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The South Sudanese men’s basketball team made history this year by making it to the Summer Olympics for the first time ever, and as I was watching Team USA defeat South Sudan on Wednesday, my mind went to the Austin Packers.

For some, the country of South Sudan is just another obscure African country, that is 7,400 miles away on the map and even further away on the mind.

But for many in Austin, South Sudan is so much more, especially for many of the basketball players who have played for the Austin Packers in recent years. It’s been about 15 years since Goliath Oboyo showed up on the Austin roster as a key player for a group that broke Austin’s 30-year state tournament drought. What followed was a South Sudanese explosion that helped boost the Packer boys basketball program to one of the best in the state for nearly a decade.

Players like Gach Gach, Ajuda Nywesh, Both Gach and Duoth Gach, Dongrin Deng and Ngor Deng, Oman Oman, Agwa Nywesh and many more all cemented their legacy in Packer lore.

Those players helped bring a brand of basketball to Austin that had Packer gym packed. Every night was a highlight reel and home losses were extremely rare.

A good amount of those players have gone on to play in college and Oman Oman and Both Gach have landed pro contracts overseas. Gach Gach is now the head men’s basketball coach at North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, where he once starred as a player.

It is interesting to learn that the nation of South Sudan has produced such basketball talent after finding out that the country does not currently have an indoor court, but that is changing fast. As the basketball world starts to expand to Africa, I’m sure we’ll see many more South Sudanese players make their names at various levels.

The community of Austin was lucky to get a preview of what the world is now finding about South Sudan, and there will likely be new names on the list of great Austin Packer basketball players who have roots in South Sudan in the future.

For me, I didn’t realize when I took a job in Southeast Minnesota that I would be fortunate enough to cover so many amazing athletes from around the globe. It certainly makes the gig that much more enjoyable.