By Rich Winter

605 Sports

The Waubay/Summit boys basketball team returned to their respective communities to a heroes welcome. Fresh off their first-ever trip to the Class B tournament, as a co-op, and following a 22-4 season and a fifth-place finish at state, the towns are still buzzing at what their boys accomplished. 

For senior Seth Gaikowski the entire season was a dream come true. 

“I’ve been watching the Class B state tournament since as far back as I can remember,” Gaikowski said. “The weather was always nice so I’d go outside and play basketball in between games.”

All season long the home gyms were packed and Gaikowski said when starting lineups were announced he would sometimes take a quick look just to see how many people were watching. 

“There were a couple times I nudged JT Gulbraa and said, ‘Holy cow there are a lot of people here,’ ” Gaikowski said.

Seth Gaikowski applies the defense during the Class B state tournament in Aberdeen - Photo courtesy of South Dakota Public Broadcasting

The throng of Mustang fans in attendance at Waubay/Summit’s SoDak 16 game against Platte/Geddes is something Gaikowski said he will remember forever. 

During one of their tournament games Giakowski looked up at the big screen to see his Uncle Glen Gaikowski and Mark Hove on screen. 

“Glen and Mark are two of the auctioneers at Hub City Livestock Auction Barn,” Gaikowski said. “Our whole family is involved in ranching and rodeo and it’s almost like a big family sport.”

Rodeo athletes often talk about their extended rodeo families and just how much that family means to them. The Gaikowski’s rodeo family showed up just before the start of the basketball season. 

“Right before the start of basketball my mom (Amy) was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer,” he said. 

That rodeo family reached out with hundreds of prayers, well wishes and encouragement as the family embarked on an unknown path. 

“When we first found out there were a lot of uncertainties,” he said. “The hardest thing was not knowing how serious it was and how this or that could go.”

While embarking on chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Seth said his mom was forced to miss a couple of games. During those moments the Gaikowski family was thankful for the livestreaming where mom could watch. 

“If this happened 20 years ago there would have been no way for her to watch the game,” he said. 

After a long winter some good news for the family. 

“She’s done with chemo and done with radiation,” Seth said. “She went back to work today (Thursday) and has to go back in a couple weeks for a check up. She handled it like a champ and she’s tougher than we could all imagine.”  

With basketball in the rearview mirror Giakowski sets his sights on rodeo where he competes in tie-down roping and team roping. 

Gaikowski’s rodeo and academic future is set as the plans on attending South Dakota State where he will study ag business and participate in rodeo. 

“South Dakota State has always kinda been my dream school,” he said. 

Doesn’t hurt that Gaikowski is a huge fan of Jackrabbit football and basketball. 

“My mom went there and I’ve had a lot of family go to college in Brookings,” he said. “That’s always been my school of choice and them having a really good rodeo program kind of topped that off for me.” 

Gaikowski has qualified for the South Dakota 4-H finals every season since 2015. He’s made it to the South Dakota finals ever since his freshman year. 

“I made the National Jr. High Finals my eighth-grade year,” he said. “I was the 2017 4-H state champion breakaway roper and the state champion, all-around cowboy.” 

The son of Justin and Amy, Seth has three siblings, Tate, Tripp and Sage. He team-roped with older brother, Tate, until his graduation. This year. he plans on team-roping with Connor Herren who is from Crooks.