BROOKINGS – Noelle Needham and Donovan Peterson, along with First Bank & Trust and the Harry and Connie Mansheim family, were honored at the inaugural Hot Hockey Nights – a collaborative effort between the Brookings Ice Skating Association and the Blizzard hockey organization.
Needham and Peterson were the first two inductees into the Brookings Hockey Hall of Fame while First Bank & Trust was awarded the Larson Cup and the Mansheim family was awarded the Ranger Cup.
Noelle Needham
Needham is a woman who has achieved great success in her hockey career, having been a Brookings Ranger in her early years before enrolling at Shattuck St. Mary’s prep school at age 12, where she played through high school. She became the first South Dakota female hockey player to play Division I, playing for the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks.
She returned to Brookings where she coached the girls’ team to its first state championship in 2009, and repeated that in 2010 and 2011.
She became the first head coach in South Dakota to win state championships at both the boys’ and girls’ varsity levels after coaching the Brookings Rangers boys varsity team to a state championship in 2013 as an interim head coach.
While coaching in Brookings, Needham co-founded Legend Hockey, now based in Sioux Falls, which provides hockey development training to over 700 athletes annually.
She is also the co-founder of the Sioux Falls POWER Tier 1 hockey program, a program formed to provide players the opportunity to play competitively and receive exposure on a national level. She is currently in her third season as the head coach of the Sioux Falls POWER 16U team and has led her team to two Tier 1 National Tournament appearances, being the first female coach at the Tier 1 level to do so.
Most recently, Needham was hired as an amateur scout by the Toronto Maple Leafs, a hiring that has received international attention for facilitating a move toward women holding more prominent roles in the NHL.
Donovan Peterson
Peterson has also achieved success as a player and dedicated a tremendous amount of time and talent to the Rangers program in his post-playing days.
A Brookings native and a Brookings Ranger during the 1980’s, Peterson went on to play for the Colorado All-Stars in Littleton, Colo., where he helped them win two national championships between 1987-89. He then continued his playing career at Minnesota State-Mankato from 1989-92.
Peterson, a two-time SDAHA girls’ varsity Coach of the Year, was the Ranger girls’ varsity coach from 2012-2017 and was instrumental in getting Brookings’ 12U Girls’ program off the ground.
Peterson’s experience goes beyond Brookings as he has spearheaded the girls’ development program in South Dakota, which led to the state development camp, and ultimately, the formation of the Team SD girls’ program. He is currently the head coach of the girls’ 19U Team SD and assistant coach of the Ranger PeeWee A team.
The Larson Cup
The corporate sponsor award had been named the Larson Cup in honor of Larson Manufacturing, which has been the single greatest corporate contributor to youth hockey in Brookings. Without the involvement of Dale Larson, his company and family, and his relationship with the city to provide the first indoor facility located on 22nd Ave. in 1982, and then again, with their gift to BISA making possible the current facility in 2002, Brookings would have struggled to grow the sport as fast as it has, let alone having one of the premier ice facilities in the region.
First Bank & Trust, which has been right alongside BISA in the beginning, as well, from the first fund drive in 1985; to being a founding sponsor for the current ice center; and additionally, a Platinum level donor in the 2010 fund drive to finish the bleacher and locker room project on the north side of the main rink; as well as a continuing sponsor and supporter, has been awarded the inaugural Larson Cup.
The Ranger Cup
The Ranger Cup is intended to recognize some of the most generous of those families that have contributed to the growth of hockey in Brookings over the years.
The BISA committee has selected Harry and Connie Manheim and their Family to receive the first-ever Ranger Cup.
Harry and Connie have been part of Brookings Ice Skating since the early 1970’s. Harry was elected as BISA’s first fundraising coordinator in 1985, tasked with “selling” to the community the benefits of hockey to our community, and the potential economic impact it would bring, in order to finance a permanent Ice surface in the original Larson Ice Center on 22nd Ave. He put together a committee, went to work in the summer of 1985, and by December, they were pouring concrete.
The Mansheim’s have been generous contributors ever since.
All of their boys – Brent, Van, Chad and Kirk – all played hockey and Kirk was the goalie on Brookings’ first state championship team in 1998.
Harry and Connie have always been the first to help when work needed to be done and they epitomize what it means to be a selfless builder of our youth.
