Spartans fans from near and far packed the bleachers last month to welcome the newest inductees to the WSHS Hall of Fame.
Hall of Fame committee member and longtime newspaper publisher, editor and sports writer Craig Wenzel served as the evening’s emcee. His introductions for the inductees are published below.
Brenda Lee
“In the early 1980s, girls sports was in its infancy in South Dakota and especially at Wessington Springs High School. And then Brenda Lee picked up a basketball and began playing the game with her very athletic brothers.
A pioneer in girls basketball, the books on the role of tall athletes had not yet been written at WSHS and across the state.
She enjoyed participating in track and field and qualified for the state meet where she placed fifth in the high jump. Forty-two years later, her WSHS school record still stands.
But it was a game that included a round ball where she really stood out.
She was the First Lady Spartan to score a thousand career points. At the time of her graduation in 1982 she held many Lady Spartan school records including most season points, season rebounds, blocked shots, career rebounds, blocked shots.
She was third team All-State her junior year and second team All-State as a senior.
The Spartans won one of the first district titles in 1983. Brenda scored 19 points and had double figures in rebounds that night.
Today Brenda resides in Los Angeles, California... but she will forever be a Wessington Springs Spartan. We welcome Brenda Lee to the Wessington Springs High School Athletics Hall of Fame.”
Dr. James R. Higgins
“Dr. James R. Higgins was just Jimmie around Wessington Springs in the 1960s. He honed his athletic crafts on the asphalt courts outside the grade school near the Higgins home.
By the time he entered high school, his high arching set shot caught the attention of high school and college coaches and he immediately became a four year starter on some good Spartan teams. During his WSHS career, the Spartans won three District 21 titles, a regional championship and a trip to the State B tournament.
He was on the all-state second team as a junior and first team as a senior. Jim averaged 17.5 points per game in his Spartan career. Had there been a three-point shot at that time, his career scoring average would have been considerably higher.
He quarterbacked the Spartan football team for two seasons. He was an outstanding track athlete at WSHS including many individual awards and was on two school relay records in track.
Jim went on to play four seasons for the South Dakota State University basketball program where the Jackrabbits won three North Central Conference titles, and a third place finish in the NCAA Division II national tournament.
Dr. Higgins has had an illustrious career in the field of cardiology and used his WSHS high school education, a SDSU electrical engineering degree and medical degrees to acquire fifteen patents, mainly regarding pacemakers and defibrillators. Jim Higgins, welcome to the Wessington Springs High School Athletic Hall of Fame.”
Tim Sorsen
This inductee showed his future athleticism on College Avenue in front of the family home in Wessington Springs well before he entered high school. He was one of the kids next door to me and my growing family in the 1970s.
Tim qualified for the state track meet three years in a row and brought home a variety of speed and strength medals. His best time in the hundred meters was a fast 10.96 seconds, he threw the shot put in the mid fifties, tossed the discus in excess of 160 feet.
He was already a Spartan football star as a Central All-Conference performer by his junior year and repeated the next season. He was a first team all-state honoree as a senior.
During the 1979 South Dakota High School football season there were only two unbeaten teams atop the Associated Press Sportswriters poll.... the Miller Rustlers and Wessington Springs Spartans, setting up a season-finale state championship tilt on the Miller field. The Central Conference rivals were locked in an epic battle, neither team showing any thoughts of relenting to the other.
With seconds remaining on the clock Springs lineman Bryan Wetzel recovered a Rustler fumble and set up one of the biggest moments in WSHS football history. With just sixteen seconds on the clock, and his younger brother Mark as the holder, Sorsen sent a 24-yard field goal through the uprights for a 1716 victory. And the crowd went wild! Tim Sorsen, welcome to the Wessington Springs High School Athletics Hall of Fame.
Dennis Christensen
Dennis Christensen attended Wessington Springs High School from 1953 to 1956 and was a three sport star athlete for the Spartans as well as earning many academic awards.
Dennis was the Spartan quarterback on the Spartan team that had three consecutive undefeated seasons under coach Rollie Greeno.
The Spartans defeated the Gregory Gorillas on the last night of the 1955 season with Dennis under center. After the game the local paper said, “Chistensen’s deception was near perfection.”
The November 10, 1955 Wessington Springs Independent, printed a picture of Dennis and his undefeated Spartan football teammates on page one. On the lower corner of that same page of the local paper there was a photograph of the Springs kindergarten class that included little Jimmie Higgins, who is also an inductee in the WSHS athletics hall of fame.
Dennis excelled on the track field, throwing the discus and competing in the high jump.
One of the big men of his era, he was the scoring leader on the 1955-56 Springs basketball team. In his senior year at WSHS Dennis scored a whopping 550 points, shooting 48 percent from the field. He also grabbed 289 rebounds. At the end of the season his teammates selected him as their honorary captain.
After high school, he attended South Dakota State College where he played basketball for the Jackrabbits. He spent much of his working years teaching in South Dakota and coaching girls golf at Rapid City Stevens.
Dennis was liked by his fellow schoolmates and would speak to everyone according to local Springs people who were in school with him.
Unfortunately, Dennis is no longer living, but his legacy in the sports history at Wessington Springs will be remembered for decades to come by his induction into the WSHS Athletic Hall of Fame.