Home of Dell Rapids Sports and Events
Both the Dell Rapids St Mary and Dell Rapids High School marching bands participated in the Parker Marching Band Festival on Friday, September 17th. The Cardinals were entered in Class B, and Dell Rapids was competing in Class AA. Both schools also received awards.
St Mary took third place out of nine teams. The color guard also received the “Outstanding Color Guard” for Class B.
The Quarriers finished second in Class AA. Cara Rice received the “Best Drum Major” for the class.
The Dell Rapids School Board announced that breakfast and lunches will be free of cost again for the 2021-2022 school year during their regular meeting on Monday, July 12th.
The meals will be free under the federal SSO program. Adult breakfast prices will be $1.95, and the adult lunch price will be $3.85. Milk will be $.50. A la carte items will be priced in accordance with federal regulations.
The school board also set other rates and prices for the school year. Admission to activities at Dell Rapids will be $3.00 for students K-12 and $5.00 for adults. Prices will be $4.00 and $6.00 respectively for double-headers. Activity tickets are also available for purchase. Resident senior citizens will receive a free permanent pass and can be obtained from the district office. K-8 student pass is $15.00. 9-12 student pass is $20.00. A 10-punch pass for adults is $30.00 and an all-season pass for adults is $50.00. A family all-season pass for parents/guardians and school-age children living in the same home is $100.00.
Bus rates were also set for the year. Resident in-town and open-enrollment (on designated route), St Mary non-resident rural transportation (on designated route), and Haven transportation (between elementary school and River Community Church) is $80.00/child or $200.00/family. St Mary transportation off designated route will be $432.50 annually per mile added to the route. Open-enrollment transportation off designated route (as determined by the school board on an individual basis) will also be $432.50 annually per mile added to the route.
The Dell Rapids School Board still has one position open on the board. This announcement came during the board’s regular meeting on Monday, May 10th.
Two school board members will have their terms come to an end this summer. Those members are Troy Randall and Jacque LeBrun. Business Manager Barb Littel reported that only one petition was returned for those two school board vacancies. The one petition was filed by Randall. He will be sworn in for another three-year term at the July meeting.
That still leaves one school board position open. The board will have to make a one-year appointment for the vacancy. Information about how to apply for the appointment will be posted to the schools website.
Four staff members and a student at Dell Rapids High School were recently recognized in different areas.
Two coaches were honored by the South Dakota Football Coaches Association for their 30 years of coaching. Those coaches were Coach Craig Jorgensen and Coach Dane Stone.
Dell Rapids High School Principal Mr. Drew Bunkers received a Southeast Area Principal Pyramid Award for Communicator and Optimist. Dell Rapids Middle School Principal Mr. Fran Ruesink was recognized by the South Dakota Association of Secondary School Principals as their Region 2 Middle School Principal of the Year.
The Region V FCCLA meeting was hosted by the Dell Rapids chapter recently, and Rylee Rinehart, who ran for region office, was elected as region president for the coming year. She will be installed as one of the state officers at the state conference in April.
A local Dell Rapids High School senior was recently named the 2020-2021 South Dakota Educators Rising state president. Lucas Berg will serve as the South Dakota chapter president for the next year.
The state officer team is expected to plan and run the state conference. They will also have the opportunity to greet and welcome chapters to the learning expo events as well as take part in training opportunities.
Educators Rising is a national network that provides passionate young people with opportunities to experience teaching, sustain their interest in the education profession, and help them cultivate their skills they need to be successful educators. While students are in high school, Educators Rising supports curricular programs where students explore the teaching profession and gain hands-on teaching experience. In college, the program supports campus-based student groups that promote the development of aspiring teachers.
The South Dakota Educators Rising chapter is in their third year of existence and has 17 schools from around the state participating. Those schools are De Smet, West Central, Madison, Harrisburg, Brandon Valley, Mobridge-Pollock, Tea Area, Brookings, Rapid City, Dell Rapids, Beresford, Yankton, Timber Lake, Milbank, Lakota Tech, Sioux Valley, and Aberdeen.
