RAPID CITY – After 21 years, Brent Deckert is stepping down as Brandon Valley’s head boys basketball coach — but not retiring from coaching — citing several factors, including his several-month battle with Stage 4 lung cancer and desire to see more of his daughter’s games.
In a Saturday morning interview on the FOX Sports 98.1 KWSN Coaches Show, the 52-year-old said he that his decision has been “a long time coming.” Deckert told the BV administration of his decision around Christmas.
“I just don’t think I have the energy and juice it takes to keep going and run the program the way I think it needs to be run… and that our community deserves from its head basketball coach,” Deckert said.
At that time on Saturday, Deckert had not yet told his players. But he did in a team meeting shortly after.
Several hours later, the Lynx fell just short of sending Deckert out a winner, losing the Class AA consolation championship game to Aberdeen Central 55-50.
Shortly after the buzzer, Deckert became visibly emotional, holding back tears as he was recognized on the public address system for his final game, then waved to a standing ovation, and then hugged several of his players and huddled them up on the court one last time on the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center court, where two years ago BV earned him his first and only state championship in his 19th season as bench boss.
Saturday also marked Deckert’s his final chance to coach his son Jaksen, a senior guard at BV, who scored 10 points. The father said having a chance finish his career at BV at the same time as his son completed his was a “big part” of deciding to resign.
“The other big part is I don’t want to miss my daughter play any more basketball games,” Deckert said.
Kennedi Deckert just completed her freshman season at Brandon Valley. Brent said he missed too many of his sons’ games while they were growing up to coach his own. The oldest of Brent and wife Jill’s three children, Caden, graduated from BV in 2018.
(Below is the portion of Saturday’s interview when Deckert announced for the first time publicly that he is stepping down)
Deckert has three more years before he can officially retire from teaching and will remain at BV Middle School as a physical education instructor. He would like to eventually coach again. But although he’d like to remain as an assistant coach in the program he has guided for over two decades, he won’t be around for the head coaching transition.
“I certainly don’t want to quit but it’s not fair for me to be around when someone else is starting,” Deckert said in a text to FOX Sports 98.1 after the on-air interview. “I strongly believe there needs to be a break so the next guy can put his stamp on the program.”
Deckert told Marso of his intention to step down in December because he wanted the administration to have a heads up and to possibly hold on to teaching openings. The announcement will be posted in the school board minutes on Monday, when the position officially opens. Marso — himself retiring as A.D. in a couple months — expects a deep pool of quality candidates and will be part of the process. Principal Mark Schlekeway, and new athletic director Bill Freking will ultimately make the hire.
The outgoing coach said he will not have much say in who will take over the Lynx.
“I have lots of great friends that coach that I’d love to take over our program, but that isn’t my call,” Deckert said.
Marso’s eyes welled up while describing Deckert’s 21 years at the helm and the physical toll on Deckert’s body and energy level the last few months. Chase Marso, the son of the only A.D. Deckert worked under, played on the ’19 title team.
“It’s sad to see him go, obviously,” Marso said of Deckert. “He’s been such a huge, huge part of Brandon Valley athletics and the Brandon community… The relationships he has built with kids and alumni is just irreplaceable.”
Marso was asked why Deckert waited three months, until gameday of his final game, to announce his resignation to both his players and the public.
“Because he didn’t want this season to be about him,” Marso said. “He wanted it to be about his kids, and for them to enjoy their experience.”
One of those players was senior Jackson Hilton, the fourth quarter hero of that ’19 title as a sophomore. Hilton scored 14 points on Saturday and was named to the All-Tournament team, wiping tears from eyes after accepting his award. One of the Deckert’s most prolific players and BV’s most decorated athletes will move on to play football at South Dakota State. The coach will likely have a much better opportunity to drive to Brookings and see Hilton play.
(Below is the FULL INTERVIEW with Brent Deckert from Saturday’s KWSN Coaches Show)
The beginning of Deckert’s realization that now is the time started in August, when he learned he had Stage 4 lung cancer, which spread to lymph nodes, shoulder blade, hip, and spine. Chemotherapy and gene therapy pills have curtailed the spread throughout his body and allowed him to coach all 24 games.
