After a game in a soccer tournament on the mainland before her senior year of high school, Karlee Manding received a card that read, “South Dakota State Jackrabbits.”
“What the heck? Where is this?” Manding remembered as her initial response.
A couple of years later, Kaycee Manding, Karlee’s younger sister, had made one promise to herself about her eventual college decision.
“I wasn’t going to follow my sister,” Karlee said. “I wanted to go where I could make a name for myself. I didn’t want to be her tail.”
Life is as unpredictable as anything else, and for Kaycee and Karlee Manding, living together as soccer teammates at a Division I school in Brookings, S.D., qualifies as exactly that.
Life also has a way of working out, especially to those who put the time and effort into whatever it is they are trying to achieve.
That also holds true for the Manding sisters.
They are vital parts of the South Dakota women’s soccer team, which has as many players from Hawaii on its roster as any other Division I school on the mainland.
The Jackrabbits are also the only undefeated Division I team left this season.
Karlee Manding, a fifth-year senior midfielder, leads the team with eight assists. Kaycee Manding, a third-year junior defensive back, is tied for second on the team with five assists.
They are both thriving at a place neither expected to be. It’s also a place they wouldn’t be at today if it weren’t for each other.
“I can’t even explain the difference between my first two years here and my last three seasons,” Karlee said. “Having (Kaycee) here has been a huge comfort. I get to take a piece of home with me to school every day. It’s a whole new world.”
Karlee Manding was the trendsetter coming out of Waipahu High School. There was nobody else from Hawaii she knew at South Dakota State. She was told there had been a soccer player from Hawaii on the team, but that was in 2002, before she has any memory of life.
“I really did have to take a leap (of) faith on this program,” Karlee said. “My freshman year, it was all about adapting and acclimating to this different place. You have to embrace the different culture that’s here, but once you’re able to be vulnerable, once you’re able to let your guard down and let people in, it becomes a lot easier.”
Karlee did that, but only to a degree. As much as she tried to acclimate, she missed the food back home. She missed the sunny weather in the winter. In the back of her mind, she felt like she always wanted a little Hawaiian family to be around in South Dakota.
Then, family came calling.
“When it got to the end of my high school career and stuff was getting real, the unknown started to scare me,” Kaycee said. “I knew my sister would be up there to guide me through everything, and then it kind of became a mutual thing. She was kind of homesick the first two years and she convinced me I’m going to help her out if I go there and she’s going to help me out. It was at that point I realized how much she needed me here as I needed her there.”
Together, they made it through the fall of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic without any soccer games.
For the first time since high school, they played together on the same field as two starting midfielders for the Jackrabbits to start an abbreviated spring season. Their first two games ended in 0-0 ties.
They also played in an indoor facility in Omaha, Neb.
Why? It was too cold outside.
“It was still too cold indoors,” Kaycee remembered. “But that’s when I knew that playing (Division I soccer) here was the real deal. College is such a different level than anything you’ve played. All of the training you did throughout your life is for this moment.”
Kaycee said she’s reminded every day about how different life in South Dakota is from Hawaii.
While warming up to play a game at Air Force Academy, it started to hail. Nobody stopped what they were doing except for Kaycee.
“We were up in the elevation and I was already struggling breathing and it started to hail,” Kaycee recalled. “I looked around at my teammates and coaches thinking, ‘Are we for real right now? We’re going to play in this?’ Those were the roughest conditions I’ve played in.”
After playing two months in the spring, the sisters returned in the fall and helped SDSU finish 17-4-1 and win the Summit League tournament.
They were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Pepperdine.
Through 16 games this season, the Jackrabbits are 11-0-5 overall and 5-0-2 in league play.
They wrap up the regular season this weekend before next week’s Summit League tournament.
Karlee Manding has been here before but thinks this team has the edge over her previous ones.
“I think that this is the best team I have been on at SDSU,” Karlee said. “It’s kind of funny. I stepped into the locker room on senior night and it had been decorated with a bunch of stuff for us seniors and all of my teammates came over hugging me and they started to cry. It’s a testament to how important and valued the relationships are between us and how we’re all family.”
It’s the family Karlee talked about missing her first two years alone on the mainland. It’s a family she’s gotten to be a part of for the past three years thanks to her actual sister.
“It’s been such a special and unique experience,” Karlee said. “To go through these milestones in life with your best friend is just insane. And I’m really grateful that we have had the opportunity to not only play Division I soccer on the mainland but to do it together. It’s been a blessing.”
Kaycee echoed those sentiments.
“She got a fifth year because of COVID-19 and it’s crazy to think that she might have left last year,” Kaycee said. “We know we’re not going to be young forever and so I’ve cherished these times together. Not a lot of people can say they’ve had this opportunity and I feel like that’s what has pushed us to live for these moments. It’s been an amazing ride with her by my side.”
Kaycee Manding
>> School: South Dakota State
>> Class: Junior
>> Height: 5 feet, 6 inches
>> Position: D
>> High school: Waipahu (2020)
Karlee Manding
>> School: South Dakota State
>> Class: Senior
>> Height: 5 feet, 2 inches
>> Position: MF
>> High school: Waipahu (2018)
