Editor's note: This is the first of a three-story series examining the South Dakota Mines 2022 football season in which the Hardrockers had several milestones to celebrate. This story is a general review of the season and will be followed by some of the milestones of the 7-4 overall campaign and 6-3 RMAC season, followed by a look at alumni support and the future of the program.

RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota Mines football team had shown flashes of respectability in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and as a Division II program, but could never quite get over the hump.

That is until the 2022 season.

It was a memorable campaign for the Hardrockers as they had a winning season in RMAC play for the first time in its history, finishing in fourth place in the 10-team conference at 6-3, one game behind both Colorado State-Pueblo and Western Colorado (7-2). Colorado Mines won the league with a 9-0 record.

Mines capped off the season with a 28-7 win over Chadron State College on Nov. 12, breaking a 15-game losing skid to the Eagles. It was the first seven-win season for the program in Division II play and the first since 2010.
The Hardrockers also finished with back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the 1984-85 seasons. Since 1986, Mines had 28 seasons of below .500 play.

Completing his third season with Mines, head coach Charlie Flohr is now 15-11 at the helm, going 2-2 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and 6-5 and 7-4 in the past two campaigns.

Flohr said the season's success came from all involved – players, coaches, school administration, and the fans. He said that when he came to Mines for the interview process before the 2020 season, it wasn't just about the players or coaches, but they all had to have the same belief system within the complex and within the university.

"It says a lot about our administration – Dr. (James) Rankin (president of Mines), Joel Lueken, our director of athletics, and everybody that's affiliated with South Dakota Mines football, just all of the hard work that they continue to put in our program," he said. "It's starting to show and reflect even with our kids. They're continuing to show up to work hard every single day and we're competing and playing in a lot of good football games."

Before Flohr took over in 2020, the Hardrockers had been close under previous head coach Zach Tinker with three straight 5-6 seasons (2016-18), including three 4-6 campaigns in league play. In 2019, however, the 'Rockers dropped to 2-6 and 3-8 overall.

Rankin, a 1978 Mines graduate, was named the 19th president of the school in Nov. 2017. He said this easily was the best and most enjoyable football season since he has been back with the school.

"To get our record at 7-4, two winning seasons in-a-row, that is fantastic," he said recently in his office, with an older regulation gold Mines football helmet on his desk. "You look at the RMAC standings and we're right up there towards the top, so that was good to see. It really has been a change. It was fun to see all the fans show up, to see all the ramps full, to see the students over in the stands."

Flohr said that improvement doesn't happen overnight. Regarding some of the changes they've made within the football program, he calls it better for everybody on campus.

"The Covid year was obviously tough, not knowing it would happen when I took the job. But it really made me better, it made the staff better and it made our administration better," he said. "We really had to sit down and focus on the things that we wanted to do early. It's been a good, slow process, but anything that's going to have some success is going to take a little bit of time, and we're very thankful to our administration and our players for allowing that to happen."

One of four team captains, senior offensive tackle Connor Smith said that last season's 6-5 overall record gave them an idea that better things were in store for 2022.

"Going straight into the offseason, we were all talking about, 'hey, we can be better than last year,'" Smith said. "The fact that we did, that was huge, and it all goes back to the work we put in from the end of last season to the beginning of this season. I think with getting respect throughout the conference, we were a team to actually be worried about. That's a huge thing that each year this program can keep building on top of that, earning that respect."

Another senior captain, defensive end/linebacker Kyante Christian, said their high expectations allowed them to push each other to get to the seven-win season, and more importantly, to six wins in RMAC play.

"We knew that we had the team that could be successful, and we had all the pieces to be successful," he said. "So, it was just making sure that we put everything together, and everybody did their individual part in the off-season. There was no doubt in our minds that we were going to have a successful season. We feel like we kind of fell short of some goals; we feel we could have been better than we were, but that is just how the season played out."

Former Hardrocker wide receiver (1993-1995) and South Dakota Mines Athletics Hall of Famer Ryan Cadwallader said the program has taken steps in the right direction and he looks forward to the future.

"The first step is getting over the hump and getting in that mode of winning and having a competitive winning season," he said. "The next step is getting to the top, and we're not at the top yet. We're getting close and I think we're a couple of guys away and a couple of key plays away and we can get there. I really think he (Flohr) has the guys going in the right direction. He has some good kids coming in and he has some good leaders in key positions."
 
About South Dakota Mines
The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and NCAA Division II offering 10 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 members, as well as four associate members, located in the states of California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah.