HURLEY — While their paths have split, Chase and Coral Mason are finding their way at the next level.

The two former Viborg-Hurley High School standouts are now competing at the collegiate level, but at rival schools.

Older brother Chase is a senior quarterback for South Dakota State University while younger sister Coral is starting her junior season as a guard on the University of South Dakota women’s basketball team.

For Chase, it was a complicated journey to find his love for Brookings and SDSU. As a four-sport athlete, his favorite college team was the least of his worries.

“Chase was a four-sport athlete and just always being busy all the time, whether it was travel basketball, travel baseball,” said Molly Mason, Chase and Coral’s mom. “He wanted to be the best athlete he could. So he was never like falling in love with certain schools other than I'm going to go play for the Knicks or something NBA.”

It wasn’t until his junior year winning the Class 9AA state championship when he started talks with SDSU for football that his love of the Jacks came along, but he felt that baseball was going to be his future path.

Chase ultimately committed to Nebraska to play on the diamond, but that only lasted one semester as he made the switch back to football to play for the Jackrabbits in the spring of 2022, a decision Molly could sense was coming.

“He just loved SDSU and the program and what and what they could offer him,” Molly said. “It was really hard for him to make that decision to go baseball way back when. So it wasn't surprising to me when I got that phone call after he moved down to Nebraska saying, ‘Mom, I want to go to SDSU.’ I kind of, I had a feeling, I really did.”

Shortly after his arrival in Brookings, Chase tore his ACL for the second time since his senior year of high school football. And coming from a nine-man school, he says he took a lot of his recovery time to learn the ins and outs of the quarterback position.

“It was kind of like starting from scratch,” Chase said. “Even at that point I didn’t play football for a long time. It was a lot of learning and I honestly had zero clue what was happening and it was a lot of asking questions and learning from film.”

Fast forward to this past winter, SDSU’s head coach Jimmy Rogers announced he’d be leaving the Jackrabbits to take a head coaching job at Washington State.

Chase Mason (7) of the South Dakota State Jackrabbits scampers for a big gain against the Sacramento State Hornets on August 30, 2025 at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings, South Dakota. (Photo by Dave Eggen/Inertia)

WIth a few days to process the move, Chase and fellow-South Dakotan, Wessington Springs’ Quentin Christensen, rallied the troops as best as they could under the new leadership with Dan Jackson and what would be Chase’s first season as starting quarterback in four years.

“I knew it was my time and I’m a South Dakota kid,” Chase said on deciding to stay with the Jacks. “I love Brookings. I love SDSU and I really couldn’t see myself being anywhere else. I think me and Q (Quinten Christensen) were kind of just like you know what, we’re South Dakota kids, we’re going to do what’s right here.”

Chase has made the most of his first year as the starter powering the Jacks to a 6-0 start before suffering an injury on Oct. 18 during a 35-14 win over Murray State. 

Chase, who has 11 touchdown passes to just one interception this season, hasn’t appeared in a game since the opening quarter against the Racers but could potentially return today in the Interstate Series game with Coral’s school, USD.

For Coral, it was a lifelong dream to play for the Coyotes growing up just 45 minutes away from Vermillion.

“My best friend growing up Denae Mach, who I played basketball with my whole life, her family are huge USD fans so one day she asked me if I wanted to go to a women’s basketball game with her,” Coral said. “I went with her and watching it at that time, I just loved this women’s basketball team and loved this scene and love this culture and USD so I always tell their family the reason that I’m here is because of them.”

Coral would frequently attend USD women’s basketball games with her basketball team, coached by her mother Molly all the way through high school. Together, the two won back-to-back Class B state championships in 2022 and ‘23.

During Coral’s senior year following a game at a Classic, Molly was told Coral would be given a walk-on opportunity by former coach Kayla Karius at USD.

“She told me Kayla reached out and obviously every other school just kind of cleared cause I’ve always wanted to grow up being a USD women’s basketball player,” Coral said. “Once I got that opportunity and they offered me a position as a walk-on, I wanted to be part of this team.”

Mason appeared in 17 games as a freshman for the Yotes, but says the first-ever game in uniform was "an out-of-body experience.”

“It was just crazy, it felt like a surreal moment,” Coral said of her first game on the team. “Being here right away it’s like I’m living a dream that I’ve always just prayed for. The first game I just remember being on the court and being like, I’ve always watched this growing up and it’s like holy crap I’m actually here playing.”

