Four to be inducted to Mitchell athletic hall of fame at May banquet

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Three former Mitchell High School athletes and one coach will be inducted to the school’s athletic hall of fame at a May 2 banquet at Mitchell High School.

Chad Andersen, Jerry Opbroek, Randi Morgan Haines and Bob Murphy will be inducted at the Mitchell High School Athletic Banquet, which starts at 6:30 p.m. and includes a dinner, award and scholarship presentations and the induction of the athletic hall of fame class.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at the Mitchell High School office from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on school days. Tickets must be purchased by April 27.

Here’s a biography on each of the players who will be inducted into the hall of fame:

n Chad Andersen is a 1985 graduate of Mitchell High School. He competed in football, basketball and track and field. In his senior season, he helped lead the Kernels to an Eastern South Dakota Conference title in football. He quarterbacked the team to a 9-1 record as a senior and went on to play for the University of South Dakota on a full athletic scholarship. He was the starting quarterback for the Coyotes for three years and led the team to an NCAA Division II national championship game appearance.

In Andersen’s sophomore and junior seasons, Mitchell won conference titles in basketball. He was a three-year letter winner and helped the Kernels to a state championship in 1985, a year the team went 13-0 and he was named to the all-tournament team at state. He was a first-team all-state selection in his senior year.

Andersen now lives in San Antonio with his wife, Bobbie, and two children. They have a daughter, Hailey, and son, Kyle.

n Jerry Opbroek is a graduate of Fairfax High School, but started coaching and teaching in Mitchell in 1972. He retired in 2000, but directed the South Dakota Mobile Science Lab from 2003 to 2011.

Opbroek coached wrestling from 1964 to 1982 with stops at Sacred Heart (Minn.), Burke and Mitchell. He was recognized as South Dakota’s wrestling coach of the year in 1979, U.S. Kids Wrestling Man of the Year in 1984 and was inducted into the South Dakota High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003 and the National AAU Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2004.

Every January, the Mitchell wrestling program hosts the Jerry Opbroek Invitational, which matches some of the best high school wrestlers in the state against each other.

n Randi (Morgan) Haines is joining her older brother, Scott, as the first siblings recognized in the Mitchell athletic hall of fame. She was a four-time all-Eastern South Dakota Conference selection from 1997 to 2000. She was a two-time all-state first-team selection and a three-time all-tournament team selection at state. At the time of her graduation, she was the school’s leader in rebounds and blocked shots.

Haines was a member of the 1995-2005 South Dakota Class AA all-decade team and a Miss Basketball finalist.

After high school, she went on to play basketball at Dakota Wesleyan University, where she was a multi all-Great Plains Athletic Conference performer. She was an NAIA first-team selection and was named the 2002 NAIA Player of the Year. She was inducted into the DWU hall of fame in 2010.

n Bob Murphy was a 1948 Mitchell High School graduate. He competed in football, basketball, track and field and baseball. In his senior year, he led the football team to a 7-1 record and helped the Kernels to a state basketball championship under the direction of coach Joe Quintal. Murphy was recognized as the South Dakota outstanding player in football and basketball and was named all-state and team captain in both sports.

Murphy attended South Dakota State University after high school. He married his wife, Jo, and the two later moved to Watertown to raise seven children.

Tags: sports, updates