White River Makes History, Lady Tigers Win Title

White River made history on Saturday night in Huron as the Lady Tigers defeated Castlewood 57-37 to win their first ever state championship. Coming into the 2021 ‘B’ state tournament, White River was the two-seed with just one loss on the season.

The Lady Tigers were led by a couple of special seniors, Caelyn Valandra-Prue and Maleighya Estes. In the state championship game they combined for 42-points.

Valandra-Prue entered the state tournament at No. 11 (2,462) on the all-time South Dakota high school girls basketball individual scoring list, and on Saturday night she finished her high school career at No. 8 (2,536) – just five-points behind basketball legend SuAnne Big Crow of Pine Ridge.

“I’ve got to thank my team, I can’t score those points without my team,” said Caelyn Valandra-Prue. “I’ve got to thank my dad too, he’s been a big help. He’s been in the gym with me ever since I was in second grade. I’ve been working my butt off for this my whole life and it’s finally here.”

The Lady Tigers had an emotional win in the semifinal round on Friday night as well when they beat Corsica-Stickney on a last second shot to punch their ticket to the title game.

“We’ve executed that shot so many times during the season and it worked,” explained Maleighya Estes, who was the hero in the semifinal round. “I’ve practiced that shot. My coach [Jared Bouman] believed in me and I knew I could do it.”

Speaking of Jared Bouman, he took over the position as head girls basketball coach for White River just one week before the season started.

“Credit goes to the girls, they bought in from the beginning of the year, and worked as hard as they could to get to this point,” Lady Tigers head coach Jared Bouman stated. “It doesn’t just happen in one season, it comes from a young lifetime of hard work, parents, and community, and I’m just grateful I had the opportunity to coach them.”

Bauman has now led the Tigers to a 24-1 state championship season, with their lone loss coming against Winner, who is a Class A school.

“The quote that comes with him is if you’ve got a calm coach, you’ve got calm players and so the more he’s calm, the more we stay calm, and the more we execute calmly,” Estes said.

“We just knew from the beginning that new coach, we had to adapt to that. We knew from the beginning of the season that goals don’t change just because your coach does,” explained Valandra-Prue. “So we just knew we had to work hard for this goal.”

White River made the state tournament in 2019, but the last time they had played in a girls’ state title game, up until Saturday night, was 1992. The school has won five state boys basketball championships throughout its history, but this was the first for the girls, which makes it that much sweeter for a first-year head coach.

“White River has been here with the boys a few time,” said Bouman. “It’s great to have the girls get a win, and I’m so thankful and so happy for the girls.”