YouTube celebrity stops by football game

Meeting a celebrity is often a dream for young people, but in a small town like Custer, it doesn’t happen every day. Xavier Holtquist helped break that standard by asking IShowSpeed, an American YouTuber and online streamer, to attend the homecoming football game Friday night. 
Speed, or Darren Watkins Jr., is one of Holtquist’s favorite content creators, along with many other students in the Custer School District. 
According to Holtquist, Speed has been streaming since high school, with the goal of becoming famous. Today, he is known worldwide for his content and has millions of followers. 
“I’ve watched most of the videos he made along the way,” said Holtquist. 
While getting ready for the homecoming parade Friday, Sept. 19, Holtquist and his friends saw Speed was streaming from Hill City. They began to spam the chat, asking Speed to come to the homecoming football game. 
They turned their phones off during the parade, but on the ride back to the school, Holtquist saw that Speed had traveled to Crazy Horse Memorial where his dad, Daniel, works. 
With his phone battery nearly dead, Holtquist said, “I called my dad and demanded that my dad go over there and hand him the phone. My dad did and just sat there helping. There were times when it kept on breaking up because we were still driving.” 
Holquist, No. 27 cornerback and wide receiver on the football team, asked Speed if he wanted to come to the game that night, and Speed said yes. 
Holtquist’s phone died as he hung up. Then, he looked at his best friend and said, “‘Holy crap, dude. It’s just all hitting me. I talked to IShowSpeed.’ That’s not an everyday thing. You don’t get to meet your favorite people or anybody famous when you live in a small town.”
After that, Holtquist said, “We all just started jumping around in the back of the truck.”
Speed showed up to the game in the third quarter with a camera crew and personal bodyguards. After walking around the field and finding coach Russ Evans with the help of Brady Virtue, Speed went into the locker room to give the team a pep talk. 
“He gave us all a very good speech, and we were very thankful for that. It feels like he really hyped us up to play some more games,” said Holtquist. “We really needed the pep talk. I wish that he got there before the game so he could get us pumping and more ripped up so we could beat STM (St. Thomas More).” 
Holtquist said the team was happy to have him there as well as shocked to be part of his content creation in Custer. 
“We’re one of the smallest places in South Dakota, and he actually came to our town,” said Holtquist. “It felt weird. Being right next to him, it felt different.”
For Holtquist, the most memorable thing Speed said was this is the seniors last year, and the team needs to make that memorable for them by working together and doing their best. 
“He was a nice guy. Out of anyone that I could have met, I think he would have been my favorite. He was genuinely nice, and he has a big heart for some stuff,” said Holtquist. 
Jayda Bennett also had the opportunity to interview Speed for the Custer Jr./Sr. High School media pages on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
Earlier that day, business and computer teacher Alexa Winkler messaged Speed and asked if a student could interview him after the game. Bennett had been taking pictures at the game, and Winkler asked if she wanted to do the interview. 
“It was literally spur of the moment. I was not expecting it or anything like that,” said Bennett. 
At the time, Bennett was standing guard at the locker room door, trying to keep people out while Speed talked to the football team. Bennett honestly did not know who Speed was. She just knew he was famous, and everyone was excited to see him. 
“It was just kind of crazy to know that I was literally face-to-face with this famous person,” said Bennett. “It’s definitely crazy to think that even our Custer page—we’re a small town, a small school—and to know that just that one video has like 25,000 likes and thousands of views. It’s crazy that a small town like Custer can explode like that.”