BROOKINGS — When the Brookings Rangers won the state championship two weeks ago, they accomplished their primary goal for the 2023-24 season. But while a fourth straight state title was a rare achievement, they have an even bigger goal as they participate in the 2024 USA Hockey-Chipotle High School Division 1 National Championship Tournament in West Chester, Penn. beginning on Wednesday.
“The state championship is the No. 1 goal for us but a lot of these kids that returned from last year put [winning a national championship] on our big board in the locker room at the beginning of the season,” Rangers head coach Garrett Gerstner said. “There were a few championships that we wanted to get this year and we got the state championship. Now they want the national championship.”
The five-day tournament will pit the Rangers against some of the top teams in the country and give Brookings a second chance after finishing as a runner-up last year.
The Rangers come into the tournament with an overall record of 33-1-1 this season but battled plenty of adversity to win the state title. Several injuries and illnesses tested Brookings’s depth throughout the tournament and a pair of overtime wins against Oahe in the semifinals and Rushmore in the championship required some time to recover.
After taking a few days off after the State Tournament, the Rangers have slowly gotten back to normal and are prepared to go into the National Tournament at full strength.
“These kids just love playing hockey, so after two or three days off, they were kind of ready to go,” Gerstner said. “It took a little bit to get back into the swing of things, but we had a really good practice on [Monday] morning and they look like they should be ready to go.”
When the Rangers arrive in West Chester, they’ll have some familiar opponents as well as some new faces. Brookings’s opening round matchup with the Oakdale Bears (Md.) at 1 p.m. CT Wednesday will be a unique opponent since the last time the Rangers played at the tournament but Thursday’s matchup with North Broward (Fla.) at 11:15 a.m. CT and Friday’s matchup with Jesuit (Texas) at 7 a.m. C.T. will be rematches from last year’s tournament.
The tournament will also shift gears in the final two days with quarterfinals and semifinals played on Saturday and the championship game taking place at 7:45 a.m. CT on Sunday.
“We’ve got some history with a couple of the teams…so there’s some familiarity,” Gerstner said of the field. “You don’t know who they graduated or whatnot but we know that they played tough with a little different style. It's really about us getting to our game early and trying to dictate our pace. It’s kind of the same stuff that we preach to them all year.”
With just 44 goals allowed this season, the Rangers will rely on their defense to lead the way. But the Rangers offense has been just as potent, collecting 222 goals in 35 games this season.
The formula helped the Rangers become one of the most dominant teams in the history of South Dakota hockey but it could also help them achieve their final goal this weekend.
“We’ve told the kids to not forget what we’ve accomplished to this point, but our job’s not finished,” Gerstner said. “A lot of these kids feel like they have a real shot to win this thing this year so they’re just going to take advantage of the opportunity.”
