Rick Smith has known Deng Deng’s family since before the Mr. Basketball winner was even born.
Smith grew up near Wood Lake, about a mile south of Tokio, North Dakota, where Cathy Leftbear resides. Smith became the Four Winds/Minnewaukan boys’ basketball coach in the early 1990s, and Leftbear herself played basketball for the school in the early 2000s. She eventually had five kids, including Deng, and moved to the Minneapolis area. But around Deng’s third-grade year, she moved the family back to Tokio.
And it’s Tokio where the family has stayed. In a reservation that has historically been plagued by hardships, Deng — along with his numerous siblings, cousins and friends — find joy through athletics. And under Smith’s tutelage, Deng has built up his game to the next level. The 6-foot-4 senior was recently named Mr. Basketball, joining Jason Feather as the second player in school history to achieve the feat.
“The whole community is very, very proud of what this kid has become,” Smith said. “To come out of a little tiny town of Tokio, living in a little housing project built by Tokio, and to be the dedicated type of kid he is.”
Working with kids in the Fort Totten area is the only job Smith has ever known. He started as a student teacher in 1988 after graduating from the University of North Dakota, and went on to teach elementary school for 14 years. He was an assistant coach on the FW/M boys’ basketball team for two years, but the head coach at the time left, and Smith wasn’t selected to replace him.
So he spent a few years coaching kids at the fifth and sixth grade levels.
“I needed that,” Smith said. “I was just a young kid. It taught me patience about the sport.”
In 1993, Smith became the Indians’ new head coach, kickstarting a career that’s spanned multiple decades. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he coached some of Leftbear’s brothers — who would later become Deng’s uncles.
“I really got to know the family quite a bit,” Smith said. “I used to pick them up for practice. All the girls played. So I knew the family quite well.”
Deng is named after his grandpa on his dad’s side. But his dad wasn’t in the picture for the majority of Deng’s childhood; a divorce separated the family when Deng was just a baby. He spent his early childhood in Minneapolis before his mom brought the crew back to Tokio, which allowed him to really find his passion for football and basketball.
“His family was always into sports, always into basketball. Basketball, basketball, basketball,” Smith said. “So I think him moving back here with his family members really got him to love the sport.”
From third grade on, Deng grew up in the Spirit Lake Reservation community surrounded by not only his four siblings, but a slew of cousins. Sports became his life.
In fifth grade, he started playing travel basketball under coach Oliver Gourd Jr. His athletic prowess only grew from there as he got taller, built up muscle and put himself in the right mind space to compete at the high school level.
“To do that without a father figure, it’s pretty amazing,” Smith said. “The traveling coaches that took him when he was young, his high school coaches in football and basketball, we’ve helped him as much as we could. But there’s still things that a high school athlete has to do on their own if they want to become a good athlete. You can’t be with them 24/7. He’s done a lot of that on his own, and it’s just amazing how focused he’s become and how humble he is on what he’s doing.”
This year’s FW/M squad featured not only Deng’s younger brother Marial, but five of Deng’s first cousins. In addition to the Dengs, there’s the Kejas — Kashton Jr. and Kylon — Dalen Leftbear, Keilan Longie and Richard Cavanaugh. Another cousin, Kaleb Keja, played on the C squad. That makes eight total first cousins playing basketball for the Indians. They’re connected through their moms, who are all sisters.
“Being able to play with them is an amazing feeling because we would play outside growing up when we were young,” Deng said. “So being able to do it in front of a bunch of different communities, and a bunch of different fans and TVs and stuff, is a great feeling.”
Deng started to realize he loved football around seventh and eighth grade. By the end of middle school, he was already dunking a basketball, and he began discovering how good of an athlete he could be.
Though football became his primary love, and the sport he’s going to continue at the next level, basketball always had a special place in his life, too.
“It meant a lot because it brought me places I would have never went without it,” Deng said about the sport of basketball. “It just helped me become a better person physically and mentally. It helped me become a harder worker.”
Deng made the varsity team as a freshman. Though he only got a couple minutes of playing time per game at first, he said Smith always pushed him to get better.
Another major help on the coaching side has been the 6-foot-5 Travis Mertens, who was recently named Winter Assistant Coach of the Year. Deng and Mertens now share a cool honor together: They’ve been both been named Mr. Basketball, as Mertens won the award in 2006 for Devils Lake.
“He’s really a big part in practices and game plans,” Deng said. “He’s more on the athletic side, so he could really just tell us what moves we could do against him, what moves we have to stop. He really knows how to scout really good players on the other team.”
