Working together as a unit has helped produce success for many teams in many sports throughout the years, but the 2020-21 Hamlin High School girls basketball team may have an advantage in that department.
The Chargers, you see, start two sets of sisters who just happen to be first cousins and are part of a rich family history of basketball success that carries back to at least the 1950s.
The four players — 5-foot-7 senior guard Kylee Wadsworth and her younger sister Kami, a 5-10 sophom*ore guard; and 5-10 senior forward Ashtyn Abraham and her younger sister Ally, a 5-11 sophom*ore forward — are starters for the third-seeded Hamlin team set to play Thursday through Saturday in the state Class A tournament in the Watertown Civic Arena.
“They know it each other well, so that definitely helps a lot,” said Hamlin head coach Tim Koisti.
The Wadsworths and the Abrahams are granddaughters of Bruce and Debbie Wadsworth. Bruce started alongside standout Steve Brown on the 1974 Hamlin boys basketball team, which defeated Parker 36-33 in the state Class B championship in the Sioux Falls Arena.
Debbie didn’t really get the chance to play for a state title, since the first South Dakota High School Activities Association state girls basketball tournaments weren’t held until 1975. Her uncle Don Jacobsen, however, was a standout player for Lake Norden who held the state’s high school career scoring mark for nearly 50 years and also starred at South Dakota State University.
It’s not surprising, the family’s basketball legacy has lived on.
“My dad really doesn’t talk about it all that much,” said Travis Wadsworth, a 1995 Hamlin High School graduate and basketball player who has spent this winter as an assistant coach for Hamlin’s boys and girls basketball teams. “The only thing he really ever talks about is the Sioux Falls Arena being packed and people lined up along the bottom rows, standing on the edges and sitting on the floor.
“The state tournament was a social event back then. When we grew up, we went to state tournaments every year, it was like our vacation. I really wish every kid could get once chance to play in a state tournament.”
Travis did get his chance in 1993, but he didn’t play much on a Hamlin team that won the consolation championship. The situation was different for his sister Tara — the mother of the Abrahams. She was a standout on Hamlin’s 1996 girls basketball team that won a state championship and featured two of her cousins — sisters Jill and Lori Wadsworth. Tara later played at South Dakota State.
“I was average at best, but Tara was a really good player,” said Travis, whose wife Michelle (Weelborg) held the Hamlin program’s assist record for many years. Tara’s husband Matt also played football and basketball at Hamlin.
Hamlin’s girls basketball program did capture another state Class A championship in 2005 — right here in the Watertown Civic Arena, with current head coach Koisti serving as an assistant.
The Chargers slipped a bit before returning to the map midway through the past decade when Kylee and Kami’s older sister Lexi Wadsworth — who now plays at Northern State University in Aberdeen — helped lead the Chargers to back-to-back state A appearances (third in 2016 and fifth in 2017).
The younger Wadsworths and the Abrahams have continued Hamlin’s quest to return to the top.
“After Hamlin won the last state title, the program was down and some of the kids wanted to help get it back to where it was supposed to be,” said Travis Wadsworth. “My kids and my nieces got into a group like that, started playing together in the second grade and have continued to do that up through the varsity.”
Kylee, who will play college basketball at Presentation College in Aberdeen, had knee surgery this fall and didn’t play on Hamlin’s volleyball team that finish fourth in the state Class A tourney also in the Civic Arena. Her sister Kami and cousins Ally and Ashtyn were each regulars for the Chargers’ volleyball squad along with the basketball team’s fifth starter — 5-10 senior McKenna Prouty.
Kami, who has committed to play basketball at the University of Sioux Falls, leads Hamlin with 17.4 points per game. Kylee is next at 13, followed by Ally at 9.4 and Prouty 7.6. Ashtyn is only averaging 4.2 points per game, but is the squad’s top defender and a player who does a number of things that don’t always show up in the box score.
The Chargers can score inside with the Abrahams and Kami, but also have the ability to shoot 3’s very well — Kylee broke the school record with 80 3s.
