BELLE FOURCHE—Baseball players, coaches, friends and family from communities all across South Dakota converged on Belle Fourche for the 2026 VFW Varsity State Baseball Tournament.
The three-day tournament for the Alpha Division took place July 17-19 at the Belle Fourche Baseball Complex. Six teams from across the state battled for the championship title. The tournament featured regional squads vying for the state title: Belle Fourche Broncs; Mt. Vernon/Plankington (MVP) Titans; Mobridge Crusaders; Clark, Willow Lake and Hamlin County (Area) Dinos; Warner, Ipswich and Northwestern (WIN) Gators and West Central Trojans.
The planning for the tournament has been underway for a while. “Last fall, while Jason Lafayette was still board president, we put in a bid to the VFW to possibly host…in early January, they announced that we won the bid,” explained Randy Doran, Head of Baseball Operations. “With that bid that we submitted, we really talked up about all the great things that are going on in Belle Fourche—that the city has done for youth sports.”
Bringing the other top baseball teams to the area gives Belle Fourche a chance to highlight all of the facility upgrades they have been working on. “We’ve got the new lighting structures for all the fields down here. We’ve got this brand new press box and concessions and restrooms that are now ADA accessible. Plus we got a brand new video board,” shared Doran.
The Baseball Board and community supporters have been working hard to pull everything together before the start of the 2026 VFW Varsity State Tournament. “Fortunately, through that bidding process, we were selected and it’s kind of been a gift and a curse. We’re excited to host, but it’s been stressful these last couple weeks because we wanted everything to be the nicest it can be for these teams coming out here,” explained Doran. “We spent a lot of time working on our infield, we redid our entire mound—got that almost MLB quality with a couple of guys that were helping me with that. I am really thankful for their help and their support and very fortunate to be able to host this tournament out here.”
The state tournament started on Friday with pool play. All six teams played twice and were put into the playoff bracket based on the outcome. The VFW State Tournament began at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.
The Belle Fourche Broncs took on the WIN Gators. Tournament hosts the Belle Fourche Broncs fell to the WIN Gators 10-9 after a hard-fought game. The WIN Gators moved on to play the Mobridge Crusaders at 3 p.m. that afternoon. The Broncs moved to the consolation bracket for play Sunday morning. They beat West Central Varsity 12-2 to secure fifth place. The rest of the VFW State winners are: State Champions: Area Dinos; Runner-Up: Mobridge Crusaders; 3rd Place: MVP Titans; 4th Place: WIN Gators; 5th Place: Belle Fourche Broncs; and 6th Place: West Central Trojans.
Beyond the competition on the field, hosting the state tournament gave Belle Fourche an opportunity to showcase the community and all it has to offer. “We bring five other teams from across the state to come play baseball in Belle Fourche and stay overnight here and the surrounding areas and hopefully have a meal at one of our local restaurants,” said Doran. “We are really excited for this opportunity to showcase what great things we’re doing in our town, and we couldn’t be happier with the support that we’ve had with volunteers and our Baseball Board to get ready and put this tournament on!”
The VFW State Tournament doesn’t signal the end of the season for the Belle Fourche Broncs Baseball team. Up next, they head to Chamberlain July 21-23 to compete in the Region 7B American Legion Baseball Tournament. “We got a lodge there for the whole team to stay at, kind of right by the river—plenty of room for them to run around and just be kids a little bit, because at the end of the day, they still are—they’re still kids. We still want to have fun, we want to give them opportunities to have fun beyond baseball,” said Doran. “But they also go there knowing that there’s a goal—we want to try and win at regional as well!”
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