Maxwell, Miller, Martin land first-team ESD honors

Mitchell High School seniors Brady Maxwell, Tate Martin and Jade Miller have been named to the first team of the all-Eastern South Dakota Conference list.

Mitchell, which won the ESD with an 11-3 record, finished second at the Class AA state tournament over the weekend. The Kernels lost to Sioux Falls O’Gorman in the title game.

All three seniors who made the first team are planning to play basketball collegiately next year.

Martin is verbally committed to University of Mary; Maxwell, along with his twin brother Brian, is verbally committed to Northern State University and Miller has signed to play for Dakota Wesleyan.

Another senior, Tucker Volesky, was honorable mention on the ESD list. Volesky is hoping to walk on to the Harvard basketball team.

“When you get three players and one honorable mention, you must have had a pretty good team,” said Mitchell coach Gary Munsen, who recently retired after 39 years at the helm of the Kernel boys’ program. “As far as I’m concerned, all five of my guys should have been all-conference.”

Munsen said when he voted for the ESD list, he listed all five of his starters, including guard Matt Henriksen, who did not make the list.

“This season was pretty memorable,” Munsen said. “I had a lot of good senior classes, and they’re all pretty important.”

The Kernels also won the ESD Conference last year, finishing with a 13-1 record.

Other members of the ESD first-team were Zack Hanson and Lane Severyn, Pierre; Tanner Heiser, Watertown; Ben Schultz, Brandon Valley; Luke Carr, Huron; and Landon Busch and Tanner Odegaard, Brookings.

The honorable mention list included Reid Fust and Josh White, Aberdeen; Conner Doherty, Brookings; Spencer Stahley and Adam Zwanziger, Huron; Blake Heiser, Watertown; and Jackson Seitzinger, Yankton.

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