It’s a basketball community.
That is how Head Coach Adam Nelson would best describe Chamberlain, South Dakota. But also according to Nelson, the small town on the banks of the Missouri River is much more than just that.
“The community is awesome and the support we are giving is unbelievable. Chamberlain is a basketball community and they love to see the kids succeed, but it’s not even basketball, it’s anything that the kids’ succeed in,” Nelson said.
Now the community has embraced the Class A State Qualifying Cubs, considered by many to be one of the top teams in the state, but the path to the tournament hasn’t alway been easy for Chamberlain.
The Cubs got off to a quick start, entering early January with a 3-1 record, losing by seven to a tough Winner team, but soon had to face a difficult six-game stretch that included B State Tournament Qualifier Viborg-Hurley. And after winning all six games, that’s when Chamberlain knew they had a chance to end the season in Sioux Falls.
“We wrote up six games in a row that we thought would be really tough for us, but we won all six of them,” Nelson said. “To see the guys come together and that was their goal to win them all…that was their belief that we can do something special.”
The Cubs played well during that middle stretch of the season, defeating teams like Madison, Mobridge-Pollock, Platte-Geddes, and Stanley County. Chamberlain was at the top of the South Dakota basketball world, and many thought a soon-to-come loss from Vermillion would secure the Cubs spot as the #1 overall seed in Class A.
That prediction never came to fruition, however, as Vermillion never loss, and the Cubs dropped three straight games to end the season, losing to Hanson, Lyman and West Central.
“I just like the way we have come around. We played well in the middle of the season…but then some teams adjusted well on us and at the end of the season, not the way we would have wanted to dropping three in a row,” Nelson said. “But we used those in the correct way and learned from those losses.”
The Cubs rebounded well, and never lost sight of their goal, cruising to a regional victory against Miller before defeating a tough Flandreau team in the Sodak 16. Chamberlain is now ready to try to regain their spot at the top of Class A.
“You don’t want to lose three games to end the season, but those were three big games for refocusing ourselves and getting ready for the postseason,” Nelson said. “Those losses were key to us in finding what we need to do and what we need to adjust.”
It won’t be an easy road to the state tournament, however, as the Cubs face a tough Sioux Valley team to open the tournament. But Coach Nelson thinks his team is prepared for the road ahead.
“The whole season kind of got us ready for that,” Nelson said of the state tournament. “They (Sioux Valley) are dangerous. They have a good ballclub. [Our success will depend on] what can we get done defensively, and can we just hold them to one shot.”
The Cubs will play Sioux Valley at 7:30 p.m. tonight.
