Cimburek: My Top Photos Of 2016

I know it’s a couple weeks early to post a year-end thing, but I wanted to post this while I had time.

As you probably know, I take a lot of photos, both personally and in my position with the Press & Dakotan. I post many of them on my Instagram account, probably more than I should.

Maddie Lavin losing her shoe in the 2016 state track meet was third on my list of most-liked photos.

Here are the top 10 (11, with ties) photos from 2016, in terms of likes: 1. Homecoming Royalty. 2. Balloons Release Pregame. 3. Maddie Lavin Loses Her Shoe. 4. Chloe Cornemann Holds Summit League Trophy. 5. MMC Softball Raises Money For Fernandez. 6. Yankton Girls Finish 3rd At State XC. 7. Mors Congratulated. Tie 8. Bucks Starting Lineups – Soccer Semifinals. Tie 8. Logan Wagner Celebrates 1,000th Point. Tie 10. Savannah Woods Gets Hug After Winning 3200. Tie 10. Chloe Cornemann & Gabby Boever After Summit League Title.

My most popular photos of the year were not technically sports photos. SDSU’s Chloe Cornemann made the list twice, in 4th and 10th. Also, the first photo of Chloe on the list made my list of personal favorites, as did the shot of Maddie Lavin losing her shoe.

Here are my other personal favorites:

Holding my niece Emma for the first time. (She just turned 1, and she’s not too keen on being held by someone other than mommy and daddy, so there won’t be too many of these any time soon.) Speaking of photos I don’t get too many of, here is one of my wife and I at a Twins game. (She doesn’t like her picture taken.)

Sports will always be the source of celebrations. Here are a few: Mike King, Cedar girls, MMC Bench, Irene-Wakonda, WNIT – USD & Amy Williams, Menno Mad Frogs, Matt Dewald and dugout dance party.

Of course, the emotions sports generate are not always joyous: Trey Krier, Irene-Wakonda and Raquel Sutera. This one has both joy and sadness.

 

These photos have plenty of emotion as well: Google Search, Albert Fernandez, Survivors Lap and Eye Black.

Some are on the list just because: Birds, Meridian Bridge and Sunset.

I even had a couple action shots in there: Slide At Home, Devin Millen, Lost Helmet and Splashdown.

 

I hope you enjoyed looking at these as much as I enjoyed shooting them.

 

Q&A with new Jacks men’s hoops coach

 

BY JEREMY HOECK
jeremy.hoeck@yankton.net

T.J. Otzelberger was eventually going to be hired as a Division I men’s basketball head coach.

It was just a matter of where and when.

The 38-year-old Wisconsin native and assistant coach at Iowa State got that opportunity in April, when he was hired by South Dakota State.

New South Dakota State head men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger, right, talks with SDSU fan Dave Cornemann during a Yankton Jackrabbit Club social on Wednesday evening at Riverside Park. (Jeremy Hoeck/P&D)

He was handed the keys to a program that had reached the NCAA Tournament three times in the past five seasons, not to mention one that had been coached by Scott Nagy (the school’s career wins leader, with 410) for 21 seasons.

That could be a daunting task, but as Otzelberger would tell you, he was more than ready for the challenge.

He was in Yankton on Wednesday evening for a Yankton Jackrabbit Club social at Riverside Park, and took a few minutes to chat with the Press & Dakotan.

When you got the job, what it was like to come into a brand new place and take over for someone like Scott Nagy who had been there seemingly forever?

First of all, the opportunity was a dream come true. And from a lot of different standpoints. Professionally, for me, basketball and developing young men has been something I’ve been passionate about for a long time. To be able to have the opportunity to be a coach was something I was excited about and started to think a few years back was something I was prepared for. To come into a place where there’s such passion, such unbelievable tradition, where the fans are amazing, where Frost Arena is such an unbelievable home court, you get your dream come true. To do it in a place like Brookings is awesome for my family. When I got the job, Justin Sell (athletic director) had said, ‘Every day will get better. You’ll have to almost pinch yourself because every day will get better.’ And that’s held true for the five months I’ve been here. Every day’s been great.

That’s the kind of program you’d want to come into, right? Where they have those high expectations, rather than having to build from the bottom up?

Absolutely. You can tell with the guys, coach Nagy did a great job with the culture of the program and the character of the guys he recruited. With that foundation in place, we hope we can add and continue to build on that. When you’re coming in as a head coach, to come into a place that already has that tradition; that winning expectation, it’s a huge advantage. And we’re going to capitalize.

Have you gotten a sense from the guys coming back that they know what it takes to reach the NCAA Tournament?

