Independent file photo Russell-Tyler-Ruthton's Laken Baartman hi-fives head coach Daren Baartman while rounding third base after hitting a home run on April 16 against Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda in Ruthton.

I have been following sports in the southwest part of the state since I was a little kid trying to learn, unsuccessfully, how to hit a baseball. So that has allowed me to not only watch a lot of teams in every sport, but having a chance to meet some of the great athletes that have come out of this area. In my travels, I have watched some families dominate sports through several generations. Families like John and Eleanor Nordgaard, who I have written about recently, and JB and Dar Bouman, whose three boys dominated the state in a variety of sports. But there is one family from Ruthton that has kind of flown under the radar. That family is the Baartmans, who have three generations of success in several sports.

I will start in the beginning, with Caroline (Sether) and Bruce Baartman. They are a couple of years older than me, but I have known them for many years. You may recognize the name if you follow softball, since the youngest granddaughter, Laken has just been named Independent Player of the Year for the second time, and she is only a junior. But I will get back to her in a minute. Bruce was a good athlete at Ruthton HS, playing football, basketball and track, and after high school, he played slow pitch softball for many years. Caroline participated in GAA basketball, and played softball for years after high school. She holds the record for the highest bowling score at Lindy’s Lanes in Ruthton, rolling a 278. But their biggest contribution to athletics comes in the form of their children and grandchildren.

Darren is the oldest, graduating the last year of Ruthton High School, before the schools merged to become RTR. In his senior year, Ruthton paired with RTR for track, and Darren was the District 9 long jump champion, and finished 5th at the regionals. During those years, he was on the Ruthton Rookies team that won the 18-and under National Championship in 1986. He was also a national champion in 1991, playing for the Rookies in the Under-21 tournament. Shane Bouman was the pitcher on these teams, and they would later team up again at SDSU. His junior and senior years were quite productive, as both the 1985 and 1986 teams won the section in football, and going on to the state tournament, where they suffered first round losses to Westbrook and Alden-Conger. In basketball, he teamed up with the Bouman boys to carry them to the championship game, where they lost to TMB, and finished the season with only two losses. I was at the game before that when they played Russell-Tyler, who also had a good team. The game was lopsided from the start, with Ruthton jumping to an early lead and pouring it on from there. I left the game early, when it was a 25-point lead, and I listened to the final few minutes in my car. The radio announcer said, “Well, the only consolation for coach Ray Riley is that he will have most of these kids on his team next year!”

After high school, Darren went to SDSU, where he red-shirted his freshman year of football, then played the next four years at a very high level. With Shane Bouman as his quarterback, these two high school teammates hooked up enough to make Darren the second all-time leading receiver in Jackrabbit history. Many years later, Darren, his brother Brian and I were sitting in the stands at an SDSU game, and the scoreboard showed the top 10 receivers in school history. At that time, Darren was number six on the list, and by the time the game was over, he had fallen to eighth. I said, “You know, if we sit here long enough, you are going to fall right off of that list.” I don’t think he appreciated my sense of humor.

After graduation, Darren coached football in Brookings, then took the head coaching job at Jackson, where his teams were state runners-up in 1997 and 1998. After two years in Pipestone, he became head coach in Breckenridge, they were section champs. They beat Lake of the Woods, then lost in the semi-finals to ACGC. In 2007, they were section champs again, this time losing to Pierz. Darren then moved back to Pipestone as an assistant, and they were section champs in 2014 and 2015. In all those years, he was able to bring his team to state at the MetroDome, TCF Stadium and US Bank Stadium. In 2016, he became the athletic director and softball coach at RTR, where he remains today. His softball team finished third in 2023, led by his niece, Laken Baartman, who was freshman. More to come on her.

Darren’s three sons also had great success. Brayden was an outstanding athlete at Pipestone, especially in football. Cade played both tennis and basketball at Pipestone, and youngest son, Darrick, was a vital member of the RTR basketball team that went to the state tournament. After high school, he went to Worthington JC to play football, where he was All-conference two years, and an All-American his sophomore year. He finished his playing career at U of M, Morris. Both he and his brother, Brayden, played for Lake Benton Wildcats, and Darrick currently plays with Mountain Lake Lakers.

The next athlete to come along was Carrie (Baartman) Smith. Carrie was a key member of both the volleyball and basketball teams when RTR first started to have success in women’s sports. She was the first RTR player to have 1000 points in her basketball career, having been a starter since the eighth grade. She may have scored more points than the records show, since they didn’t really have statisticians in those early years. They had to piece together newspaper articles to get a somewhat accurate number of how many points she had early in her career. She also was a varsity starter in eighth grade for the volleyball team, and she still holds the single match record for kills with 39.

