Wakonda may not be the easiest town to be found in South Dakota, but in the late 1980's and early 1990's, this small town with a population of 370 people was the center of the girls basketball universe.
In an age before open enrollment and despite the small numbers, the Warriorettes reeled off a state-record 101 consecutive victories, won three-straight Class B titles and were arguably the best team of any class.
"There was a year when all three classes played and we beat Pine Ridge, who won the ŒA' title, and we beat (Sioux Falls) Lincoln, who almost won the ŒAA's," said Ron Flynn, who coached Wakonda through those glorious years."I felt like we had the best team of all the classes."
"I thought a lot of the time, we played against bigger schools, and that made the streak more exciting," added Flynn.
Many star players dotted the Warriorette machine, but the most notable was Becky Flynn, who played on the varsity as a seventh grader and was named South Dakota's Miss Basketball in 1991 after her senior season.
Coach Flynn knew he had a player waiting in the wings when as a fifth-grader, Flynn scored 39 points in her debut against Lennox.
"I took her out, but she asked to go back in; she just worked so hard at it that I had to let her," said the elder Flynn. "I told her she couldn't shoot, steal the ball, or block any shots, though."
Flynn remembers a rare moment when Becky wanted to leave the gym.
"It was in second grade and she asked to quit because her neck was tired; I looked up at the basket and realized her neck was tired from looking up at the basket all of the time."
Flynn's early life as a gymrat did not come as a spoonfeeding from a father and coach, but from Flynn's own will to become successful.
"He allowed me to experience the game and he made it fun for me; he never tried to force it on me," said Flynn of her father. "He was a dad at home and a coach on the court, and I respect everything he did."
Flynn's work forced the coach's hand, and the coach had no choice but to play his daughter as a 7th grader and answer questions about that decision.
As Flynn's prep career progressed, her attitude never digressed.
"She was so easy to coach becuase she always tried so hard," said Ron Flynn. "She was never a primadonna, especially with the younger girls on the team."
By the time her high school career was over, Flynn was South Dakota's all-time leading scorer with 3,268 points and headed to Creighton University after spurning a scholarship offer from Wyoming head coach Chad Lavin.
"I really liked him and thought I'd play there, but then I went to Laramie on a visit," said Flynn of Lavin's failed recruiting efforts. "I told him later that he shouldn't bring his recruits there because it was just dusty."
Flynn, who was Creighton's MVP from 1992-1996 and an all-Missouri Valley Conference player, played against Lavin's Cowgirls twice during her collegiate career and won a game for the Bluejays in Laramie.
"That was one of the funnest games I remember," said Lavin of the 100-97 defeat. "She threw in a lucky 45-footer at the buzzer to win it; she scored 38 points in that game."
Flynn's college career nearly came to end with the injury most common among women atheletes - a torn anterior cruciate ligament that occurred during her final game as a junior.
Flynn rehabbed her way back into the Bluejay lineup for her senior season, but her other knee suffered the same fate just six games in. Flynn, who never missed a practice or a game, saw her playing career come to an end when she was denied a medical redshirt for playing just 12 minutes beyond the rule's stipulation.
Flynn, who was an academic all-American, graduated from Creighton in 1996 with a B.A. in psychology and journalism and then went on to earn her masters in clinical psychology from the University of Dayton.
With the University of South Dakota women's program mired in a bog of defeat, the Coyotes brought Lavin back from Wyoming in 1998 in an effort to revive the success that the university enjoyed in the mid 1980's under Lavin's direction. The coach who did not succeed in bringing Flynn to the west decided to recruit her again.
"It was a fluke; I didn't plan on getting into college coaching, but he called me out of the blue and said he just took the USD job and that he could hire an assistant," said Flynn. "I thought it was a joke."
After being a winner all of her life, one would wonder why she would throw herself into and environment in which losing was expected. Flynn thought she would come home and try coaching for one or two years, but the return to glory has kept her around.
"I remember our first win at USD; we beat Dakota State and everybody just cried," said Flynn. "I had never cried over a victory before."
Since then, the Coyotes have injected life into the DakotaDome that hadn't existed before the men took the court at 8 p.m. and won an North Central Conference title in 2002-03 with a 27-5 record.
"Becky, without a doubt, is the most competitive athlete, male or female, that I have been around," said Lavin. "Having her as my assistant was a huge plus in trying to turn this program around; she's really good at conveying to these girls what it takes to win."
"She hates to lose and always had," said Ron Flynn. "I had confidence that things would change drastically when they took over; that was a program without any direction."
Flynn has been instrumental in USD's recruiting efforts as the Coyotes are able to reload with talented players every season.
One of those talented players is Jenni Flynn, a 5-9 sophomore from South Sioux City who has also earned top prep accolades and is accustomed to winning. Flynn was a Gatorade Player of the Year in Nebraska and won four state titles playing for Kelly Flynn, Becky Flynn's uncle.
"It's been awesome to coach her because our families have always been close; it's not only been nice to watch her play in the games, but to see her everyday in practice," said Flynn.
Since Lavin's call seven years ago, Flynn has settled into the area and back into winning. She has been married to Kyle Jensen of Meckling for three years and now are proud parents of their seven-month old son, Jacob.
The Warriorettes' record streak inevitably fell to the recent dominance of Sioux Falls Roosevelt, but the accomplishment of the Wakonda girls can never be trivialized.
"I always look back at the years and the streak with pride," said Becky Flynn. "I'm proud to say I'm from Wakonda because people associate us with the streak."