The Indians ended up making it to the state tournament during Deng’s freshman season in 2021. They lost in the semifinals to Kindred, but Deng had a chance to make his first impression in front of a sizable audience.
“He pretty much made a name for himself when he was a freshman at the state tournament,” Smith said. “He came off the bench as a freshman and started knocking down three-pointers and scoring… Oh, this kid’s gonna be an amazing athlete, an amazing basketball player.”
The Indians went undefeated the next year and made it to the state championship game. They had a rematch against a favored Kindred team, where Deng nearly achieved a triple-double. FW/M took home the gold.
By Deng’s junior season, he had cemented himself as the team leader, Smith said. But the Indians lost Dalen Leftbear to an injury in the regional tournament and couldn’t follow up the previous year’s championship run.
This year was the first season of the three-class basketball system in North Dakota. After dominating in Division B for so long, the Indians were bumped up to a more competitive Division A.
And they were still one of the best teams. They floated around the No. 2-4 spots in the weekly rankings, and took an early-season victory over the eventual state champion, Devils Lake. Smith said Deng added 15 pounds of muscle over the summer, largely due to the work he does nutritionally and in the weight room. According to Smith, Deng took the initiative to put in that extra step all on his own.
“I’ve never seen a kid like Deng eat the way he eats,” Smith said. “I mean, he eats fish and sushi and steak and chicken. And I’ve never seen a kid like that, eat like that. You see a lot of kids like that: It’s McDonald’s, it’s Burger King, it’s pizza. I mean, yeah, he eats that a little bit, but he eats well. I don’t know where the heck he got that from.”
Deng led the state with 27.2 points per game. He was a force on the court and became known for thundering dunks and athletic routes to the rim. He also added eight rebounds per game.
“I started to set the role of becoming the man on the team year after year, whether that’s shooting the ball more, getting more rebounds or getting more blocks, defending better players,” Deng said. “I feel like I just did a better job of becoming that guy on the team.”
Playing in a stacked Region 2, though, the team’s championship hopes were short-lived. The Indians were eliminated in the region tournament with losses to Devils Lake and Grafton — the eventual first and third-place teams in the state tournament.
“I think we were good enough to be there,” Smith said. “We had a pretty good year, and I thought we were one of the better teams in the state of North Dakota, but it is what it is. You gotta get there. You gotta take care of business. And we didn’t get a chance to.”
The Indians had to let their deflating exit simmer. But after Wylee Delorme and the Firebirds won it all with a thrilling championship victory against Kindred, Deng was honored as the Division A Senior Athlete of the Year. A short time later, he was announced as this year’s Mr. Basketball on live TV.
“It made us feel a little bit better. We were hoping to get to that state tournament,” Smith said. “That was kind of our goal, to get to that state tournament. And after we ended up with a tough, disappointing loss to Grafton, it was a tough time, especially Deng and the seniors that played their last game. You hate to see that. You go through it every year, but this year was a little more saddening because of the time that the kids put into their basketball careers.”
And though Deng didn’t get to compete in the state tournament, it wasn’t just his rival Delorme hoisting the gold and celebrating the end of a 99-year drought. It was his friend Wylee.
Deng has played with Delorme in AAU tournaments, along with plenty of other members of the Devils Lake championship team. Before the three-class system put them in the same division, these kids all bonded and traveled together. Deng and Delorme were two of the eight finalists for Mr. Basketball.
“I really became close with him with playing AAU basketball this past summer, and staying in the same rooms, riding together for hours,” Deng said. “So it was a nice thing to see him up there with the Mr. Basketball finalists too, because that’s my boy.”
Despite their close connection, it was all business on the court. The Firebirds and Indians played three competitive games throughout the season that tested both squads’ resilience and determination. The meetings brought the community together for exciting nights of basketball, the stands packed with fans. The competition didn’t get much better than watching Deng and Delorme go after it.
“It was fun because he’s one of the best players in the state,” Deng said. “We knew we were in for a fun game almost every single game. It was just fun to compete; the atmosphere was crazy. Almost every seat would be filled. We knew it was gonna be a battle from start to finish. And we knew the intensity was gonna skyrocket.”
The reservation community didn’t get a state championship this year, but they got something even rarer in a Mr. Basketball award. Take a look at any Facebook post about Deng, or at the amount of advertisements sold in his honor, or just at the attendance of a game he’s playing in. They care about this kid so much that it’s not just his award, but something they can all share together.
Deng is one of their own — part of a larger reservation family.
