2028 South Dakota Rankings Inaugural Preview

SOUTH DAKOTA--We welcome all the new names in this <a href="https://prepredzone.com/dakotas/rankings/north-dakota-rankings/2028-rankings/">inaugural 202</a><a href="https://prepredzone.com/dakotas/rankings/south-dakota-rankings/2028-rankings/">8 class</a> in South Dakota, which includes: A list of our top 35 athletes in the 2025 class and a 65+ names watch for future evaluation. Being a brand new class, this preview will focus on welcoming the new class of young men, telling our new subscribers of this class how we rank, breaking down our top five, and look at what is to come on the content side of the coin.   Our PRZ Rankings Process   We have a tab on our rankings tab on our Dakotas site, that gives off the full scoop of <a href="https://prepredzone.com/how-we-rank/">how we rank </a>across our 41+ states in our network, but as this is a new class, I wanted to give out our full disclosure of how we rank/watchlist this 2028 class in the Dakotas.   1-Tape needs to be available   Being at the start of their high school football career, we fully understand that not every freshman has tape availlable, and it's ok at this point that they do not yet due to some schools not being on Hudl, etc. I recommend for freshmen reading this: If you are a freshman at a big school that doesn't have their lower levels of Hudl updated, use YouTube to create your tape for the time being. The tape doesn't need to be long, just find a way to record your splash plays you made during the season. That goes into my next point, that we look at upside, not length of tape. Over the years, we have had kids that have 10 minute tapes be ranked lower than one that has a couple 45 second clips, as at this age we look at upside even higher than we might as they get older being the newness of this class as each class grows in numbers substancially update after update.   #2 What is a watchlist?   Our watchlist entails of athletes that we know their names, but we are still waiting to see how their upside plays out on tape or thru a high school coaches reference. Athletes with very light tape (10-15 seconds, will also crack this list) You also will see our watchlists have plenty of last names of siblings that have been ranked by us in the past, as we believe that family pedigree, genetics, does certainly have a play in evaluating HS football players and their upside which is our primer focus.   #3 Rankings are a tier projection   To those that have older siblings that have been ranked or have had scouting reports written on by us you will know this already, that our rankings are a tier projection. Division I graded targets will be ranked with other Division I graded targets, and every division after that follows the same tier system. We are still so early in the 2028 recruiting process, so I will save the by the numbers with those tiers for a couple updates from now.   #4 Rankings always change and are never personal   Between now and this 2028 classes senior season, there will be approximately 16 rankings updates as we try to do 3-4 per year. We have seen athletes be ranked in our top 100 as a sophomore, and be our #1 prospect by their senior season.The <a href="https://prepredzone.com/how-we-rank/">how we rank</a> link hopefully gives the full scoop of our process. Rankings are NEVER personal, and are based on trends from live evals, camps, showcases, and more. Growth spurts happen, frames get developed, the year-round attention to detail in their skillsets will need to thrive, that's how you move up our rankings.   Meet Our Inaugural 2028 North Dakota Top 5:   #5: [player_tooltip player_id='1555919' first='Javi' last='Vazquez'], QB, Sioux Falls Washington <a href="https://x.com/JaviVazquez123">Twitter</a>   #4: [player_tooltip player_id='1596619' first='Bryson' last='Esser'], ATH/DL, Harrisburg <a href="https://x.com/esserbryson10">Twitter</a>   #3: [player_tooltip player_id='1601729' first='Thiik' last='Lual'], DL, Tea Area <a href="https://x.com/ThiikLual">Twitter</a>   #2: [player_tooltip player_id='1601731' first='Mitch' last='Grant'], QB, Tea Area <a href="https://x.com/_Mitch_Grant">Twitter</a>   #1: Aiden Hammitt, WR, Elk Point-Jefferson <a href="https://x.com/aiden_hammitt">Twitter</a>   Key Trends with the Inaugural 2028 South Dakota Class   Oddly Enough: 2028 Quarterbacks Trended the Same in South Dakota   Those that subscribe to the Prep Redzone Dakotas site know that we just launched our North Dakota <a href="https://prepredzone.com/dakotas/rankings/north-dakota-rankings/2028-rankings/">2028 rankings</a> too yesterday and some trends just are similar in both states in this class, as we have two quarterbacks in our top five. My first and early favorite for one of the top 2028 QBs in the state, [player_tooltip player_id='1555919' first='Javi' last='Vazquez'] of Sioux Falls Washington comes as QB2 and #5 overall. Our QB1 hails from Tea, in quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1601731' first='Mitch' last='Grant'], who took the Titans in relief when [player_tooltip player_id='848974' first='Brenner' last='Konrad'] went down to injury.   2028 Twins that will Rise   Staying inside our top 10, we have our first group of twins in which is a great class of finding for siblings, which we will get to more later. Those twins that play that both play defensive line, are [player_tooltip player_id='1597618' first='Shep' last='Wachal'] and Dax Watchal of Sioux Falls Jefferson. The tape might be limited for both of them, but holy cow does the the upside, quick hands, and excellent finesse drill thru our tape eval swiftly, as I recall hearing both young men's names already a couple years ago, which is always a great sign hearing that from area coaches.   Small School 2028 Studs   We mentioned it in our North Dakota 2028 preview too, that you will see more underclassmen become standouts at the varsity level faster than you see one from Sioux Falls or Rapid City in 11AAA. Here is a sound list of 2028 small school studs that have intrigued me by the live eval and more.   [player_tooltip player_id='1601579' first='Nolan' last='Fischer'], OL, Centerville (pop, 957)   [player_tooltip player_id='1544429' first='Mason' last='Bickel'], DL/OL, Timber Lake (pop, 516) <a href="https://x.com/BickelMason54">Twitter</a>   [player_tooltip player_id='1422534' first='Porter' last='Gregg'], RB, Herreid-Selby (Herreid pop: 416, Selby pop: 610)   [player_tooltip player_id='1575892' first='Cole' last='Kieffer'], TE, Lyman (Presho pop: 472) <a href="https://x.com/Colekieffer_">Twitter</a>   [player_tooltip player_id='1544483' first='Broc' last='Bauer'], WR, Timber Lake (pop, 516) <a href="https://x.com/BauerBroc">Twitter</a>   What's Next on Tap:   After any new rankings update, we fill the Prep Redzone Dakotas website with content including:   Newcomers (Multi-Part Series)   Who was added to our 2028 South Dakota rankings? Obviously, there is 100+ names to look at, as we will evaluate several of them over the coming weeks.   Small Town Sleepers   -Absoulutely one of my favorite article series every single ranking update we do. Which prospects from small town South Dakota made their way into our 2028 rankings? We always love to talk about the population number too, showing off these prospects from small town South Dakota, as US geography is something I love to incorporate into our articles. Any prospect from a small town under 5000 people will get mentioned in this content series.   Potential Stockrisers   Being a brand new class, we don't have prospects that have risen their stock yet up our rankings. However, that does make us shy away from us making projections of prospects that could see be a stockriser by next update.

SOUTH DAKOTA--We welcome all the new names in this inaugural 202 8 class in South Dakota, which includes: A list of our top 35 athletes in the 2025 class and a 65+ names watch for future evaluation. Being a brand new class, this preview will focus on welcoming the new class of young men, telling our new subscribers of this class how we rank, breaking down our top five, and look at what is to come on the content side of the coin.