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MITCHELL — Jaden Haefs of Rapid City Stevens recently signed on to play basketball with Dakota Wesleyan University. As a senior earlier this season, Haefs visited the Corn Palace to play the Mitchell Kernels and knocked in a buzzer-beating 3 pointer to win the game for Stevens.

As Haefs told us, The Corn Palace has long been one of his go to spots for basketball.

“Before we played our first game there, I was telling one of my teammates that (the Corn Palace) was my favorite place to play at other than home,” Haefs said. “When I was a little kid, and I would watch my sister (play) there, I think I fell in love with the place just because of the corn balls.”

Haefs said assistant coach for DWU Terrell Newton was integral in getting him to come to DWU.

“I was contacting a lot of (college) basketball coaches early in the basketball season, and I hit up (DWU assistant coach Terrell Newton), and he got back to me in like 10 to 15 minutes,” Haefs said.  “Right away, we hit it off, and he’s been so supportive of me throughout the whole season. We stayed in touch, and right away I knew this was the college I wanted to attend.”

Haefs also said he really enjoyed his visit on campus and likes Mitchell.

“They have a great pre-physical therapy program that I visited, and it’s close to home, so it’s the perfect place to be for me,” Haefs said.

Haefs was the second leading scorer for a Stevens team this year that was eliminated in the SoDak 16 in the 2021-22 season at the Corn Palace by the Mitchell Kernels.