Thirty-four-year-old head football coach at Bridgewater-Emery/Ethan and Woonsocket graduate, Jeff VanLeur, was voted best football coach in South Dakota and has moved on to the final round of national competition after winning the regional competition in USA Today’s Best Football Coach contest. He now goes up against the winners of seven other regions for the title.
The Seahawks head coach has five 9AA state titles and a 218-105 record to his credit after 34 years as head coach.
The competition was open to voting from the public until Oct. 29. VanLeur gives credit to his fans for getting this far in the competition. “We have had great success here and the fans are very supportive,” he says.
The winner of the national competition will receive $2,000 for his athletic department and a banner for his school.

A Letcher man was taken in peacefully by law enforcement when he was found in a grove of trees north of his home, after leading police on a chase, reaching speeds of 150 mph Sunday afternoon, Oct. 20.
Bruce Pueppke, 60, driving a gray Porsche, was clocked speeding excessively by Highway Patrol Trooper Mark Nelson, on Interstate 90 near the Hanson/McCook county line. Pueppke exited the interstate at mile marker 357 in McCook County between Salem and Spencer, then headed back towards Mitchell on backroads.
He drove to a farmstead on the Plano Road, 247th Street, jumped out of his car and ran to a tree grove. No one appeared to be home at the farmstead, which included a trailer house and some outbuildings. Pueppke was found lying in tall grass in the tree grove.
Pueppke was reportedly mentally unstable, manic depressive and easily angered, but was lucid and sober when law enforcement found him.
He was charged with aggravated eluding, a felony with a maximum of two years in prison and a $4,000 fine.
Highway Patrol from Mitchell, Sioux Falls and Vermillion, the Davison and Sanborn county sheriff’s offices and the Department of Game, Fish and Parks responded to the incident.