James Valley Christian defeated Freeman Academy on Saturday 4-3 in the semifinal round of the ‘A’ boy’s playoffs. The Vikings are now onto the state championship where they’ll face top seeded Vermillion for the title.
And while this recent win was big for the James Valley Christian soccer program, it was a milestone as well for head coach Jory Wipf – 200 career wins.
“That added to the day that it was 200. Family was all there, although they didn’t know going in. It was Freeman Academy, probably our oldest rival, probably the two oldest soccer programs in the state, as far as I know,” explained Wipf. “So yeah, we’ll remember that one. It certainly added to the day.”
This is James Valley Christian’s first time playing for a state soccer championship since the sport was sanctioned back in 2012. The Vikings did, however, win state titles under the South Dakota Soccer Association in 2002 and 2010.
Nonetheless, coach Wipf’s team is excited about Saturday’s opportunity.
“It’s been great to watch this team embrace and invest in this process and being in the state final under the activities association,” he stated. “They set some goals in the beginning of the year to have a winning record and a home playoff game, and they were encouraged to dream a little bigger than that. It’s special when you make it this far.”
Saturday’s ‘A’ boy’s championship will feature James Valley Christian versus top ranked Vermillion. The Tanagers only two losses on the season are to Sioux Falls Christian, who this year petitioned up to play in ‘AA.’ Vermillion and James Valley Christian met early in the season this year, that saw Vermillion prevail with an 8-1 victory.
“We had some breakdowns the first time around, some stretches where those breakdowns snowballed,” coach Wipf explained. “For example, they scored four times in five minutes. We think we look different than we did then. At that time, we hadn’t even settled on who our defenders would be. We were searching a little bit for the lineup that fit best. So, we think we’re better from that regard, and we certainly will need to be.”
James Valley Christian has a younger roster as well. No seniors and just four juniors on the squad.
“With no seniors, we had to find that leadership piece early in the season and work through that. Their growth over the course of the season has just been fun to see,” said the Vikings coach. “Offensively we’re just a ton better than we were last year; we do have some skill people. Offensively we’ve scored 23 more goals than we did a year ago. It’s fun for them to play, it’s fun for the fans to watch.”
As far as the preparation for this Saturday’s championship, coach Wipf mentioned how there’s not a lot he’ll do different. He hopes they continue to build on what they’ve done and get a little better each day at practice.
“It’s mostly a re-emphasis of things that we’ve been talking about a lot. Reviewing some of the things we’ve been working on during the year that we thought we’ve needed to address, and we’ve gotten much better at,” he said. “At this time of the year, I tend to do a lot of stuff where they get to play, not as much drill, drill, drill. Not a huge difference, get some quality work done, and keep trying to get better.”
The boy’s ‘A’ championship will kick-off on Saturday at 7 pm CT. The game will air live on SDPB2-TV, and stream live online at SDPB.org/soccer and on YouTube.