But exhaustion continued to creep in for a guy who Marso said is “12 months a year, 24 hours a day, 365 days” all about Brandon Valley basketball. The combination of that and Jaksen’s final run as a high school player, plus Kennedi’s three more years ahead with the Lynx girls, made the decision clearer.
School officials, parents, BV boosters, former players, and the community all across South Dakota have rallied behind the Henning, Minn., native with fundraising, including the production of “Play for Deckert” T-shirts, which opposing coaching staffs have worn whenever they have played the Lynx.
As of last month, Deckert’s GoFundMe page has raised over $5,000 for his family, but Deckert has preferred to drive those dollars toward the BV basketball program.
On Dec. 18, about 60 of Deckert’s former players and assistant coaches showed up in Brandon for what turned out to be the Lynx’ biggest win of the season, a 62-60 comeback over No. 2 Yankton. Even more former Deckert pupils came to a postgame party at a local restaurant that night, including former Lynx and South Dakota State standout Dale Moss and his fiance Clare Crawley, who Moss famously met on the hit ABC reality show “The Bachelorette.”
The coach told KWSN the next morning the reunion and reception were a surprise, and choked up when asked what the support meant to him.
“I can’t put it into words,” Deckert said. “It just proves — if there’s some young coaches out there listening, I would want them to do a couple things, and one is stay in coaching and stay in in your community, and fight through whatever it is you have to. Because what is going on here (in Brandon) is so much bigger than me. It’s much more about this whole community and all the people I’ve been able to work with over the last 21 years. It’s quite humbling. It’s very overwhelming, and I can’t find words for it.”
Ninth-year Sioux Falls Washington coach Craig Nelson, who attended the Dec. 18 game, was an assistant coach for Deckert from 2008-12 before taking over the Warriors’ program and leading it to a pair of runner-up finishes in 2015 and ’16. The Warriors narrowly lost their bid at a finals berth in Friday’s semifinal.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better coaching mentor to give me my first coaching job and show me the ins and outs of how to be a head coach,” Nelson said. “He loves basketball and he loves kids so much. He has taught me so much and I’m so thankful for his friendship.”
A few minutes after Deckert’s revelation on KWSN, 13th-year Harrisburg coach Scott Langerock became emotional after being asked to characterize Deckert’s legacy, citing Deckert as the “first guy in my corner” after the Tigers went 1-19 and 4-16 in a couple of Langerock’s early seasons. Deckert called Langerock with encouragement to keep fighting, to believe in himself, to not let anyone break his confidence, and to “get my (rear) to work and fix it.”
Langerock said Deckert brought his Lynx team to Harrisburg that summer to give the Tigers reps “at what the new expectations should look like.
“He didn’t have to do that because they were so much better,” Langerock said. “He wanted to help us.”
A few years later, Harrisburg reached the state championship game, losing narrowly to Matthew Mors and Yankton in 2018, then followed up with a third-place finish the next season. Saturday, the Tigers will play Mitchell in the seventh-place game before Deckert coaches BVHS for the last time.
“It’s hard to put into words what he’s meant to basketball in the state of South Dakota,” Langerock said. “He’s a special guy. It’s a brotherhood and we wish him nothing but the best in happiness and health in his personal life the rest of the way, and we’ll celebrate him today, no doubt about it. He’s one of the best, no doubt about it, and he always will be. And what he means to the brotherhood and what he means to kids and what he means to basketball is pretty special. Pretty special. There’s not many of those guys around.”
Next Saturday, Deckert will be inducted into the Brandon Valley Athletics Hall of Fame with two-time state championship football coach Chad Garrow, who has also been fighting cancer the last several months.
“The biggest thing for me is I’m just really fortunate to grow up in a community that cares so much,” Deckert said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to raise my family where we are at. Brandon’s a lovely place. I’m going to miss it.”
Comments