Officially, there’s a new high school football career wins record holder in the state of South Dakota. That’s not good enough for some.
As reported by our Gannett partners at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, among other outlets, Sioux Falls Roosevelt High School football coach Kim Nelson set a new state record with career victory number 290 with a 23-21 victory against Harrisburg (S.D.) High School. The issue is that 30 of those career victories were accumulated while Nelson was the coach for Edina (Minn.) High School.
MORE: Sioux Falls Roosevelt’s Kim Nelson clears coaching milestone vs. Harrisburg Tigers
The South Dakota Football High School Coaches Association decided to include Nelson’s Minnesota victories in his career total, which is what pushes his mark to 290 wins. Some South Dakota loyalists feel that’s unfair, given that the record is for career South Dakota high school victories.
Nelson officially broke the record that was previously held by one of Nelson’s Dakota State University teammates, Steve Keuter, who captured 289 victories at O’Gorman High School.
Keuter and Nelson are friends, and Keuter was interviewed by South Dakota NBC affiliate KDLT, expressing no hard feelings over how the record was broken.
That didn’t keep Nelson from saying he hopes to break the record with South Dakota victories alone. It’s just that for now, he’s far more focused on leading Roosevelt to the school’s first state title since 2011. Besides, he has absolutely no interest in retiring anytime soon.
“It just makes you reflect on a lot of good times and a lot of good memories,” Nelson told the Argus-Leader. “(You coach) for times like this, ball games like this. Just to share any accomplishment with your players and your coaches — we do a lot of things together. It’s not all pleasant, it’s not all fun, but when you play hard and win a close game, it’s all worth the trip.
“If I live to be 100, I hope I’m still coaching.”
