Kaden Rylance has made his mark following in the footsteps of his father Heath, one of the top all-around athletes in Watertown High School history.
WATERTOWN — It couldn't have been easy for Kaden Rylance to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest all-around athletes in Watertown High School history — his father Heath.
But the younger Rylance has already made his mark and could put a big exclamation point on his own stellar athletic career this week when Watertown Post 17 hosts the 2025 South Dakota State Class A American Legion Baseball Tournament at Watertown Stadium.
Rylance is the ace pitcher, and also pretty-noted hitter, for a Post 17 team that is hosting the state tourney for the first time in 34 seasons and hopes to challenge for the program's first state title in 94 years.
"I think there's been some pressure for us going all the way back to the high school season when we were ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll," Kaden Rylance said. "That threw the team for a little swirl but we worked through that during the high school and now the Legion season. Obviously there's some pressure, but you couldn't ask for a better opportunity to play at home and have a good shot at winning."
The state Legion tourney will be the final high school level athletic event for Rylance, who also was a standout golfer for WHS, played some basketball through the middle school years and even had his share of success for the Watertown Area Swim Club as a youngster. He committed in 2024 to play baseball for the South Dakota State University.
Some good family bloodlines
Heath Rylance was in the eighth grade when Ray and Roberta Rylance moved their family to Watertown. His father was a such a talented catcher that he later became the first University of South Dakota baseball player to be inducted into the Coyote Hall of Fame.
Sure, Heath's athletic accomplishments may have cast a big shadow for Kaden, but there's definitely some rich athletic tradition in the Rylance family.
For the Arrows, Rylance was a three-year starter at quarterback who earned Class 11AA all-state honors a senior in 1989. In basketball, he earned Class 11AA all-state second team honors in 1990 and also starred three years for Watertown Post 17, earning all-state honors in both 1989 and 1990.
"I caught a lot, played some outfield and a little third base," Heath Rylance said.
Heath Rylance, a 1990 WHS graduate, batted .433 in his Post 17 career, including .482 as a senior and added 41 doubles, 14 homers, 79 stolen bases and 131 runs batted in over the three-year span. He drew the attention of college baseball coaches, even receiving a partial scholarship offer from the University of Illinois.
Back then, scholarship money for college baseball players (in South Dakota for sure) wasn't great and Rylance chose Augustana College (Division II) because it had agreed to allow him to play both football and baseball. After playing on the diamond his freshman year, he tore a ligament in his thumb as a sophomore and when a new football coaching staff arrived prior to his junior season with the Vikings, he had to turn his focus to football.
"Football was the full ride and that was important," he said. "It's true that baseball was my favorite sport. Football kind of took over with the success we had and baseball took a back seat."
Rylance earned All-North Central Conference honors four years (1991-94, twice first team and twice second team) and even was named the NCC's Most Valuable Offensive Player in 1994 before spending five years a signal-caller for Saskatchewan Roughriders and Calgary Stampede in the Canadian Football League.
He was inducted into the Watertown High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002, Augustana College Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Watertown Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022.
More family athletic history will follow.
A somewhat different athletic path
After his CFL days ended, Rylance moved back to Watertown and helped establish a financial consulting business.
For years, Watertown fans have had discussions about why the son (Kaden) of one of the greatest Arrow football players didn't compete in the sport.
At a young age, Kaden took to golf and also spent his time swimming and playing baseball. He did play basketball through his freshman year before his two favorite sports (golf and baseball) took over. His football career consisted of some flag-football games in elementary school.
"People ask me how I felt about Kaden not playing football, but it was never difficult. Really, he was extremely passionate about golf as a very young age. I could see very clearly where his passions were and I just wanted to support what he wanted," Heath Rylance said. "Baseball just continued to evolve and become more important later."
