Happy Hour with John Gaskins

Replacing a coaching legend is never easy, both for the program making the hire and for the new coach.
 
O'Gorman High School is replacing its boys basketball coaching legend with one of the playing legends from a college just over a mile up the road in Sioux Falls.
 
Dan Jansen — who spent this past season as Derek Robey's junior varsity coach — is 
Augustana's all-time leading scorer and was the 2016 NCAA Div. II national player of the year, leading the Vikings to their only national championship that season.
 
The Orange City, Iowa, native replaces Robey, who retired after 21 seasons at the O'G helm, a run that included six state championships (2006, '07, '10, '11, '12, '17), three state runner-up finishes, and a 327-158 record.
 
So why did OGHS leadership decide the Knights already had their man on the bench after just one year at the school?
 
Happy Hour went to the Knights gym to get the answer from long-time activities director Steve Kueter — himself a nine-time state football champion head coach.
 
We also chatted with Jansen, an Advanced Placement history teacher at the school, about his journey since he hoisted the national title trophy with the Vikings in Frisco, Texas, a decade ago.
 
Jansen's journey took him from professional hoops in Belgium and Macedonia back to Sioux Falls. There, he began his coaching career as an assistant at Sioux Falls Roosevelt for three years before becoming a head coach at a Christian academy in South Carolina and then an assistant for a year at a private Catholic school in Iowa City. 
 
Jansen discussed how his experiences growing up in Orange City, his years at Augie under Tom Billeter, and his other prep stops prepared him for one of South Dakota's most prestigious basketball jobs.
 
Before all that, the Happy Hour host weighs in on the hire and looks back on a monumental day for volleyball in South Dakota — O'Gorman alumnus Bergen Reilly's homecoming with the Huskers in Sioux Falls.

The Happy Hour host reacts to O'Gorman hiring Augustana legend Dan Jackson to replace legendary boys basketball coach Derek Robey. A rival school is a common thread in Jansen's journey since leading the Vikings to the 2016 national championship.
Also, how big of a deal was not just Nebraska volleyball's maiden voyage to Sioux Falls on Saturday, but the Bergen Reilly Bash the spring exhibition game with Iowa State turned out to be?

After one season as Knights JV coach, Jansen takes over Derek Robey, who retired after 21 years and six state championships at the helm. Hear about how Jansen's journey took him back to Sioux Falls nine years after he led Augie to the 2016 national title, what he'll take from Robey and former Vikings coach Tom Billeter, and how he'll navigate the year-round grind of a prep head coach.

Steve Kueter (O'Gorman A.D.) on hiring of new boys basketball coach Dan Jansen, the Knights' JV coach last season and Augustana's all-time leading scorer. He replaces Derek Robey, who won six state championships in his 21 years at the school and announced his retirement in January.

There aren't too many athletes who have come out of Sioux Falls with more national and international acclaim and achievement than O'Gorman alumnus Bergen Reilly.
And she's not yet 21 years old. (Her birthday is next month).
A two-time All-American on two NCAA Final Four teams at four-time national champion Nebraska, Reilly is the first player in Big Ten volleyball history to be the league's Setter of the Year in each of her first two seasons. She's also a four-time member of USA teams, including the 2022 national team as 17-year-old.
So what is life like at the top level of her sport in a place where volleyball players are "celebrities" and to come back home a newfound celebrity, spawning thousands of new Nebraska volleyball fans in South Dakota?
What kind of NIL deals does she have, and what opportunities — fun and (literally) taxing — has that afforded her?
What is it like to play in front of 92,000 fans — blasting the record for the largest crowd to witness a women's sport in United States history — in one of college football's most hallowed stadiums? And how does she feel when people tell her she plays at a "volleyball school?"
And how, in any way, are these sorts of experiences similar to her existence at O'Gorman, where Reilly was a three-time Gatorade South Dakota Player of the Year and two-time state champion, plus a state basketball champ her senior season?
Reilly remained delightful in answering all those questions in a 42-minute chat with Happy Hour host John Gaskins, but seemed to relish most the chance to talk about her relationship with older sister Raegan, whose Div. I volleyball career just ended with Big Ten rival Illinois in a season that included two showdowns with long-time teammate sisters staring each other across the net.