Huron’s football team has been a pleasant surprise in Class 11AA this season with a tough stretch of games through the first five weeks and a 4-1 record to show for it. But to those who are a part of the program on a day-to-day basis, the potential and work ethic has been there. It’s turned into the hard work and weekly preparation paying off.
The Tigers opened the season against the Yankton Bucks, one of the top voted teams in the class. Yankton topped Huron 41-24 in that game, but the experiences from that game set the Tigers on a solid path moving forward.
“Going into that game, I don't know if our team kind of fully understood the potential and just the things of like believing in themselves right away when they came out of the gate. I know we had a lot of turnovers on offense in that first week, so that was kind of the toughest part was just our defense was out there for way too long,” told Huron head coach Dru Strand. “I thought our guys did a great job. They never quit on themselves. They never thought it was over. They never threw in the towel. Then going into next week, they kind of all came together with that belief of, you know, we have something here.”
Following their Week 1 loss, Huron has rattled off four consecutive victories. They topped Pierre, courtesy of a late game pick six, shutout Tea Area to spoil the Titans homecoming celebration, and then picked up a come from behind win against Sturgis. And now this past week, the Tigers defense held off a late game surge from Spearfish.
“Our defense has always done a phenomenal job for us in games. In previous years, and now that we've been running the same system for four years, we've kept the same offense and same defense,” explained coach Strand. “It’s just getting those guys now to understand how these things work. My defensive coordinator (Brice Anderson) does a fantastic job of giving people different looks and giving our guys on defense answers.”
Class 11AA, depending on who you talk to, is one of the most wide-open classes in high school football this fall. Yankton's only loss was to Harrisburg in 11AAA. Pierre has lost to Yankton and Huron but has the reputation of success the past eight seasons. Tea Area has only lost to Huron, and Spearfish has only lost to Tea Area and Huron. Sturgis Brown has losses to Huron and Aberdeen Central but has wins against Brookings and Rapid City Stevens (11AAA), and then Brookings has losses to Pierre and Sturgis, but a win against Sioux Falls Roosevelt (11AAA).
With seven teams currently donning a winning record, it’s going to setup for a fun post-season in 11AA.
“We're kind of used to saying ‘here's your top-tier.’ We don't have that this year and everyone's kind of on a level playing field,” said Strand. “You know, our guys talk about having that Yankton game back, and they're a solid team, so are the other teams that we’ve played. 11AA across the board playing level - there’s a little shift happening.”
It’s impossible to know how the season will shake out for the Huron Tigers, but the team is winning and having fun.
With defensive leaders like Oakley Anderson, Mason Jurgens, and Charlie Martin on the squad, and a quarterback in Anderson Porisch, who is getting better as the season goes on, the sky is the limit for this year’s Tigers squad.
“These guys have put in the work just like everybody else, and they deserve any recognition. Anything that they're getting, it's all for the kids and the kids have done all the off-season work. From the last three years, whether it's summer workouts as a team, whether it's calling them guys up and just showing up, these guys just want to be known for what they are,” exclaimed coach Strand. “Huron's about football too. That's kind of the thing of where I think they're trying to make their steppingstone of what team they want to be remembered as. Nothing was given to them. They've had close games and gone through all those situations, so they just want to be known as one of those top-tier teams because they've earned that right, and they've put in the work for those.”
Huron will close out the season with three road games in the final four weeks. They’ll play at Douglas this week, come home the following week to host Aberdeen Central, and then take on Mitchell and Brookings to close it out before the playoffs begin.
The Tigers last dome appearance was in 2018 when they finished runner-up to Pierre. Their lone state football championship as a program came in 1992.
