DePerry’s pride shines on Heritage Day

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day last fall Tori DePerry presented her teammates on the USD women’s basketball squad with a PowerPoint presentation about life as a Native American. They talked about what that was like for her and how big a presence her heritage is in her life.

The Coyotes heard DePerry tell them that her mother is a member of the Stockbridge Munsee tribe and that her father is a member of the Ojibwe tribe in the Shawano, Wisconsin, area in northern Wisconsin where she grew up. They heard about how happy this member of the Ojibwe tribe was to be able to tell them about the culture she came from.

Her teammates were enthralled by the presentation. DePerry, a 6-0 senior starter for the Coyotes in her first year in the program after four seasons at Saginaw Valley State, did her best to answer their questions. The photos she showed them grabbed their hearts.

“They were fascinated,” DePerry said. “I love it whenever people ask me questions about my heritage, especially my teammates. I was able to tell them about hooping it up in the driveway on the reservation and running around the streets – that’s what we did when we were young.” 

The PowerPoint included pictures and videos of DePerry when she lived on the Stockbridge Munsee Reservation in her great grandmother’s home before they moved into town. She also showed them her family’s land on Lake Superior where they had built a cabin.

“I talked about how I used to dance in powwows when I was younger and showed some clips of the powwows and the dances we did,” she said. “And we also talked about the stereotypes that Native Americans must deal with. I just wanted to educate them and throw in some fun facts about me and my family.”

Was there a favorite fun fact?

“They loved the picture of me in my regalia dancing – I was six years old and I had double-braids,” she said. “They couldn’t get enough of that.”

Saturday’s game at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center against Kansas City is the third annual Native American Heritage basketball game at USD. The event will feature the Lakota Flag Song as well as drum group performances and a special recognition of 1964 Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills at halftime.

The first two Heritage games have averaged more than 600 Native American students and alumni. DePerry will strike a prominent presence at this contest both as a player and as a Native American, as she has all season.

“It’s super special that they have this day at USD,” DePerry said. “It’s so cool that they have it with a basketball game day because I think it’s very important to show people, especially younger generations, that they can become a Division I basketball player, too. It’s a day where we get a chance to celebrate our indigenous heritage through this university with Native Americans in South Dakota.”

DePerry, who is working on a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies at USD, put her name in the transfer portal after emerging as an all-conference player for a strong program in her four years at SVSU where she averaged 17 points and 8 rebounds as a senior with one more season of eligibility. 

As many Division I programs are realizing these days, solid proven Division II players with lots of college minutes on their resume are often extremely productive players when given the opportunity to move up a level. DePerry is an example of that based on her productivity with the Coyotes, averaging 8.5 points and 4.7 rebounds in 21 minutes a game.

What makes her connection to USD a little unusual is that much of it was discovered after she had already agreed to visit.

To begin with, DePerry was a ball girl for the Green Bay Phoenix while USD coach Kayla Karius (formerly Tetschlag) was a star player there. That part she was aware of initially. What she didn’t know until later, however, was that Kayla’s husband Rick had coached DePerry’s brother Jake when Rick was on the staff at Wisconsin-LaCrosse and that Rick Karius’ father, a longtime high school coach in Wisconsin, had coached DePerry’s father, Jeff, in high school. If DePerry came to USD it would be the third time a Karius was coaching a DePerry.

“When I was setting up her visit here, I’m like, ‘Tori, look at all the connections we have,’” Kayla Karius said. “If you don’t come here, I’m going to feel like one of the worst recruiters in the country. You need to come check this place out. I think it’s meant to be that you should play here.’”

Then it all came to be. On DePerry’s visit she asked Karius about making time for a workout. She didn’t want to skip a day.

“She was a bundle of energy on that visit,” Karius said. “I’ve never had an official visit with a kid where they asked to make time for a workout. She loves the weight room. I coached for three years at a Power 5 school and no player has ever said, ‘Hey Coach, I know we have an itinerary but would it be OK if I have an hour-and-a-half where I can go lift? I don’t want to fall behind in my workouts.’”

Since then, Karius has seen the toughness, energy, and willingness to work hard. The coach has also seen DePerry’s unmistakable enthusiasm for representing her culture to young people attending games.

“She’s really passionate about the young kids because she was one of them,” Karius said. “She gives them a role model to look up to and to show them that it’s possible that you can do that. You can get a college degree and play Division I basketball.”

During DePerry’s decision-making process she discovered that USD didn’t have anyone in the transfer portal going into 2023-24. For some that might have been a deterrent because it meant a lot of the roster was going to stay the same, but DePerry didn’t see it that way.

Instead, she called it “a green flag.”

“During my three-day visit I got to spend a lot of time with the girls and I felt very comfortable,” DePerry said. “When I saw that no one was transferring out I thought it showed the culture of the team. Everyone wanted to stay together the next year.”

Last week DePerry had not scored a basket during the first 39 minutes and 59.6 seconds of a road win at St. Thomas. Even so, on an inbounds play with .4 of a second remaining she was going to get the ball if all went right. She had lots of family in the crowd that night from Wisconsin so time was also running out on giving them something to talk about on the ride home.

Then, after a back-cut on a play drawn up by assistant coach Mike Jewett, she was open underneath. Alexi Hempe’s pass was perfectly executed and DePerry caught the ball and scored off the glass.

“I almost slipped, which would have been bad, but once I knew the pass was in the air and I didn’t see anyone trailing me I was thinking ‘Yes, just finish this with a layup,’” DePerry said. “Then the whole team was surrounding me before I knew it. The review took what seemed like forever but it was super special and awesome to be able to celebrate with the team like that.”

DePerry’s readiness to identify with her heritage has been another highlight during the 2023-24 season. There will be eight USD Native American athletes who will be part of the celebration on Saturday.

“I’m very proud to be able to play basketball in front of young Native American girls,” she said. “I’ve gotten so many Instagram DMs from Native American girls in high school who have told me I’m an inspiration to them. It really keeps me motivated, to be honest. It might even be right before practice and I’ll see a message from someone and I’m more motivated to practice. I keep telling them that if they have any questions for me, just reach out. It makes me proud to be a Native American for sure.”