Todd County is back to the Dakota Dome this Friday as the Falcons play in their fourth All Nations Football Conference championship game in the past five seasons. For coach Bob Kornely, who is one of the most passionate football coaches you’ll find in the state, he’s happy for this year’s senior class.
“The senior class has been a fun group – hard-working, close group of kids. They wanted to be good at football from the get-go, and they enjoy the game,” explained coach Kornely. “So, it's just been a fun group, working with that senior group of for this time.”
In total, Todd County has eighteen seniors listed on their roster for this season. With a total roster in the 40’s, that’s a sizeable group of seniors, who will play in their final game on Friday.
The Falcons opponent in the 9A ANFC title game is Winnebago from Nebraska. The two teams met six weeks ago which saw the Indians victorious over Todd County 38-8.
“We want to do a better job executing offensively than we did in our first game with them. We showed the kids that we are one or two blocks away, two missed assignments away from executing on that end of things,” told Kornely. “They're big and good. They’ve got three guys with college size and they're very good football players.”
Winnebago, who came up just short of a championship last year, is riding the wave of an undefeated season in ’25. Their smallest margin of victory this year has been 30-points, which was against Todd County.
For coach Kornely, being a football coach is much bigger than putting on a headset and walking the sidelines.
“Growing up as a player, I wanted to give an opportunity to the kids to be part of something special, something that’s there for them. Something they can count on being there for them and being successful,” Kornely said. “It’s never a guarantee about success, but we want to make sure they have that consistency, so I wanted to give kids goals. With these seniors, I enjoy working with them and seeing them grow from freshman to seniors and see what they can accomplish. Trying to get them to function together as a team and realize that it's bigger than themselves, that they're part of a group.”
Todd County missed out on getting to the dome last season. Pine Ridge ended up defeating Winnebago in the 9A championship in ’24 in a double overtime thriller. It’s been a season of unfinished business and an opportunity for one final run for the Falcons seniors. Todd County finished the regular season 7-1 and then beat Little Wound in a close contest a week ago to punch their ticket to Vermillion.
The 9A championship between Todd County and Winnebago is slated to kickoff at 7 pm CT on Friday night. It will air live on SDPB, and stream live online at sdpb.org/allnations and on YouTube.
