SOUTH DAKOTA SPORTS AWARDS

#SDSportsAwards, girls athlete: Aberdeen Central's Brianna Kusler goes out on top

Ian Frazer
Ifrazer@argusleader.com

At the end of the summer before Brianna Kusler’s senior year, Aberdeen Central girls basketball head coach Dawn Seiler had to talk to the Golden Eagles’ volleyball and basketball star.

It wasn’t because Kusler needed more motivation or convincing. Seiler’s reasoning would be the opposite, in fact: Kusler would work out twice a day, the second time over at Northern State, where she has signed to play basketball. At a certain point, it was a bit much.

“(I said), ‘Brianna, you need to take some time off,’” Seiler said. “‘You need to take at least a week, let your body rest ... and then you’re going to set yourself up for a great year.’ And I think that’s something that’s really hard for her, to understand that she does have to rest sometimes, because everybody does.”

Kusler indeed had a great year, one of the best ones possible for a South Dakota high school athlete. She was named Class AA Miss Volleyball and led the Golden Eagles to a state championship, and then she was named Class AA Miss Basketball and won another state championship in that sport. Because of that all-around dominance, she’s the South Dakota High School Sports Awards Sanford Health Girls Athlete of the Year.

MORE: See other winners of the S.D. Sports Awards

Seiler coached Kusler on varsity all four years of her high school basketball career. Kusler started by coming off the bench as a freshman and had to slot in as a post player, even though she’s clearly undersized, at 5-foot-9. The next year, she became more of a wing, and as a senior, she was Aberdeen’s point guard, helping the Golden Eagles get the most out of their offensive weapons like Paiton Burckhard and Karli Gardner.

“She doesn’t care what position she plays,” Seiler said. “She just wants to get out and compete.”

Kusler can be fiery and competitive, like Seiler said she often is in practice, but she can also buckle down and be a calm, controlled leader, like she was in the state title game, leading Aberdeen past Washington.

“I think she understands that if she gets rattled, everybody else around her is going to get rattled,” Seiler said. “And that’s part of those leadership skills. Even if she is upset, she’s not going to let others see that.”