Autumn Dickmander and her South Platte basketball team are on a mission. Actually they are on the second leg of the same mission. Or something like that.
See, up until last fall a South Platte High School girls sports teams going to the state tournament meant a car ride and a ticket purchase. And then the magic happened, with Autumn playing a leading role her South Platte volleyball - gasp! - qualified for state, a first in school history. It was, she says, amazing.
And also a reminder.
“I supposed we shocked a lot of people getting to state volleyball because our school had never done it before but our girls had a lot of confidence all season long, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise to us,” says Autumn. “And that confidence has carried over to basketball, I can really tell it.”
So has the winning. South Platte is a school that brings together the communities of Big Springs and Brule (quickest shortcut to Lake McConaughy, it says so right along the Interstate), both of them located just west of Ogallala. It’s girls basketball team is once again a major player in small school basketball, winning 12 of its first 13 games after Thursday night’s win against Leyton in the Minuteman Activities Conference (MAC) tournament.
All this winning comes on the heels of back-to-back seasons of 19-2 and 18-3, which ended in two, then one win short of qualifying for state. The Blue Knights are right back at it this season with Autumn having a big season for herself, having just scored her 1,000th career point, including a career-high 33-point outburst in a single game.
“Every year I play I notice more and more how we start to click, like we just pick up where we left off. We like to play fast and we play so well together, and our confidence has grown partly because we have an older, more experienced team that has been through some highs and lows,” she adds.
Something else Autumn has noticed about her team is its focus and desire to become - remain - a winner.
“A few years ago I don’t know that we expected to win but now we have a good game plan that we all believe in and we are out there to do more than just score a few points, we are out to win. Every time,” says Autumn, who is the team’s 5-foot-7 point guard. “Amongst us girls we do talk about the success we have had in sports but then we leave it alone. We are always focused on the next game and trying to win that one.”
When Autumn was a little girl volleyball was her sport but somewhere around fourth or fifth grade the worm started to turn and she caught the basketball bug, and bad. “Once I figured out basketball was what I wanted to do I started working hard because I wanted to be good,” she says. Kid, it’s working, your team is 12-1 and you’re averaging 19 points per game (along with five rebounds, four assists and three steals). “Basketball is sort of my escape.”
As for that 1,000 points and counting that’s another athletic dream come true. “I still can’t believe it but it’s always been a goal of mine,” says Autumn. “I can remember when I was in junior high looking at our record board and thinking that will never happen for me, but now it has.”
Autumn was born in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area before her family moved Fort Collins, Colorado, and a short time later, just as Autumn was entering kindergarten, to Brule. Her father is a minister and he’s served the Brule community since that summer of 2008.
The youngest of four siblings - she’s got two older sisters who were basketball players at South Platte, and an older brother - she and her friends “like to go on little adventures.” Don’t worry, Pastor, she’s talking about driving to take their selfie in front of the anchor at Sutherland’s Memorial Park. That and hanging out at each other’s house, playing pickup games of volleyball.
Also an outstanding student with a 3.8 GPA and membership in the National Honor Society, Autumn is also involved in Future Problem Solvers, Science Olympiad, and the school one-act play. As for her personal volleyball career been a four-year starter, twice been named all-conference and all-state honorable mention, and she also runs track in the spring. Her college plans are still TBD but she’s “got some sports options” and is considering studying exercise science.
And another thing, she wears No. 51...but then again, why wouldn’t she? Her oldest sister, Adalida, wore 51 for four years, followed by sister Audrey who wore 51 for four years; Audrey was a senior when Autumn was a freshman so Autumn had to wait until she was a sophomore but she’s been 51 ever since.
“It’s a neat little family tradition, something I can share with my sisters."
