Excelling off the court 

Basketball star Markus Talley’s actual #1 priority

By Megan Luther

With 20 mph winds, light snow, and freezing temps, there’s enough reasons to stay home and sleep in on this December morning.

But it’s the first day of practice for the Mitchell Kernel Boys’ Basketball team and the players are expected to be ready to run in the Corn Palace at 6:00 a.m.

Senior Markus Talley rubs his eyes as he makes his way out of the locker room. He was up around 5:20 a.m. and arrived 20 minutes early.

He walks to the court to shoot warm-ups with the rest of his groggy teammates. Chipper Assistant Coach Pat Larson cuts through the fog. “Second best day of the athletic calendar right here.” The first being football, which Larson coaches.

Ryker Kreutzfeldt starts his fourth season as head coach with sprints, whistling players to repeatedly run the length of the court and back. On the initial set, Markus finishes first while many of his teammates are bent over to catch their breaths.

Conditioning for a sport, especially after eight months off, is always hard. “First day kind of just questions your will and your toughness and whether you really want to do this,” Coach Kreutzfeldt says. Almost every year, a player drops out after the first practice.

In each corner of the court, there’s four purposely placed gray garbage cans for players to puke, an expectation during the first practice. But Markus doesn’t need it. While this may be the team’s first official practice, Markus has been working hard on his own for months, working out, even shooting hoops with DWU basketball players.

“If you’ve watched him, you’d be like, “Well, how can you get a lot better?” But he has. He’s doing some things in open gyms right now that you know I’ve just never seen a high schooler do,” Coach Kreutzfeldt says. “He’s taking and making some shots that he would have never looked at the last two years.”

In the first three games against Watertown and both Rapid City teams, Markus averaged more than 25 points per game. This past weekend at the Hoop City Basketball Classic in Mitchell, the Kernels faced one of the best teams in several years: Orono (Minn.) Markus posted 30 points, a personal record, in a hard-fought win of 61-60.

“It was a really difficult matchup for us with a couple of Division 1 players playing for them. A statement win for us in a great environment,” Coach Kreutzfeldt says.

Tonight at 7:30 p.m., the Kernels play the extremely athletic Orlando (Fla.) Christian Prep.

“I think we have to go into it like a regular game and have confidence,” Markus says.

Confidence is something Markus doesn’t lack, but you won’t hear about it from him. While he has every right to brag, he’s not egotistical or boisterous. And don’t call Markus shy. He’s reserved. There’s a difference. What he doesn’t say out loud, he puts on paper. His junior year, Markus averaged 17.3 points and assists 4.1 per game while maintaining a 3.93 GPA.

Student Athlete

On Saturday, March 16, this year the Kernels were crowned State AA Champions after beating Brandon Valley, 46-45, thanks to a last second Gavin Hinker layup assisted by Markus. Just days later, donning a black collared Under Armour shirt, Markus walks across the stage of the Performing Arts Center to receive his pin and certificate, officially a member of the National Honor Society. The induction ceremony recognizes students who excel in scholarship, leadership, service, and character.

Markus’s life may look like it’s consumed by basketball. In his free time he plays video games, (his favorite, of course, NBA 2k) and referees kids’ basketball games. But his number one priority? School.

Mitchell High School teacher and retired football coach, Kent VanOverschelde sees similarities in Markus on the court and in the classroom.

“He’s really very, very focused and detail-orientated,” Kent says. Markus voluntarily sits in the front of the class and Kent, who’s had him for three classes, doesn’t have to remind Markus to turn in his work.

“Absolutely not. As a teacher, you kind of take that for granted, those students like Markus and others that are very intentional in managing their time and getting things done at a high level.

Markus’s parents instilled the importance of academics from the beginning. “You have to think about when the ball stops bouncing, what are you going to do?” his mom Katrina says.

Even as a toddler, Markus studied for fun. “If we weren’t playing basketball on his Little Tykes hoop, then he would come in and say, “Let’s do homeworks!” his Aunt Johna Kern remembers. He’d sit on her lap and she’d read aloud from some of her college nursing textbooks. Markus would actually listen.

He also memorized children’s books and knew when an adult was skipping pages or mispronouncing a word. “He called me out because I didn’t know how to read Dr. Seuss gibberish,” Johna says.

It was the end of Dr. Seuss’s ABCs “What begins with Z? I do. I am a Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz.”

Johna tripped on one of the 10 Zs and Markus tattled to his mom. “Aunt Johna doesn’t even know how to read!”

Now 17, Markus won’t call out his teammates. Instead, he leads by example. “It’s not something that’s natural, the vocal leadership. He’s a leader, but he does it through his actions and how he practices, how he plays, how he treats officials, opposing teams, and his teammates,” says Coach Kreutzfeldt.

Born to Play

Athleticism runs in the Talley family. His parents, Katrina and Kevin were both star DWU athletes. Katrina, a stand-out volleyball player, later served as the team’s assistant coach for five years. Kevin was heavily recruited and one of the reasons the Tiger’s basketball program turned around in 2007. Their other children, Nia, 12 and Cam, 8 shine on their respected courts.

Markus’s parents knew their son had natural abilities at an early age. Kevin started testing four-year-old Markus’s ball-handling skills, having him dribble with one hand while catching a tennis ball and throwing it back with the other hand.

“Just little things like that, you know introducing certain things that he shouldn’t be able to do at that age, and he would just pick it up,” Kevin remembers.

While father and son will occasionally play a game of HORSE, they never one v. one.

“Well, one, I’m getting old, and yeah, I probably can’t keep up, to be honest with you,” Kevin says.

And two, “my whole goal wasn’t to ever try to show him up or anything like that. It was just to build his confidence and show him how to use that in a game.”

It wasn’t until years later that they discovered Markus is actually a left-handed shooter, an advantage on the court.

Kevin went on to coach Markus’s basketball teams from second grade until middle school, and regularly traveled to play more competitive teams.

The sacrifices paid off. In July, Markus announced his commitment to play at Augustana University, earning a full scholarship. Vikings Head Coach Cody Schilling has had his eye on Markus for years.

“You know Markus, he’s a tremendous student first. Augustana, being a high academic institution, not only do we recruit really good basketball players, but they have to be really good students as well. So Markus, he’s just one of those guys that he checks all of our boxes,” he says.

Markus isn’t sure what he will major in. He really likes math and is already taking college courses. “I’m kind of interested in computers and how those work, so I think I might try to do something like that.”

But first, Markus and the Kernels have a State Championship title to defend. They are off to a great start, winning their first four games with Markus averaging 28.5 points per game, 11 points higher than his junior-year average.

The stats are great, something that neither Markus nor his parents mentioned once during multiple conversations.

“What am I most proud of? I’m just proud of him in general, the person that he’s always been. He’s always, you know, cared about others. He’s always been a leader,” Kevin says.

“I just looked at Kevin the other day and I was like, ‘Wow.’ And it’s just really amazing how he’s such a good kid. He’s such a great kid,” Katrina smiles.

Megan Luther, a lifelong storyteller, has called Mitchell home for more than 30 years.