If you haven’t yet seen the Facebook post that Dustin Headrick made on February 2nd, talking about an email that came into Flandreau Indian School (FIS) following a recent boys basketball game, perhaps you heard about it.
At the time we went to press on Monday, it had been shared 57 times.
Typically, you might expect a spectator’s comments into a school to be about something negative, either something witnessed or an opinion on something that happened. Criticism often seems easier than praise.
In this instance however, the fan detailed everything they felt the boys did right.
“I attended the boys basketball game tonight at Sioux Falls Lutheran because I am friends with the SF coach,” the person wrote. “Not only was I blown away with your boy’s athleticism, hustle and drive, I was completely amazed by their character and sportsmanship. Despite an overwhelming lead I never saw any arrogance or cockiness. What I did see was humanity and kindness to every player on that court. Each time a SFL player fell, one of your guys was there to help him up. At one point a Sioux Falls player made a mistake and was visibly upset, instead of rubbing it in one of your guys gave him a quick pat on the back. I saw laughing and fist bumping between the two teams at the free throw line, it was incredibly heartwarming.”
The letter went on to further detail how the author had never seen such sportsmanship in all their years of watching games, and they had been to many, they stated. They then congratulated the team and the coach, Jesse Bien, on a job well done.

The spectators final thoughts:
“Please let your players know how remarkable they are. As someone who has found a lot of success in life I’ve learned firsthand that talent and ability can only go so far, but the kind of character and integrity I witnessed tonight is special, if they hold onto that I have no doubt they have bright futures ahead. Thanks for blessing me tonight.”
Bien, over the weekend, expressed his gratitude for the note and for the boy’s behavior. But he wasn’t surprised the boys handled the situation the way they did.  
“We got off to a really hot start, we were shooting well from the field and came out with a 44-14 halftime lead. When we went into the locker room, we talked and I said to them, we’ve been on the other end of this stick many times and we know how it feels when teams really try to rub it in and run up the score so I told them, here’s the deal, we’re going to be respectful, play hard but we’re going to do it the right way. This is that time. I let the entire rotation play. We had eight guys dressed that night.”
The game was a rematch from earlier this season and FIS won that game as well. But Sioux Falls Lutheran beat FIS twice this past year, so Bien and the boys were hoping to tie up the overall record.
“They hustle and do the best they can and our guys love it because there’s no animosity between the two teams, they just play hard and compete and I hear them on the court all the time telling each other ‘it’s alright’ and trying to pick each other up,” said Bien. “We use the idea of ‘handle hard better’, because we just have to handle it better than the last time we went out. We’ve had a couple bad, bad losses but then we come back and we’re right in the game the next night, and it’s just because we’re handling hard better.”
SF Lutheran’s head coach even went into the locker room after the game that night and spoke to the boys. Bien said that he commended them, told them he loved how hard and respectfully they played, and that was one of the greatest things for them to see.
“Last year, we struggled. We never had a solid lineup and we only won four games. It was largely due to trying to navigate returning with all of the COVID restrictions in place yet. This year, we’re seeing more consistency and hoping to have a great rest of the season.”
FIS’s campus is open again to the public. The school is also live streaming its games where they can at Flandreau Indian School Flandreau on YouTube and there are two home double headers this week. Thursday the schedule shows the teams play Walthill out of Nebraska and Friday they square up against Crow Creek for anyone wanting to cheer on both FIS’s boys and girls teams.