The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is hosting some very special guests this week.
University of Louisville basketball stars Shoni and Jude Schimmel are in Fort Thompson sharing their story and helping and inspiring area young people. The sisters helped Louisville to become the national runners-up as the Cardinals fell 93-60 to the University of Connecticut in the championship game April 9 in New Orleans.
"We are lucky to have them here because they have a very busy schedule," said Donita Loudner, director of the Crow Creek suicide prevention program. "I have been chasing them since March. I had their father's telephone number, and things just fell into place."
Crow Creek is having its annual Back To School Bash this week, where children register for the upcoming school year. The Schimmels also will participate in a basketball camp for the K-8 kids as well as the high schoolers, a community feed, sacred rituals and a 3-on-3 tourney.
Loudner and her group are always working hard to prevent suicide and to help children find ways to deal with problems such as bullying. The Schimmels were featured at a summit Wednesday with other area suicide prevention and anti-bullying groups.
Loudner said the children they help always ask for sports stars to come in and speak to them. "We have been following the Schimmels' careers and we are all very excited to have them in our community," she said.
The sisters grew up on an American Indian reservation in Mission, Ore. Shoni, the 2013 Oklahoma City Regional Most Outstanding Player, led the Cardinals in scoring (14.2) and assists (3.6) per game last season. The 5-foot-10 three-year starter who will be a senior this fall scored her 1,000th career point last season. Shoni helped Team USA win the gold medal in the 2013 World University Games in Russia earlier this month.
The 5-foot-6 Jude will be a junior this fall for Louisville. She averaged 5.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game last season when she won the Elite 89 award at the 2013 Final Four for being the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site of an NCAA championship. A sociology major, Schimmel has a 3.737 grade-point average.
The Schimmels also plan to visit Pine Ridge and Eagle Butte during their visit to South Dakota.
Here are some other things I know:
Eureka honoree
Oklahoma senior standout runner Hilary Krein of Eureka has a 3.86 grade-point average. She led 13 Sooners who made the U.S. track and cross country coaches all-academic honor squad.
South Dakota tie
Midwest cowboys Chad Ferley (Oelrichs, S.D.) and Wade Sundell (Boxholm, Iowa) tied for the saddle bronc title at the $857,612 117th annual Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days. This was the first-ever Frontier Days titles for both cowboys, according to the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association. The last time there were co-winners in this event was 1996 between Dan Etbauer (Ree Heights, S.D./Goodwell, Okla.) and Jeff Shearer (Marysville, Calif.). Ferley, who won $12,036, told WyoSports, "You get a cool saddle, a cool buckle. It is four hours from my house. You can't beat it."
S.D. cowboy champ II
The all-around cowboy in the $192,875 Deadwood Days of '76 Rodeo was South Dakota cowboy Paul David Tierney of Oral, who earned a combined $4,403 in team roping and tie-down roping.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News: jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.
Twitter: @jpapendick