Tjarks earns hall of fame status

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Flandreau’s Dale Tjarks has been named to the South Dakota Amateur Basketball Association Hall of Fame for the game he started playing in sixth grade.

When Tjarks moved from country school to Flandreau public school after fifth grade, he hadn’t played basketball enough to keep up with students his own age so as a sixth grader, he played with younger kids on the fifth-grade team.

“As a seventh and eighth grader, I sat at the end of the bench,” he said.

But between his eighth and ninth grade years, two things happened: He grew a foot, and basketball legend Roger Nelson moved to town to teach school. Tjarks started hanging out at the gym playing ball with the Nelson children, their father and others.

“I honestly believe had he not come along, I might have been an average player,” Tjarks said.

Between Nelson’s help and that of other coaches, he developed into an all-state high school player, a college starter and a professional player in Europe.

“We were at the gym every week of the year, three to five nights a week,” he said. “The time you put in out of season determines your success.”

By his freshman year, he started on the freshman team. His junior and senior years, he started on varsity.

By the time he graduated high school, he was 6-foot-5 and was recruited by Huron College. He eventually grew two more inches.

Tjarks, 63, is one of three new amateur inductees. The association also recently named Dennis Smith of Denver, Colo., and Kevin Burckhard of Aberdeen to its class of 2018.

Tjarks, who is married to wife Carol, was a first team all-state basketball player at Flandreau High School before playing collegiately at Huron College, graduating in 1977 after scoring 1,000 points and earning SDIC all-conference honors. After college, he played professionally in Europe for the Exeter, England team for three years. Following his professional career, he played amateur basketball from 1980 through 2006, for teams from Flandreau, Colman, Dell Rapids, Salem-Montrose, White and Hayti.

He also coached two years in Flandreau and five in Pipestone, Minn.

Tjarks, retired after 36 years of farming, still referees some high school boys’ and girls’ basketball games. “This is my 25th year.”

He also volunteers to ref some games for younger school-aged players and watches both high school and college games. He maintains friendships with some of the people he met while playing in England after college.

For more than five years, he played 90 games of amateur basketball a year. He played in more than 12 state tournaments and was the coach/manager of a 2002 Flandreau team that won the state championship.

That all adds up to Tjarks unending passion for basketball.

“It’s been my whole life. All my friends are based around basketball. It’s gotten me to see the world.”