Region IDs: Under the Radar Names from Rapid City

After getting a restart on the event coverage trail last weekend in Minnesota, we move our focus back to the Dakotas, taking one from the book of fellow Georgia Scout, Connor Jackson with his Region IDs. With this Region ID, we focus our scouting lense on Rapid City, looking at some 2028s making early waves, a 2027 that I have high hopes for in 2025, and a 2027 defensive back that should start to gather more attention this summer at camps in my eyes as the best overall prospect Rapid City has to offer.    Time to meet our first LB1 in this brand new 2028 South Dakota class in 6'0 180 pounder [player_tooltip player_id='1597634' first='Bridger' last='Mez'], also out of Rapid City Stevens. Note to evaluators, don't blink late at night watching this kid's first clip as Bridger wastes no time getting downhill to the ball carrier, and quite frankly it continues the more you watch his tape. He shows off great pursuit angles as a linebacker that you can tell carries great fluidity in his athletic movement even as just just an incoming sophomore for the Raiders. High motored middle linebacker that is not afraid to run down a ball carrier downfield and is one that I would expect will be tackling monster in the coming years for Stevens.     I already am quite intrigued by this 2028 South Dakota quarterback class earlier than I would have expected, which includes [player_tooltip player_id='1601551' first='Noah' last='Wald'] of Rapid City St. Thomas More who is our QB4 in the class and inside our top 20. It doesn't take long to see that Noah is already developing a poised football IQ when he makes his reads, as a 2028 quarterback that impressed me with his solid balance that his arm strength possesses and the variety of speed his releases can make inside and outside of the pocket. Even with just having game tape thus far, I felt the arm strength and precision grow clip after clip which is a great sign for this incoming sophomore. Noah is the only QB to crack our list out of Rapid City in this class, making him the best QB in the area in the 2028 class.       The top ranked 2027 quarterback out of Rapid City is another target out of Rapid City Stevens, in [player_tooltip player_id='1212271' first='Austin' last='Flohr'] who as a sophomore saw varsity reps for the Raiders. Austin shows off great arm strength as I feel on tape, there is more gas in the tank to throw on that fire as he develops over the coming years. The reps I watched last year from Austin in the Raiders, show off the constance of precision on those intermediate routes especially. With Rapid City Stevens being super young last year in 11AAA, I would expect Austin's rapport with his receivers to grow some great chemistry year to year heading into the 2025 season.   <a href="https://x.com/austin_flohr">Twitter</a>     The top ranked overall prospect out of Rapid City in this 2026 class since it launched as been Rapid City Stevens defensive back [player_tooltip player_id='825411' first='Henry' last='Telechan'], our DB4 in that class. Henry is a true sideline to sideline safety that has outstanding range and shows off the versatility I want out of a scholarship level safety. That range also blossoms well with his sudden twitch that gets downhill quick as a persistent run stopper. I feel this summer that Henry will finally get the attention he deserves from the college coaches, as not only for his play on the field, I also really like this kid's character from a locker room perspective.

After getting a restart on the event coverage trail last weekend in Minnesota, we move our focus back to the Dakotas, taking one from the book of fellow Georgia Scout, Connor Jackson with his Region IDs. With this Region ID, we focus our scouting lense on Rapid City, looking at some 2028s making early waves, a 2027 that I have high hopes for in 2025, and a 2027 defensive back that should start to gather more attention this summer at camps in my eyes as the best overall prospect Rapid City has to offer.