 Class A state tournament, the Comets claimed third place on March 22 with a 60-58 win over Lennox. Three players reached double figures as Benson Kieffer led the effort with 17 points and five rebounds. Simon Kieffer added 13 points and three rebounds while Julius Frog chipped in with 13 points and three rebounds. 

The Comets overcame a height disadvantage and matched a physical Lennox team with toughness and effort.

“Our group has been playing together since second grade so we knew the Lennox game was going to be a dogfight,” Benson Kieffer said. “We were going to give it all we got no matter what the circumstances were.” 

Kieffer said the Comets approached Saturday’s game with the same mindset the team had all year long 

“We are not going to get outworked and that’s what helped us get through Lennox’s physical play,” he said. 

During the 2025 state tournament every time a Rapid City Christian player checked out of the game that player would give a pseudo hand shake to every guy on the bench all the way down to the ball boys at the very end. Benson Kieffer talked about the “1 Heart” mentality applying to the entire program. 

“There are five guys on the court and it doesn’t matter who gets the credit,” he said. “Everyone is going to have their night and we are going to celebrate with them and when it’s not our night we just see them pick someone up and when you are focused on that 1 Heart good things will happen.” 

Rapid City Christian guard Benson Kieffer drives to the basket during Saturday's win over Lennox at the Class A state tournament - Libby Stene / 605 Sports

The Comets don’t have an intimidating presence on the court but collectively all they do is win. Over the last two seasons Rapid City Christian won 43 games with multi-sport athletes, many of whom will be competing at the next level.

“Being able to coach these kids has been such a blessing,” Courtney said. “Obviously they are special athletes. We have six of our seven seniors that will be playing college sports. They work so hard and it has been so much fun to coach them because of how hard they work.” 

Courtney said the Rapid City Christian athletes have set the bar for the program and called his seniors some of the best basketball players to ever wear a Comets uniform.