After high school, she went to SDSU and was on the volleyball team there. Her junior year, she transferred to SSU and played one year of college basketball. Her first job after college was coaching volleyball and freshman basketball at Pipestone. In 2017, she moved to Brookings and coached eighth grade volleyball. For the last two years, she has been a volleyball coach at Dell Rapids HS.

Carrie and her husband, Ken have four children that also love sports. Her daughter, Darian (Leddy) Ness, played volleyball, basketball and track. Her senior year at Pipestone, she won the AAA Award for excellence in both athletics and academics. Her middle child, Quinn Leddy, and Ken’s son, Jordan, did not play sports but have been the biggest supporters of sports within the family. Jett Leddy is the youngest, and he played both football and basketball at Brookings. So Carrie may have been the best female athlete in their immediate family, but her talents and passion for sports did get passed on to the rest of her family.

The youngest in the family is Brian Baartman, Laken’s father, but a fine athlete in his own right. He was also a member of the Ruthton Rookies softball team that finished nationally in fourth place in 1988, then won the national championship in 1989. In the football his senior year, they beat Jeff Nordgaard’s Dawson-Boyd team with Todd Bouman as their quarterback. Then they played the always tough Minneota team, and Brian caught two touchdown passes that game, including the game-winning TD in the second overtime. Unfortunately, they lost in the first round of the state to Becker. Brian was also an outstanding basketball player, going to the state tournament in both his sophomore and junior years. His senior year, Jeff Nordgaard finally got his revenge from that stinging football loss by handing the Knights a two-point loss in the section finals. After high school, he went to SSU, where he played football his freshman year. When he was 21, he tried out for Marshall Mallards baseball team in the North Central League. He made the team as a pitcher and shortstop, which is pretty amazing considering that RTR did not have a baseball team when Brian was in high school. That speaks to his athletic talents, and he has passed that talent on to his children.

Brian and wife, Jina’s oldest daughter is Kylea Baartman. In softball, she was Second Team All-Area in eighth grade, then First Team as a pitcher the rest of her high school career. She was also an All-Area volleyball player for several years. She also played basketball at RTR through her sophomore year.

Brother Jared was not to be left behind when it came to sports. He played football on the 2017 football team that made it to the state semi-finals, losing to Nevis. That same year, he was a contributing member of the basketball team that won the state tournament in 2018. But baseball was Jared’s sport, making the All-Conference team from his freshman year on. He was also Second-Team All-Area his senior year. After high school, he was an outstanding pitcher, playing nine years for the Ruthton town team, and one year with Pipestone.

If you follow girl’s softball even remotely, you know the name Laken Baartman. She was just named the Independent Softball Player of the Year for a second time, and she still has her senior year to go. She hit her first home run as a 7th grader (tying my career total!!) and finished the year with two more. She hit four more home runs her eighth grade season, along with being an outstanding catcher, where she had very few passed balls and even fewer successful steal attempts. Her freshman year, she tied the state record with 16 home runs. With her battery mate, Kya Alderson, they finished 3rd in their first ever trip to the state tournament. Teams finally wised up and started intentionally walking her, and she only had five home runs her sophomore season. This last year, she was switched to shortstop by her coach, Darren Baartman, where she was even better. She responded with 10 home runs, and was named to the All-state for the fourth year in a row. Just recently, the Minneapolis Tribune named her as one of the Top 25 players in the state for all classes. She is currently 3rd all-time in home runs, with 38 (the state record is 48), and she is second all-time in runs batted in with 172, three behind the record of 175. In addition to her uncle Darren as the head coach, her dad, Brian and her brother, Jared are assistants. She currently is playing summer league with the Minnesota Misfits, where she is hitting .457 as their clean-up hitter. Laken has verbally committed to play softball at SMSU, where she will be playing for a familiar name, coach Bailey Bouman and assistant coach Troy Bouman.

Laken also played basketball until her junior year, and as a freshman, she was in the rotation as a defensive specialist on the state championship team in 2023. She was the libero on the 2025 team that finished as runner up in the state tournament. That season, she also got her 1000th dig, and is looking to expand that number this fall in her senior year.

Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that when she was 10 years old, she was diagnosed with Type One diabetes, when her pancreas stopped working. She wears an insulin pump, and she has to monitor her blood sugar levels frequently. In spite of this, she has been able to accomplish so many things that may seem out of reach for someone with diabetes, but through it all, she persevered, then excelled in both the classroom (a straight-A student) and athletics. I can hardly wait for her senior year!!

So that wraps up the success story of the Baartman family. They are all as nice as they are talented. Best of luck to the next generation.