Titan Stadium at Tea Area high school is playing host to the 2022 state soccer championships this year. No matter the town, it’s always special to be chosen to host a state tournament or state championship event, but for those involved within the process at Tea Area high school, this is a big-time moment.
Craig Clayberg is in his first year as the athletic director for Tea Area, who coached the Titans football team from 2010-2021. He took over the AD duties on July 1st from Brent DeBoer. The duo coached football together at Sioux Falls Roosevelt back in the day. In 2012, Titans Stadium debuted its new field turf and track surface, which took the facilities to another level for the community.
“We hosted state track (Class A day one) a couple years ago, and all the people that came, got to finally use our facility,” stated Tea Area athletic director Craig Clayberg. “It’s pretty special. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a fun time to put something like this on.”
While hosting day one of the state track championships for a class is a big step, it’s next level to finally host an event in its entirety, which is what makes the state soccer championships special. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here.
“The state has numerous guidelines for whether your facility is capable of hosting an event,” Brent DeBoer explained. “When you look at your capabilities, you have to look at [SDHSAA] criteria, and then you can go “yeah, this could be fun, let’s go for it.””
For DeBoer, this is something he’s wanted for a long time.
“I’m pretty proud of this facility, because we spent a lot of time and countless hours trying to convince people that we need a turf field, we need a track, we want to showcase,” said DeBoer. “I was hoping to be here. I’m glad Craig (Clayberg) invited me to come and help, because this was one of the events that I really wanted to host when I was AD. My son played soccer, and this was a big deal that I wanted to have it. I don’t care if he’s got something for me to do or not, I’m going to be hanging around [Saturday].”
For the community of Tea, growth is a word you’ll hear a lot. Their football team moved up to Class 11AA in 2021, and they’re in Class A in all other sports across the board – for now.
“When they re-did the numbers this year, we were ten kids short of going AA in everything, so we’ll be A this year and next year, and then we’ll move up, because we’ll be over,” said Clayberg. “There are so many opportunities for kids here and it just keeps growing.”
Soccer has been a successful sport in Tea as well. With both Dakota Alliance Soccer Club and Tempo Soccer Club based out of the community, it’s no secret that it’s sort of a soccer hub for the youth of South Dakota.
Since soccer became a sanctioned sport in 2012, the Tea Area boys' team has won four state championships (2013, 2017, 2018, and 2019). They also finished runner-up three times throughout the stretch as well. In girls' soccer for Tea Area, they won the state title in 2020, and have also finished runner-up four times.
The Tea Area girls' soccer team will play for the ‘A’ title on Saturday night at 7 pm CT against top seeded West Central, who has also been a powerhouse in girls ‘A’ soccer.
“It would be really weird not having your team play and hosting all these teams,” chuckled Clayberg. “It would have been nice for the boys to get in, but the girls are having a great year and we have great soccer.”
All four state soccer championships on Saturday will air live on SDPB2-TV, and stream live online at sdpb.org/soccer.
Boys AA between Sioux Falls Lincoln and Rapid City Stevens will play at 11 am CT and Girls AA with Harrisburg and Aberdeen Central will play at 1 pm CT. In the evening session, Sioux Falls Christian and St. Thomas More will play for the Boys A championship at 5 pm CT, and then West Central vs Tea Area will kick off at 7 pm CT for the nightcap.
