VOLGA – Two weeks ago Alec Squires capped off a basketball career at Sioux Valley that will go down as one of the best in school history. He led the Cossacks to their fourth straight State Tournament and a consolation championship for the second straight season.

“It was really fun and exciting,” Squires said. “I’m glad I finished out my senior year and high school career with the squad that I played with. It was just a good group of guys and we really connected and fought hard, tooth and nail till the end of the season. I was super glad that we finished with a win,” Squires said.

In his three-year career he set the program records for rebounds with 814, blocks with 152 and dunks with 78. He also set the school record for field goal percentage in a season this year as he shot 75.8% from the field and had 38 dunks this season, which was also a school record.

You can add another accolade to his career as he is the 2024 Boys Basketball Register Player of the Year.

The beginning of his high school career wasn’t ideal as he had to sit out until the State Tournament his freshman season due to issues with his knees.

That didn’t mean that head coach Bill Vincent didn’t have the confidence that he could develop into a Division I talent though.
“You could see from the get go that he was going to have the size and the motor to play at the next level. To have a big that gets out and runs the floor and is always going hard is something special. We could see it at a young age that he could have that ability if he worked at it, which he did,” Vincent said.

Squires would play on the varsity team his sophomore season and averaged a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds per game. He helped the Cossacks to their second-straight Runner-Up finish and that was when college teams started to take some notice.

He then played AAU for the Pentagon Schoolers out of Sioux Falls and got the attention of South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits would offer him a scholarship in the fall of his junior year and a weight was lifted off of his shoulders as he verbally committed right away.

“You have a lot to prove when you’ve made a name for yourself [and are heading to a Division I school], but it’s definitely a weight off of your shoulders. Some guys don’t have that opportunity and have to work their butt off [to get a scholarship] until the end of their high school career. … I played a lot more free, knowing that I didn’t have to worry about [figuring out where I was going to go to school],” Squires said.

After committing, Squires knew that he was going to have to improve if he wanted to make sure he was ready for Division I basketball. In his junior season he averaged 15 points and 11 rebounds per game and had 60 blocks.

Despite having a successful junior season, Squires wanted to become even more of a force, so he made changes to his body ahead of his senior year.

“The defining moment was the transition from my junior to senior year. That summer I made it my duty to put on some muscle because my sophomore and junior year, I had height, but not a lot of weight on me. That summer after my junior year I took it hard in the weight room and just focused on building that lean muscle mass so I could not only be a dominant force on defense, but offense too,” Squires said.

That hard work in the summer paid off as this season he averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds and was a First Team All-State selection.

Squires said one of the the things that drove his success throughout his career is the way Vincent coached him. He got on him early in his career and he thinks that helped not only high school, but for what lies ahead at SDSU.

“In my early high school years, the hard coaching that coach Vincent was putting on me really built how I am as a player right now. Leading into the collegiate level that SDSU is going to offer, I feel like hard coaching has prepared me for that next step with all the difficulties that Division I basketball has. Coach Vincent has really prepared me for that next step,” Squires said.

The hard coaching from Vincent has led to a lot of success for his team and players individually as this is the fourth time in the past five seasons that the Register Player of the Year has gone to a Sioux Valley player.

“I think it’s an expectation in our program that we’re going to go hard and we’re going to coach you hard,” Vincent said. “We go through those conversations with them when they make our team and get to that varsity level, and ask them ‘are you willing to be coached up hard?’ Obviously [Squires] was and he wanted that and thrived in that setting.”

That’s not to say that the Volga and Sioux Valley community aren’t loving. Squires credited the community behind him for a lot of his success as well.

“Here at Sioux Valley and in the Volga area, we just love each other so much and we love the school, the atmosphere and the environment that all Sioux Valley sports have. When you have a community like Volga and Sioux Valley, it’s so positive and energizing to be in a community like this,” Squires said.

The community won’t have a hard time backing Squires in college as he’ll be playing half of his games about 10 minutes from Volga. Vincent said he’s sent a lot of kids to play basketball at the next level, but this one will be unique in the fact that the whole town of Volga will be able to watch him play at home.

“Obviously you want the players to go on to the next level and have success and help their programs out after they leave, but what makes this special and unique is he’s going to be five or six miles down the road. So our fans and our locals can get excited about Jackrabbit basketball, and it makes it unique and extra special,” Vincent said.

Squires athleticism and ability to go up and get rebounds and dunk the ball is what attracted SDSU. He spent a lot of his high school career bringing the crowd at the Cossack Center to its feet with putback dunks or alley oops, and that is something that Vincent is going to remember when he thinks back on Squires’ career.

“I’m going to really remember a guy who wanted to win and had the motor to go out and do that. You knew he was always going to go hard when the ball was tipped and was ready to go and play. I’m going to remember a guy that was kind of a human highlight reel at our level. With all the dunks that he had and playing the game above the rim. … There’s not a lot of times where you have a high school kid that is able to play the game above the rim, but Alec Squires was able to do that,” Vincent said.

Squires will head to South Dakota State this summer to get acquainted with the team and workout with his new teammates. You never know what your role on the team will be as you head into your freshman season, but one thing is for certain, Squires is going to give it his all.

“It doesn’t matter what my role is. I’m going to play my role to the best of my abilities and I’m going to be a game changer. I’m going to play to my full potential, no matter what my role is,” Squires said.