Papa Syrup and the Fighting Fourteen

PINE RIDGE—Back when Mahpiya Luta was still called Red Cloud, Duane “Syrup” Big Crow coached a football team that deserves to be remembered as more than a footnote. The South Dakota High School Activities Association (SDHSAA) website won’t show their names or scores, and the record books skip straight to the school’s 9-man All Nations Conference years. But before Red Cloud dropped down, before they were playing only reservation schools, there was one extraordinary season in 2016—a year when fourteen young men played 11-man football both ways and made believers out of everyone who thought Indian kids couldn’t win on the same field as the Wasicu.

They were called the Fighting Fourteen.

Syrup Big Crow wasn’t a former college quarterback, didn’t have a degree in kinesiology, and didn’t talk like the clipboard philosophers who diagram sophisticated plays. He started in the kitchen—literally. After graduating from Holy Rosary (now Red Cloud) in 1976, he washed dishes and cooked for the kids while other men with degrees coached football.

But something about Big Crow— his calm, his humor, his refusal to see himself as above anyone— made people listen. Eventually, someone noticed the Lakota guy in the kitchen had a knack for knowing how to talk to young men who didn’t always like being told what to do. He went from assistant to coordinator to calling plays “upstairs” at Wingate High School in New Mexico. That’s where he learned the art of patience from his mentor, Gary Schuster, who told him, “Never yell at your players, they respond better if you just talk to them.”

After thirteen years at Wingate, he came home to Pine Ridge and found himself working in the kitchen again—this time at the new hospital. Eventually, his boy, D.J., made it to high school, and Syrup followed. Coaching became part of his rhythm again. But like so many good-hearted men on the reservation, his blunt honesty rubbed administrators the wrong way. He called out a coach for calling a fake punt that backfired badly—and was fired for it.

But Syrup doesn’t stay bitter. A year later, he took a job at Red Cloud—his old school. In 2010, his first season as head coach, he led the Crusaders to a 6–2 record and the playoffs. The reward? He was let go, and from what he remembers it was because they didn’t think he was good enough. They had a losing record over the next two seasons, ran through two other coaches.

By 2016, Big Crow was back in charge and the season started badly. Three losses in a row—St. Francis, Custer, Chamberlain. Big Crow huddled his boys and asked them what they thought. “I said, ‘You guys wanna try the RPO?’” Run- Pass Option—modern, fast, risky. The boys grinned. They’d been waiting for that. Assistant coach Wade O’Bryan added, “Let’s go no-huddle. Let’s get these guys in shape.”

They started with twenty-some players. By midseason, it was down to fourteen—some quit because with only fourteen players they needed to be in shape, and workouts were grueling. Others were ineligible or hurt. Fourteen for 11-man football. Every player went both ways.

Once they found the RPO rhythm, they didn’t stop. They beat Pine Ridge, then Little Wound in a one-point thriller, 41–40. They held the line in Lead and won 26–24 after stopping a fullback on fourth and goal—a half-yard shy. Then they beat Bennett County and Crow Creek, and even avenged an early loss to Custer to advance to the second round of the playoffs.

The Fighting Fourteen had three big weapons.

Quarterback Ale Rama, just a junior, was a wiry, athletic kid with instincts you couldn’t coach. “He was unbelievable out there,” Big Crow says. “Running, throwing— teams were scared of him.”

Fullback and linebacker Deveon Provost was the muscle. “Pine Ridge couldn’t stop him. Lead couldn’t stop him. He just kept grinding. When we needed a yard, we gave it to him,” Syrup remembers.

Then there was Russell Leader Charge, a lightning bolt in shoulder pads. A basketball star who ran like the wind and could carry tacklers an extra five yards. “He’d see a one-foot opening and run right through it without losing a stride,” Big Crow said. Leader Charge had only one gear—all out. He said he would go “full blast in practice and get mad if told to slow down.

But come game time, Leader Charge was sheer excitement. He could change direction without losing a step, and twist through tackles. Against Roncalli, he gave the Aberdeen crowd something to remember— a sideline sprint that left their star defensive back in the dust.

The nickname “Syrup” came from his aunt, though she never said why. When two of his grandsons, Koby Morrisette and Kasey Miller, joined the team, they started calling him “Papa Syrup.”

When Red Cloud joined the All Nations Conference the next year, Big Crow was quietly dismissed again. On paper, it made sense— the school was changing leagues, looking for a “new direction.” But those fourteen kids who went both ways knew the truth: their coach had done something even few credentialed coaches could do.

He had them focused and playing as a unit; there was chemistry between Big Crow and his players that made them greater than the sum of their parts.

What is often overlooked: when Red Cloud lost to Aberdeen Roncalli, 68-18, the opposing players and coaches, and the hometown Roncalli fans, were thrilled by the way Red Cloud scored those 18 points. The Fighting Fourteen weren’t just football players on that day, they were tribal ambassadors. They made a 50-point loss exciting to watch, a game all in attendance will always remember.

2016 Fighting Fourteen Record
9/2 @ St. Francis — L 13–0
9/9 vs Custer — L 34–20
9/16 vs Chamberlain — L 62–12

And then the Run Pass Option:
9/23 @ Pine Ridge — W 28–6
9/30 vs Little Wound — W 41–40
10/7 @ Lead–Deadwood — W 26–24
10/14 vs Bennett County — W 32–18
10/21 @ Crow Creek — W 69–0
10/25 vs Custer (playoffs) — W 40–28
10/31 @ Roncalli — L 68–18

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him at skindiesel@msn.com)

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