Travis Wadsworth’s earlier comment about wishing every one could get the chance to play in the state tournament got spoiled last year for his daughters and nieces when the Chargers qualified a tourney that wasn’t held because of COVID-19.
That should change Thursday when Hamlin meets sixth-seeded Belle Fourche (18-4) in the final first-round game at 7 p.m.
“It was really something just to see your kids go through that when they worked that hard to get there,” he said. “Then it took 52 weeks to get back to where we were. There’s a lot of things that have to go right. You not only have to stay healthy, you have to win games and jell as a team. We lost some really good seniors from last year, so to get back to where we were is pretty cool. Not just for my kids, but for all the kids.”
Belle Fourche, which suffered two of its four losses to top-seeded and top-rated St. Thomas More, has some size to battle the Chargers on the inside.
Bella Jensen, a 5-foot-10 senior guard-forward, leads the Broncos by averaging 13 points per game. Koisti says 5-11 junior forward-center Kayla Garla can create some havoc on defense.
Hamlin dominated inside last week when it cruised past Mobridge-Pollock 62-22 in a SoDak 16 state-qualifying game in the Civic Arena.
“What a blessing it was that we got to play in the Civic Arena before the state tournament,” said Koisti. “That’s going to help us a lot.”
Koisti considers top-seeded St. Thomas More and second-seeded and defending champion Winner as the teams to beat in the field, but feels every team in the field is a contender.
“I think honestly that anybody one through eight has a shot if somebody starts making shots or somebody doesn’t,” he said. “I don’t mind being the underdogs and sneaking in under the radar.”
Thursday’s Other Class A Matchups:
• No. 1 St. Thomas More (20-1) vs. No. 8 McCook Central-Montrose (17-5) at noon — Counting last year’s canceled state tourney, St. Thomas is making its eighth consecutive state-tourney appearance and 10th in 11 years. The Cavaliers won their first state title in 2012 and then won five consecutive titles from 2014-2018.
Head coach Brandon Kandolin is still in charge for More, which owns a number of wins over Class AA schools including top-rated Sioux Falls Washington this season as well as fellow tournament teams No. 2 seed Winner and No. 5 Sioux Falls Christian as well as Belle Fourche.
Haleigh Timmer, a 5-foot-11 senior guard and South Dakota State recruit, leads the Cavaliers with 20.4 points and 7.3 rebounds. Mairin Duffy, a 5-10 junior forward who is averaging 8.5 points per game, is hoping to the fifth Duffy sister (joining Aislinn, Caitlin, Ciara and Moira) in playing for a state championship St. Thomas More team.
McCook Central-Montrose, playing in its third state tournament four years, featured 6-foot senior forward Madisen Koepsell (19 points and 11.5 rebounds per game) and 5-9 junior guard Ashtyn Wobig (17.9 points per game).
• No. 4 Aberdeen Roncalli (20-2) vs. No. 5 Sioux Falls Christian (19-3) at 2 p.m. — Roncalli, which returns to state for the fourth-straight year, suffered its only losses to second-rated West Central (which didn’t quality for state) and Northeast Conference foe Hamlin.
Madelyn Bragg, a 6-2 junior forward-center, leads the Cavaliers with 16.7 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Junior guards Olivia Hanson and Morgan Fiedler each also average double figures in points.
University of Creighton recruit Lexi Unruh, a 6-0 senior guard, is the leader for Sioux Falls Christian. Unruh, who missed her junior season with a knee injury, is averaging 24.5 points per game.
• No. 2 Winner (20-2) and No. 7 Dakota Valley (16-5) at 5 p.m. — Winner, which won the 2019 championship over West Central, is technically the defending champion. The Warriors, who have qualified for state each of the past three years, suffered their only losses this season to St. Thomas More and West Central, who were tied for No. 1 in the Class A poll late in the regular season.
Winner’s leaders include 5-8 junior guard Bella Swedlund (22.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game) and 5-9 senior guard Kalla Bertram (19.3 points per game).
Rylee Rosenquist, a 5-8 junior guard who is averages 20.3 points per game, is the leader for Dakota Valley — a state Class A volleyball power making only its second state-tourney appearance in basketball and first since 2010.
