Grandparents Travel the State to Support Three Grandsons at Class AA, A, B State Tournaments
Parents and grandparents who follow their children and grandchildren in basketball know how busy the season can get, especially when you’re following grandsons from Class B Wessington Springs, Class A Hartford and Class AA Sioux Falls at the varsity level. With color-coded calendars and a weekly meeting to decide on which games to attend, Mike and Terri Mebius of Wessington Springs have the grandkid basketball shuffle down to a science.
At least they did during the regular season.
In an exciting turn of events, last week all three of their grandsons’ teams made it to the state tournament — scheduled to be held in Aberdeen (Class B), Sioux Falls (Class A) and Rapid City (Class AA). In Class AA their grandson Logan is a junior at O’ Gorman, Sioux Falls, in Class A, Connor Mebius is a sophomore at West Central in Hartford and in Class B, Karter Mebius is a senior at Wessington Springs High School.
Which led the Mebius’ to the question they’ve been asking all season long, “What are we going to do if all three make it to state?”
“So Thursday we will go to Aberdeen, then guess what, as soon as Karter’s game is over we are headed to Rapid City,” Mike laughed, with Terri adding that she’s glad they can stay at her brother Steve’s while in Rapid. “The next morning, depending on what happens Thursday, we will head to Sioux Falls then back to Aberdeen. All season I think of the miles we’ve covered. We have put over 6,700 miles on the Equinox, and it looks like we’ll be putting on a lot more this week.”
Training all season for this week
Not for the faint of heart, the Mebius’ admit that the schedule they kept during the 2024-25 basketball season is a bit “crazy.”
“I go on my phone and look for the schedule and print out blank calendars. Kevin’s family is written in blue ink, Darrin’s family in red ink and Troy’s family in black ink,” Terri said. “Then we sit down once a week and figure out which games we go to.”
With 79 games under their belts this season alone, they attend much more than just the varsity contests, as their nine grandkids vary in ages from elementary through high school.
“When we go to O’ Gorman, Logan plays JV also and his games start at 3 p.m. Max plays freshman and sophomore, so we watch Logan’s at 3 and Max’s games right after that. We watch varsity girls then after that we watch boys’ varsity,” he explained.
And in Wessington Springs, Terri shared that if there’s a C game, they watch five games total per night.
When asked about the “why” behind the often five-night-a-week traveling schedule, for Terri, it comes from the heart.
“I want all my grandkids to know I truly love and support them no matter what,” she said.
Mike enjoys the game of basketball and looks at attending his grandchildren’s games as a form of bonding.
“I’ve always loved basketball and I love to watch my grandkids play. And honestly, it’s not going to change much next year, Karter will graduate but the others will still play,” he said.
The couple points to other benefits in addition to supporting their grandkids.
“Through all of this, we’ve developed friendships with parents and grandparents at the other schools,” Mike said, as Terri laughed and shared that sometimes when they walk into a gym, the other parents say, ‘Wow, you’re here again.’
“And Terri’s getting pretty good at the rules,” Mike said. “She’s making calls that refs don’t even see.”
As they travel around the state for their grandkids’ games, meals on the go are part of the experience.
“We eat a lot of popcorn,” Terri laughed. “But nobody’s popcorn is as good as Becky Krueger’s in Wessington Springs. And we should know, I mean, we eat a lot of popcorn.”
When it comes to the state tournament schedule this week, much depends on the outcome of Thursday’s games, but there is one game that is non-negotiable when it comes to their attendance.
“We want to support everybody but we are going to make sure we see Karter’s Saturday game as it’s his last year,” Terri said of the soonto- graduate senior. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do when it’s all over with. I guess we rest in the summer, our car will sit idle.”
Editor’s note about a bit of Mebius history as reported in the March 13, 2024 True Dakotan: Before last year’s state appearance, only two other Spartans Boys Basketball teams have previously earned a trip to the state tournament — in 1994 and in 1967 — with each appearance having one thing in common: a Mebius on their roster.
Mike Mebius was a starter on the state-bound team in 1967, his son Darrin started on the 1994 state team and in 2024, their grandson/nephew, Karter Mebius.