Since the Class AA high school boys golf and football seasons each run in the fall in South Dakota, golf was the sport he continued to play. He had five top-10 finishes in state tournaments (including a second-place finish as an eighth-grader in 2020 and a third-place finish in 2023 as a junior) and helped lead the Arrows to back-to-back state golf titles in 2023 and 2024 (Watertown's first title since 1971).
Success has also came on the baseball diamond, where his Reliabank Rattlers baseball 8-and-under and 12-and-under teams won state titles in 2015 and 2019.
Fellow Post 17 seniors Nash Berg and Talan Jurgens (Dakota State), Mitch Olson (University of Sioux Falls), Treyton Himmerich and Hayden Ries (Mount Marty), Nathan Briggs (Wayne NE State) and Max Dylla have been together on the same team since 2020 and have produced a run that included South Dakota Class A Baseball state titles in 2020 (13U, Grey Sox) and 2021 (14U, Black Sox), a trip to the semifinals of the state Class A Junior Legion tournament in 2022 and a third-place finish in the state Class A Legion tournament last summer.
Kaden's always been a middle-of-the-order hitter with some pop, much like his father, but it's his prowess on the pitcher's mound that has fueled his baseball opportunities.
He announced his choice to compete for South Dakota State in February of 2024.
South Dakota had a number of Class A pitchers during the spring high school season who have signed to pitch for Division I teams and a few of those, including Rylance and Harrisburg's Eli Kokenge (University of Minnesota), will hit the mound this week in Watertown.
"I was a thrower but not a pitcher," Heath Rylance said. "He's (Kaden's) a very different athlete and baseball player, especially on the mound. That's a skill set I never had. We both throw hard but he has an analytical mind that has really set up with his pitching."
What's ahead for the future Jackrabbit
Kaden Rylance said from the time he stepped on campus that he was going to South Dakota State, where his cousin Zach Heins (son of Heath's older sister Jodi) was a standout tight end in the early 2020s before signing last summer as an undrafted free agent with the National Football League's San Diego Chargers. Lincoln Semchenko, another cousin and son of Heath's younger sister Dayna, will be a freshman offensive lineman this fall for the Jacks. Heins starred at Sioux Falls Washington and Semchenko at Sioux Falls Christian.
Kaden Rylance certainly can hold his own with any pitcher in the state tourney. So far this spring and summer, he has thrown 81 1/3 innings, allowed only 44 hits, walked 37 and fanned 139 while compiling an 8-2 record with a 1.29 earned-run average.
"From a coaching perspective, he's a once-in-a-lifetime guy especially here in Watertown where we don't see many Division I pitchers," Post 17 coach Ryan Neale said. "He's not only one of the best players but also the hardest worker and that sets the tone for the rest of team."
Rylance's announcement to join the Jackrabbits listed him as a potential catcher and pitcher for the Jacks, but both father and son know that it won't be a shock if he never leaves the mound.
His repertoire includes a four-seem fastball that has been clocked as high as 93 miles-per-hour. There's also a slider, curveball, splitter and another new pitch.
"I added a sinker about halfway through the year and that's really been helping me a lot," Rylance said.
Heath Rylance and his wife Anne (1994 WHS graduate Anne McAtee) married in 2000. Heath had a daughter Amanda Rylance Bednar, who is now 31 and lives in Lexington, KY). Heath and Anne have raised daughter Jennika (now heading into her fourth year at SDSU), Kaden and younger brother Nikolas, who will be a seventh-grader this fall at the Watertown Middle School. He plays football, basketball and baseball like his father.
"I'd say baseball is now my favorite sport but for awhile it was pretty much 50-50 between baseball and golf," Kaden said. "I still like golf a lot, but I really started to like baseball more after all the success I had in my sophomore and junior years."
Rylance was expected to start Post 17's state-tournament opener against Pierre on Tuesday, July 28, and could potentially pitch again come Saturday, Aug. 2, which could mean a shot at a state championship. If that indeed happens, Post 17 certainly wouldn't mind its chances.
Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Feature story on Watertown's Kaden Rylance and his father Heath
Category: General Sports
