Dave Vilhauer
Dave Vilhauer is an alumnus of Northern State University with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and English language. To date, he has spent a total of 44 years in media, 36 years working with the Aberdeen American News, four years working in radio, and four years owning SD SportScene. His foray into journalism started early in his junior year in high school when he worked for the Aberdeen American News. After more than three decades at the paper, he began working in radio. He eventually felt led to start his own business, SD SportScene. He willingly took the leap of faith and gave up a steady income to start his company. He said that after seeing the impact of corporate gutting local media, specifically high school sports coverage, he was driven to start his business.
He started his website in February 2021, during the peak of the COVID-19, covering 25 schools; now in his fourth year, he expanded to covering 36 different schools across 20 counties in Northeastern and North Central South Dakota. The business interface has since grown to include an app that is available on IOS and Android, and weekly podcasts. Dave’s ethos is that good is the enemy of great, so, he works hard to provide exemplary service to others. He believes that SD SportScene interviews more student-athletes than other outlets. He and his team work tirelessly to provide content that people are looking for.
His content and coverage work to shine the spotlight on student-athletes, some of whom have never been interviewed before and may never be interviewed again. He has noticed that over the years, athletes appreciate the recognition, and for Dave, there is no better feeling than watching these athletes feel celebrated and recognized.
Owning a business comes with a lot of ups and downs. One of Dave’s favorite up is that owning a business allows for creativity because there is no template. This gives him room to continuously expand and grow his business, supplying content to his audience’s fingertips some of which cannot be found anywhere else, such as box scores. Through his company’s content, his goal is to be the dominant source for sports news in the region.
Dave’s advice for business owners when they are experiencing a tough day is in the form of a three-point checklist:
1. Are you doing what you love?
2. Are you providing gainful employment to people in order for them to also do what they love?
3. Are you making a difference?
He did not make this leap into starting a business after having a fulfilling career for over four decades in order to make more money but rather to make a difference. He wishes to be a part of a network of change in the competitive sports culture that has evolved from being about inspiration, teamwork, and diligence to records, stats, and an emphasis on winning and self-satisfaction.
As someone who has covered sports competitions for decades, he has witnessed various parent outbursts and watched the degradation of sports culture in the United States. He always promised himself that he would never become that parent, and when he became a parent, he quickly saw that it was easier said than done. He firmly believes change is possible and wrote and published a book in 2019 titled The Parent Trapped Within: A Guide to Sports Parenting with copies sold across 23 states. The demise of sports culture is a shared problem across the country regardless of state or sport, and the objectives of this guide are to identify the problems in sports culture, examine how they have evolved, and provide common sense solutions.
Dave Vilhauer isn’t just changing sports reporting in South Dakota; he’s working hard to bring back inspiration and integrity to all forms of media coverage.