The South Dakota High School Activities Association (SDHSAA) held a special meeting on Tuesday, November 23rd to discuss the potential of changing the start of the winter sports season along with a couple of other items.
After hearing from athletic directors across the state on both sides of the issue for changing the start of winter sports, the SDHSAA Board of Directors did not make a motion to change the date. The winter sports season for basketball, wrestling, and gymnastics will continue to move forward as planned and on time as suggested by the winter sports committee.
The board of directors did make a motion and passed two recommendations in regard to the winter sports season. The SDHSAA high recommends masks be worn by spectators that are allowed into the events, and they also recommend schools put a limit on attendance of the events. The schools will make the decision as to what the limit will be based on their venue capacity and the ability to social distance.
The new recommendations made by the SDHSAA during the special meeting will not have major impact to Dell Rapids or Dell Rapids St Mary schools. Both schools had implemented a masking policy and had also limited attendance by the end of the falls sports season. Those policies will continue to be in place at the start of the winter season.
Quarrier and Cardinals fans….we are putting together a fundraiser for both schools! Due to the the covid pandemic and the schools having to limit admittance into events, we’d like to give back to the schools to help them offset the lost ticket sales.
Since both the girls and the boys basketball teams are going to be playing one another in the Entringer Classic this year, we’ve put together a shirt design for the games. There are three color options. You can choose Red (Cardinals), Orange (Quarriers), or Grey (Nuetrual). If you choose a red shirt, all proceeds from that color go to St Mary. Likewise, if you choose orange, all the proceeds go to Dell Rapids Public. If you choose grey, we’ll split the proceeds in half between the two schools.
The online store is open now. Get your orders in now because the store will close on Dec 5th to make sure shirts are done before the girls game on Dec 19th.
https://https-sungoldsports-com.printavo.com/merch/battle-for-dells-2020
Even with all the changes to the homecoming celebration this year due to Covid, Dell Rapids High School was able to hold their Coronation on Monday, October 12th. It was a shortened event this year, but a new homecoming king and queen were crowned.
This year’s Dell Rapids Royalty Candidates were Colin Rentz, Becky Dorn, Coby Maeschen, Sami Schmidt, Logan Anderson, Kat Fletcher, Connor Rentz, and Sam Price.
Prior to the crowning of the King and Queen, Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz said in her remarks, “This is quite a crew right here in front of you. If I had to go through a year like we are going through, I couldn’t pick a better senior class. And when you’re chosen to be in the homecoming royalty court, that shows that your peers respect you, and in a year like this, they are looking for any sort of normalcy and any sort of leadership that they can lean on. Congratulations to all of you for being those people that your peers and the entire high school has picked.”
Last year’s King and Queen, Karsen Welbig and Mallory Haak crowned the 2020 Homecoming King and Queen, Logan Anderson and Kat Fletcher.
The Dell Rapids band and choir held a unique concert on Thursday, October 8th. The musicians held an outdoor concert at the band shell at Dell Rapids City Park at 11:00 a.m. Audience members were encouraged to bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy the outdoor concert.
Dell Rapids High School band director Karla Pulscher said, “Not having marching band this year due to all our contests being cancelled, I wanted to have a performance sometime this fall. And being outdoors, everyone can be socially distant, and we can also play some of the songs that we started on last year but was unable to due to the shutdown.”
Putting together an outdoor concert was not without challenges. Pulscher said that there was always a worry about weather. The weather cooperated very well for the event. The students had to battle a little bit of wind, which required the use of clothes pins to keep the music from flying away. Pulscher also said the guitar players had to find battery-operated amps.
With the quick plan of having the outdoor concert and holding it in the middle of the day, Pulscher was happy with the turnout. “I think there was about 50 people there. I think it was a good turnout for a daytime event that we just put together in a few weeks of school,” she said.
