photo credit: Jeff Budlong- Rapid City Journal

by Jim Holland
Rapid City Journal

You could rightfully say that Rapid City and Mark DeSantis have done well by each other.

Five years ago, Rapid City didn’t know a whole lot about professional hockey and knew even less about DeSantis.

DeSantis wasn’t much better off. When approached in 2007 by head coach Joe Ferras about being captain of the Central Hockey League expansion Rapid City Rush, DeSantis, skating for the International Hockey League’s Port Huron Icehawks at the time, said he would have struggled to find South Dakota on a map.

“Rapid City, I said, where’s Rapid City?” DeSantis recalled. “He said South Dakota and I said, ‘Where’s South Dakota?' I’ve played all over the States and I’ve never been to this part of the country. Once we got here, we kind of fell in love with the place and it’s been our home for the past four years."

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