The spring baseball opener for Dakota Valley happened on Sunday, April 2 versus Wagner at home. While Wagner scored early during their initial at-bat to get 2 runs, the Panthers quickly answered and scored 3 of their own in the bottom of the 1st inning.

To dip their toes into the season of track, Dakota Valley coaches took some of their squad to two indoor meets near the end of March. Runners and jumpers were at Yankton on March 24 and in Vermillion on March 27.

With the cool temperatures and many areas of the state still accumulating snow, it is hard to imagine that high school baseball season will soon be here. The Dakota Valley Panthers look to be as strong as ever. Many returning lettermen from last year’s roster are back.

The track squad for Dakota Valley looks to be strong this season with many returning letter winners. Strong finishes at last year’s state meet in Sioux Falls have many excited for the track and field season to begin.

Six youth wrestlers from the Panther Wrestling Club were in Aberdeen on March 25-26 for the AAU state wrestling tournament. After making their way through districts and regionals, the grapplers hit the mats to take on the best in South Dakota. Leif Dewald, Jaxon Dice, Darian Feese, Graham Riibe, Leo Riibe and Kenzie Scott all had strong performances. The event took place at Northern State University in Wachs Arena.

The 35th Annual 3-Class Shootout basketball All-Star game will be held on Saturday, March 25 at the McCook Central Auditorium in Salem, SD. All three classes in both boys and girls will be represented by many of the top seniors in South Dakota. The games are as follows:

The Sioux City Metros garnered a first place finish at Midwest High School Hockey League Tournament March 3-5 to be named State Champions. Their 5-4 win over the Des Moines Oak Leafs secured the championship.

For the SoDak-16 game the #1 seeded Dakota Valley boys basketball team travelled to the neutral site of Harrisburg to take on #16 Miller. It was a game of showmanship by the Panthers as they punched their ticket to state and took down the Rustlers 94-41.

District qualifiers from the Panther Wrestling club travelled to Yankton on Saturday, March 11 to compete in regional competition. There were 15 grapplers from Dakota Valley competing and by the end of the day 6 wrestlers would punch tickets to state and a grand total of 8 would finish as placewinners in the tough regional contest.

The Dakota Valley boys basketball team will be vying for another state championship this weekend as they head to Sioux Falls on March 16-18 to take on the top Class A teams in South Dakota. The Panthers enter the 2023 state tournament undefeated with a record of 23-0.