“I know they feel like they win the award too, which is a great thing because it’s from Four Winds/Minnewaukan,” Deng said. “That just shows that someone from here — the kid, say, in fifth grade — I feel like they got inspired to go chase awards like Mr. Basketball, All-State, and they could do better than me. That’s the main thing is just inspiring the youth to go do better stuff when they get older.”
And seeing Deng honored in this way is the kind of reward that drives Smith to coach these kids year after year. He’s grown up here, and he’s seen the kinds of things they have to go through and the way they’re able to persevere.
“It don’t take long for you to fall in love with our kids. It really doesn’t,” Smith said. “You could go around and question all the teachers around here, and they’re gonna say, ‘It’s the love of the kids.’”
Many of the kids on the reservation grow up without a mom and a dad. Often, they’re raised by a grandparent, a single parent, or another family entirely. In Deng’s case, he’s always had his mom, but he grew up without his dad. Yet Smith never finds Deng, or any of these kids, complaining.
“You come to work as a teacher, as a staff member here, and you have a shitty day or a shitty night or something; you come here the next day, and these kids have probably had a 10-times-worse night than you did, but then put a smile on their face. Hands down,” Smith said. “There’s always one or two that’ll get you to just snap your head out of it, and you start looking at, ‘Oh, my life ain’t so bad. Let’s get on with this day. Let’s get on with your life.’”
Smith helps the kids he coaches in any way he can, whether it’s giving rides or buying shoes. He’s become godfather to multiple kids he’s worked with, including a girl who’s going to graduate high school this year. The girl’s dad played basketball for Smith in the early 1990s.
“A lot of these guys, they’re not my real brothers, but I consider them my brothers,” Smith said. “It’s a big family thing, and you fall in love with the kids, and it’s hard to not work with them.”
And now he’ll say goodbye to Deng, who’s left a legacy not only based on his own merits, but on the example he’s leaving behind for all the kids in his path. He’s a shining example of hard work and dedication for his teammates to look up to, and hopefully replicate as they get older.
“We keep telling them that Deng’s gonna be leaving in June, probably for a while,” Smith said. “You’ve got now until then to follow him around like a little puppy. Follow him into that weight room. See what he does…. Take advantage of having a kid like that in your program and in your school.”
Deng is still 17 years old, and will turn 18 on June 11. Then, once summer break is over, he’ll begin school at UND as a kinesiology student and Division 1 football player.
“In all actuality, we could have him back for another year if his mom and dad never sent him to school early,” Smith said with a chuckle.
Deng is just as much of a star on the football field as he is on the basketball court, averaging 82.5 receiving yards per game in his senior season. He chose football before he went on this Mr. Basketball run. But it’s the sport he’s committed to, and the sport he sees the greatest future for himself in.
“Everybody still wants to see him play basketball. Everybody was a little shocked that he did that,” Smith said. “But there wasn’t a lot of college coaches that came knocking on his door, which was surprising. I was shocked.”
The Fighting Hawks have a strong reputation in the Football Championship Subdivision. They have a .609 all-time winning percentage and 26 conference titles. They won a national title in 2001.
College football will require even more of a commitment from Deng, and an even tougher level of competition. He’ll get to compete against more athletes of his size, and won’t be steamrolling over smaller players like he could in high school.
“I know I have to overcome the physicality side, and the more athletic ability side, because everyone there is gonna be crazy athletic, crazy strong, crazy fast,” Deng said.” I know I just have to compete every single day and then do my best.”
Deng said that he hopes to play professional football following his time at UND. After his football career is over, he wants to start his own gym and train young athletes like himself — including ones from the Spirit Lake Reservation.
“I envision helping young athletes reach the next level in their sport, and have a pathway for their life while getting an athletic scholarship and getting an education,” Deng said. “Just helping them have their life filled out.”
There’s a lot for Deng to look forward to, both in football and in life. But his time playing basketball for the Indians has come to an end, and it’s a tenure that Smith will remember for a long, long time.
That’s the thing about great players, and great people: They leave legacies. And their accomplishments aren’t forgotten once they leave the confines of their small community and go on to greater pastures.
“We’re gonna miss him like crazy. There’s no doubt,” Smith said. “You just don’t have leaders that come in your school like that. We’ve had a lot of great athletes, we’ve had some good leaders, but we haven’t had anybody as well-rounded and focused as he is in this school. I’ve had a lot of great athletes, I’ve had a lot of good basketball players, a lot of great kids — but man, he’s gonna be hard to beat. It’s gonna be awhile before you see another one like that, if we ever do.”
