by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
Rhaecine Sam is from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) and graduated from Wakpala High School in South Dakota. His parents are Rodney Sam and Randee Killssmall, and they are both from the SRST. His dad lives in Wakpala and his mother lives in Mobridge.
Rhaecine is a 5-10 freshman distance runner at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Due to NCAA eligibility guidelines and his former high school procedures dealing with his athletic scholarship, he was not allowed to compete until this week at the conference meet.
“The strengths I bring to my team are faith and a lot of encouragement,” said Rhaecine. “Each and everyone of us are super supportive of each other each of us knows when workouts are tough and I keep my best by praying for them when we do hard workouts or having troubles keeping motivation during workouts.”
“My main tribal core value would be being humble because fame and my ego can get ahead of myself and God strips away my ability to do very well in races,” said Rhaecine. “So being humble is the number one thing for me so that when the little ones see me they understand that God is the most important person to pay attention to and to follow.”
Pre-race performance rituals include time being alone. “Before races I always go off by myself somewhere to pray and to ask the lord for strength,” said Rhaecine. “I usually take time to calm down my nerves.”
Rhaecine has a major hobby of playing the guitar with dreams of being on stage. “I play guitar and I one day want to be on stages like Def Leppard or Metallica,” said Rhaecine. “I taught myself at the age of seven with the help of my dad motivating me to start playing considering he plays.”
“My Grandpa, even though he is no longer here in this world, has truly helped me to become a better basketball player and runner,” said Rhaecine. “Ironically I love playing basketball more than running and wish I could play at next level but the Lord has other plans for me. I would still try to play on a college ball team if there’s interest. Most importantly God has helped me make it this far as I put my trust in him and heart. Growing up wasn’t the greatest at all and I have had my faith tested to the maximum before.”
“In high school I was a 4X YTC (Yellowstone Trail Conference) Cross Country Champion, I am a 3X Regional XC Champion, and the highest I have placed at state XC is 3rd place out of 120 runners my senior year, Track-wise I am a 3X YTC Champion, I am a 4X State qualifier in three events: 800m, 1600m and 3200m, but my main events are 1600m and 3200m. During my senior year I placed 4th in the 3200m and 2nd in the 1600m at state track in Sioux Falls.”
Photographs provided by Rhaecine Sam.
