Carney got native voice on board, created council

By Stu Whitney
Argus Leader

Wayne Carney has lived in South Dakota for almost 40 years, making his mark in high school sports as a basketball coach and athletic director.

But until he became executive director of the South Dakota High School Activities Association in 2001, he had never set foot on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - one of America's poorest regions and home to four high schools.

"My first year in office, we had a hardship hearing in Kyle," says Carney, 57, a former Agar and Hamlin basketball coach and Washington athletic director. "That was my first time south of the interstate and west of the river, and it was a real eye-opener. It became apparent to me that maybe our association had not been as active as we needed to be with our Native American schools."

Willing to help

By that time, statewide discontent among Indian coaches and educators was a chronic problem. Nine years earlier, frustrated by a lack of empowerment, Native schools threatened to secede from the SDHSAA and form the South Dakota Indian School Activities Association.

"We felt we had special needs that weren't being addressed, and nobody was doing anything about it," says Bryan Brewer, a longtime Pine Ridge High School educator and coach. "Out of frustration, we talked about starting our own organization. But after a while, we just let it go. We've kind of got this defeatist attitude about things. It was almost like, 'Well, we lost out again.' "

In Carney, though, Native American leaders say they have finally found someone who is willing and able to help.

Marlyn Goldhammer, who served as executive director for 22 years before retiring in 2001, frequently talked about getting the Indian schools more involved. But Carney has backed up words with actions, offering hope that Indian-white relations in the world of high school sports are headed in the right direction.

"Wayne came along, and things started changing," says Brewer, who became the first-ever Native representative on the SDHSAA's board of directors. "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be where we are today. (Goldhammer) never took that step to bring us in. But we didn't seek out Wayne. Wayne sought us out."

Starting dialogue

In 2002, Carney set up a Native American Advisory Council that includes superintendents, principals, coaches and referees. One of its first tasks was to set up a series of roundtable discussions with basketball referees that addressed what Indian coaches perceived as unfair treatment.

"A lot of our athletes come from non-traditional families; they don't have a male authority figure at home," says McLaughlin dean of students and former basketball coach Hank Taken Alive, who served on the panel. "So when a male authority figure, such as a referee, approaches them with a loud voice or command, they don't know to to respond to that. They take it as a personal issue."

Encouraged by positive reaction to the roundtables, Carney approached the advisory council with the challenge of getting a Native American on the SDHSAA board of directors. From 1978 to that point, nine Indian educators had run for board positions, which are voted upon by member schools.

All had lost.

"They never won, and they never will," Carney says. "Each school gets one vote, so even if you got every vote south of the interstate and west of the river, you still couldn't win. It became obvious that the only way we were going to get Native American representation was to have it mandated in."

There was talk about placing a non-voting Indian member on the board, just to sit in on discussions. But Carney thought that would be a token gesture.

So he went for broke, seeking an amendment to the SDHSAA constitution that would create a Native American at-large position on the board, which sets activity-related policy for the state.

Changing the constitution requires a 60 percent vote of the schools, so Carney hit the road to sell the idea.

"He got the amendment together, and then it went out to the schools," says Tom Casey, who has covered Pine Ridge-area athletics for more than 20 years as a radio broadcaster. "And he didn't just send it out to the schools - he took it out to the schools. He invited himself to meetings, he talked to school officials, and when it went to vote, it passed."

The measure was approved by a 74 percent vote in 2004. Soon after, Brewer defeated Stuart Zephier of Flandreau to become the first Native American representative.

Wanted: coaches, officials

Carney didn't stop there. Mindful of negative Native perception of basketball officiating, he made sure there was an Indian voice on the committee that selects state tournament referees. He's trying to get more Native officials trained to work games on the reservation.

Carney also worked to get Native American coaches on sports advisory committees - which propose rule changes - and the South Dakota Coaches Association.

"Now we need them to start showing up at the meetings," he says. "You can open up the doors, but you need someone to walk through them."

Carney admits he's still learning about Native American culture and the realities of reservation life. He has made several more trips to Pine Ridge to meet with Indian educators and try to ease their feelings of frustration.

So far, the effort is appreciated.

"He's got a tough row to hoe," says former Todd County and South Dakota State basketball player Roger Campbell, now the state's director of tribal government relations. "But the fact that he wants to learn is important. That's where his success is coming from: his willingness to try."