Photo by Samantha Davis: Dawson-Boyd forward Brayson Boike sizes up a Cherry defender during the Class A boys basketball championship game on March 22 at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

DAWSON — Brayson Boike was productive year-round during his time as an athlete at Dawson-Boyd High School. As a sophomore, Boike helped the Blackjack football team become one of the top teams in the highly competitive Section 5A as a wide receiver and defensive back. As a junior, he claimed an individual championship in the state track and field meet, winning the triple jump. And as a senior, he led the Blackjack boys basketball team to its first-ever state championship. As such, Boike is not only our Boys Basketball Player of the Year, but also our inaugural Three-Sport Athlete of the Year.

“Don’t get me wrong, the track one was special and fun, but I don’t think anything could compare to that basketball [state title],” Boike said of his trophy case. “You’re winning with your best friends, and it’s just crazy how many people were there from Dawson, and not even just from Dawson, cheering us on. You just don’t really get that feeling in individual sports, but they’re still both very special.”

At every stage of the boys basketball team’s season, Dawson brought a large contingent of fans donning black and yellow into the stands. Boike attributed the consistent crowd support to the friendly and supportive nature of the people in the Dawson area, saying that people will wave and say hello anywhere you go in the town.

Across the three seasons, Boike’s used to being a part of successful teams at this point. The Blackjacks have been section contenders in football season, state champions in basketball season and Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd stacked up consecutive conference titles during track and field season. His junior year football season was a comparatively down season in terms of team success by his standards, but even then, the Blackjacks were the third seed in the 5A tournament and won a playoff game before falling to No. 2 BOLD in the section semifinals.

“I just knew that I personally had to get better,” Boike said of the season. “That I could get better to help my team, And the other guys also saw that too, and it showed in how committed we were over the summer and it showed during my senior year.”

He added that he felt that the team’s growth really showed on the field during his senior year, particularly in terms of mentality. While he felt the Blackjacks at times shied away from the top teams in the section, like the reigning state champion Minneota Vikings and BOLD, he felt that this year, they felt like they had the ability to compete with anybody on any given day.

During Boike’s senior season, the Blackjacks hovered around the perimeter of the Class A statewide rankings. Boike was a big part of that team success, leading the Independent’s area schools with 970 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns.

While he took a step back in terms of his role on defense and special teams, he had also shown an ability to be electric in those phases of the game in past seasons, with four interceptions and a pick-6 as a junior.

Heading into the winter sports season, the expectations on Boike as an individual and the Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks as a team were both lofty. Boike was a player that had received Division I and Division II basketball offers from across the country, and the Blackjacks were viewed as a consensus top-two team in Class A, along with the reigning state champion Cherry Tigers.

Even as a junior, Boike and the Blackjacks were seen as serious state title contenders. They went 24-3 during the regular season and started the postseason with a 58-53 win over Minneota in the Camden Conference Championship and a 71-35 win over Lakeview in the first round of the Section 3A tournament. Yet, the top-seeded Blackjacks were upset 61-57 by Minneota in the second round of the section tournament despite a 30-point, 10-rebound double-double from Boike.

“The expectations [this year] were high for sure, but I don’t think it really got to us,” Boike said. “We just knew we had to get better, and we did that in the offseason… I just felt like we really came together and played together this season, and it showed.”

The difference, Boike said, came from the team getting both mentally and physically stronger from the group’s time training together in the offseason, as well as increased team chemistry after bringing back other core pieces such as Drew Hjelmeland and Gunnar Liebl.

Liebl, Hjelmeland and Boike have spent plenty of time building chemistry at this point. They all played together during football season, with Hjelmeland as another big wide receiver target and Liebl as a second-team all-area quarterback. A season later, all three were named to the Independent’s First Team All-Area boys basketball team.

In terms of Boike’s individual role in elevating the Dawson-Boyd basketball team, he said that he felt like his focus in the offseason was to become a better shooter. Even while training for other sports, he aims to get to the gym and get in a quick shootaround nearly every day. Beyond that, he felt like he also developed his basketball IQ.

“My teammates were really good, so I just let them do it and shoot their shots, because they were all really good,” Boike said.

While Boike saw his counting stats go down — he averaged 22.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game as a senior after averaging 25.8 points and 11.5 rebounds as a junior — the team grew stronger and he became more efficient. His effective field goal percentage (measured with  3-pointers weighted as 1.5 made field goals) jumped from 55.4% as a junior to 64.7% as a senior. He also saw his assists jump from 4.1 to 5.5. 

As a result, the Blackjacks were unstoppable in the postseason this time around. They overcame a halftime deficit to beat Hills-Beaver Creek in the Section 3A championship and advance to the state tournament for the first time with the Boike-Hjelmeland-Liebl core, and dominated the first two rounds of the state tournament with a pair of lopsided wins. 

In the state championship, Boike scored 29 points with eight rebounds and a block to help the Blackjacks dethrone Cherry by a score of 81-74.

The state title was just the latest in Boike’s collection of state hardware. He got his debut medal in the state long jump championship as a freshman, finishing seventh with a distance of 20-9.5. He added to his trophy case as a junior with a runner-up finish in both the long jump and the triple jump, as well as a seventh-place finish in the high jump, and became a state champion for the first time as a junior with a distance of 45-3.25 in the triple jump. 

It was one of three medals for Boike in his junior year, as well as a third-place finish in the long jump and an eighth-place finish in the high jump. While he wasn’t able to reach the same heights as a senior, 

While Boike closes his high school career with a team state championship in basketball and an individual state title and a total of eight state track and field medals, he’s far from done writing his story. Boike committed to continue his basketball career in Marshall with Southwest Minnesota State University and is likely to be a key part of the team’s rotation in the fall. He will also be joined by Hjelmeland.

“I’m excited to compete against new guys, better guys,” Boike said. “It’ll be fun to just compete at that new level and meet new people. Like I’ve already met my teammates and I love all of them, so I’m excited.”

The Mustangs reached the Division II National Tournament each of the last two seasons, and finished tied for a share of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular-season title this year. The expectations will continue to be high for Boike and his team at the next level, but he says he’s looking forward to continuing to improve as an individual and hoping to earn himself some minutes as the Mustangs work toward keeping their postseason streak alive.