ONIDA – Sully Buttes football and girls’ basketball head coach Mark Senftner is stepping away from coaching at least temporarily after a recent diagnosis of a brain tumor.
The tumor was discovered after Senftner was accidentally struck in the head by a soccer ball during gym class recently. He suffered a seizure and was hospitalized.
Senftner revealed the diagnosis in an email to his fellow teachers, which said, “What we found out is that I have a brain tumor on the left side of my brain. The accidental hit with the soccer ball that day was how it was found. The blessing in disguise.”
Senftner coached the first three games of this season, including the Chargers’ 52-30 over Lyman Tuesday in Presho. Assistant coach Susie Rilling will act as Sully Buttes’ head coach while Senftner is away, starting with a Monday game in Onida against Aberdeen Roncalli, the first game Senftner will have missed in his 35-year career that includes stints in Roscoe, Gregory and Timber Lake. On that same day, Senftner will be examined at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Senftner has led the Chargers to four Class B girls basketball championships and three football championship games.
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