They know it’s something you can’t take for granted. It takes a lot of hard work every day, and a commitment to each other and to the process. It starts with a guy like Mike Daum, who had opportunities to leave and go to some other places but chose to stay here and finish the job he started. Not only be in the NCAA Tournament, but be on the winning side of games in the NCAA Tournament. That’s extremely exciting for us.

How about the Summit League, have you gotten a sense for where this league is nationally?

You look at the RPI, getting to 11^th last year, that’s pretty impressive. I think the league as a hwole, and the coaches, have done a great job in scheduling up the level of competition. A lot of the coaches in this league are guys I’ve gotten to know through the recruiting trails or even coached against, so it’s a league that I have a lot of respect for. I think if we can continue this vision and keep scheduling better teams, there’s no limit to where we can go.

I imagine when you were at Iowa State, you got a sense for where South Dakota State was at the mid-major level?

Absolutely. In 2008, South Dakota State came in right before Christmas and beat us at Hilton Coliseum. That certainly created a greater sense of awareness. And I remember coach (Lorenzo) Romar (head coach at Washington) talking about them coming in (in 2011) and winning with Nate Wolters, so I’ve always been aware of the program. It’s always been one of those schools when you’re at Iowa State or at Washington that we don’t want to schedule. It’s a no-win situation. Now, to be on the inside of it and find games and try to get people to come to Frost, it’s a pretty awesome vibe.

Follow @jhoeck on Twitter

Mid-summer Q&A with Dawn Plitzuweit

BY JEREMY HOECK

jeremy.hoeck@yankton.net

South Dakota women’s basketball coach Dawn Plituzweit shares a light moment before a youth camp Tuesday morning at the DakotaDome in Vermillion. (Photo by Jeremy Hoeck)

After just over two months on the job as head women’s basketball coach at the University of South Dakota, Dawn Plitzuweit has certainly been busy.

A staff had to be assembled. She and her family had to get settled into Vermillion. Youth camps were run. Recruiting trips had to be organized. And an upcoming trip to Australia had to be planned.

I caught up with her Tuesday morning before a junior high camp at the DakotaDome.

Over two months, what’s it been like?

It’s been really busy. We’ve got an incredible staff put together, so it’s been fun to work with all of them. All of our players came back in the middle of June, so we’re in the middle of week three of workouts with them. Getting ready to hit the road for recruiting and finishing up these camps.

July is a busy month, isn’t it?

It really is. We get on the road recruiting, we’ll watch kids, and then we’ll come back and start our practices for Australia.

So, when is that trip?

We leave Aug. 7. That’s 40 days from now, approximately.

Obviously with international travel, there are certain things you’ve got to get organized.

There’s a learning curve we’re going through right now. That is figuring out what we need to take, how we need to travel, what all the plans look like. There’s a lot of prep work going on right now, but Alex (Antonen) is doing a great job of getting that figured out.

These are unique trips to take, aren’t they?

It’s really a great opportunity for us, basketball while we’re there is good, but the bonding is outstanding. The practices before we go, we really expect those to be helpful for us.

During summer workouts, have you seen some improvements there?

It’s been really good. Our kids, their energy has been very good, their attentiveness has been very good. We’re tweaking, we’re teaching the same kinds of work ethic and commitment, but maybe the terms are a little bit different. The vocab for the kids have been different. They’ve been grinding. It’s been challenging, but they’ve responded really well.

What’s been the biggest challenge so far, or maybe even the thing that stands out the most so far?

We’re still trying to figure out who we are. We’re trying to put togetghetr our identity right now. Today’s our first day with Abbi back,t his morning we had a conditioning workout, then camps. That’ll still take some time.

That’ll take some time even beyond Australia, won’t it?

Exactly. But if there’s a question, that’s probably what it is right now. Where do we go? Who do we give the ball to? We’ll be known for our toughness and our grit, all those things our kids have been a major part of it int eh past. That culture remains the same, but yet, how are we going to put the ball in the basket? How can we score more points than our opponents? Those things are yet to be determined.

Especially when you turn the page from where they were, everything is new, isn’t it?

I think certain players really respond, their roles change when you graduate five kids and you have a new system in play. That’s something we haven’t even scratched the surface on yet.

Even just getting outside of Vermillion, have you been able to meet people and develop some contacts?

Not a whole lot yet. July we have an opportunity to get out and watch more kids. We’ve been fortunate in being able to bring some of those high school kids and teams into Vermillion for camps. The numbers have been outstanding. That’s allowed us to meet some coaches and players from outside this area.