And it didn’t take long for the coaching staff to see the work Coral put in, announcing the benefits of her hard work at a team dinner last summer.

“At the end of the dinner, Carrie (Eighmey) announced that I’d be getting put on scholarship which is kind of an emotional, full-circle moment,” Coral said. “All of my hard work paid off.”

Chase added he knew how hard Coral worked to achieve this dream, stating that it was “only a matter of time” before she was on scholarship.

“The coolest thing about her is she’s always wanted to play basketball at USD,” Chase said. “She went there as a walk-on and ended up earning a scholarship which is super cool. I knew she was going to work hard enough to do it and it was only a matter of time and it was cool to see the new coaches that believed in her and gave her a scholarship.”

Last season, Coral played in 31 games as a sophomore as well, even getting an opportunity to make her first-career start at the college level on Education Day in front of a class from the Viborg-Hurley School District.

But similar to Chase, she also went head on with an off-season of uncertainty. The Yotes, dealing with graduating seniors and the transfer portal, had just two players on the roster at one point in the offseason: Coral and Rapid City Christian’s Olivia Kieffer.

Despite the uncertainty, Coral stayed dedicated to the program and committed to USD.

“To be from South Dakota and getting this opportunity, I obviously wanted to stay here and I just love USD,” Coral said. “No matter who the coach is, I’m just staying committed to the program.

“I just knew that I’ve always wanted to be here and stay here and just trust the process. That’s what I told Carrie, is that I’m trusting you, trusting the process.”

South Dakota Coyotes' Coral Mason heads back up the court during the second half of a women’s college basketball game Friday Nov. 7 2025 in Vermillion. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

With a reloaded squad, the Yotes’ are off to a 2-0 start defeating York University (Neb.), 104-33, on Monday and Air Force, 75-50, Friday. Coral played 12 minutes in the win over YU, tallying two points, four rebounds, an assists and a block.

Coral, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, says the SDSU-USD rivalry wasn’t something she got into much growing up, but changes her opinion once the hoops season starts.

“I’m just a USD women’s basketball fan,” Coral said. “Growing up, I’d watch South Dakota, I’ve watched SDSU and watching South Dakota kids. I just really wasn’t crazy about the huge SDSU-USD rivalry besides during basketball season.”

Coral added the competitive nature of her and Chase also makes for some frequent arguments about the two schools, but understands how awesome it is to see your sibling succeed.

“I’d just say we’re very competitive,” Coral said. “I’m very happy for Chase to see him be successful at SDSU, but being at the competing school, obviously it’s harder to cheer for his team. I’m just happy to see him succeed, but there is a lot of talking back and forth about which school is better. And just our family, if someone is wearing USD or SDSU stuff, we’re always just bickering at them.”

But Chase on the other hand, is a little more dedicated to the rivalry, creating the occasional rivalry conversations when both are back home in Hurley.

“When they're both home and we're talking schools, it's not fun being in the middle,” Molly said. “I remember the first year they both had brought home their laundry, and I was washing Chase's blue practice shirts, and I threw a couple of Coral’s red shirts in and Chase saw that, and he literally got up and said, ‘No, you're not putting red with that.’ I kind of was laughing like it was a funny joke, but he stared at me like ‘No you’re not,’ so they make it quite interesting when they're at home.”

And when it comes to their parents, Chad and Molly Mason, the rivalry doesn’t trump their love and support for the two in their respective sports.

“I think for me, it's just a sense of pride that I have two kids that are DI athletes at South Dakota schools,” Molly said “Both Chad and I are so proud we're right in the middle of those schools. But overall, we're so proud and so happy and the support from our community. We have Jackrabbit lovers in Hurley and Viborg and ‘Yote lovers, but they're just Chase and Coral Mason fans.”

Even for Chad, who grew up in Brookings and graduated from SDSU, he throws any harsh feelings for the ‘Yotes out the window when Coral is on the hardwood.

“When you have kids involved with it, it's an easy decision,” Chad said “There's not much rivalry there. You just wear red when you're going down for the basketball games, and you wear blue, and you cheer on the football team when you're northbound. But it's been pretty easy.”

Coral even remembers the first time she suited up for USD and received a text from her father that she hasn’t forgotten.

“He actually never wore USD until he texted me before my first game and said ‘I’m putting on red for the first time for you and only you,’ ” Coral said. “But they support both me and Chase just equally as much but it’s kind of funny just seeing my dad now support USD. But they’ve always supported both being South Dakota kids growing up watching USD and SDSU.”