This is a production of SDPB.

The DakotaDome.

I think first and foremost people think football in the fall.

And whenever a team starts the season, that's the goal is to make it to the DakotaDome.

It's the final game of the year.

It's what everybody plays to get to.

But it didn't take long once that dome was built.

Everything came together for those football playoffs to finally come to South Dakota.

It's a accomplishment that I had a role in, and I'm very proud of it.

I think to make South Dakota a better place.

As a senior, when you get to play in the dome, I mean, you get to end your career where every kid in South Dakota that plays high school football wants to end their career.

And it's such a great environment to play in when you get it packed.

It really turned into a special place.

The DakotaDome represents the past, the present and the future.

It's long enough, and it's good.

The last play of the game.

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Flag on the play.

Intercepted.

But hold on.

Let's check out the flag.

This may have been holding and Canton may be the winners.

It's off to their.

Canton is your 11A champs.

When you only got four downs left to play.

This is do or die.

You have to do it.

You have to get it done.

So.

And one of those was a touchdown pass for a team that says they can't pass it very well.

You threw some great passes out there tonight.

There's plays that the receivers are wide open.

So it's easy to do it during the season here.

Was there a point you guys kind of got together and said, you know, we might have a shot of getting to the dome and I think we can win this thing.

Was there a point we realized that a halftime we Lennox game, we were down.

We just came together, decided to finally play how we can play.

For nearly five decades, the DakotaDome has been a staple to the state of South Dakota.

While it's home to the USD Coyotes, schools across the state make it their goal each year to pay the venue a visit for the state high school football championships in November.

Like all buildings across South Dakota, the Dakota Dome has an origin story of its own.

I was on president staff Richard Bowing in the late 60s, and, he came up with the idea one day.

I remember in a staff meeting, saying that we needed to have some kind of indoor recreation facility for the students, particularly during the wintertime.

Eventually that became known as the Decoder Dome.

I left the university in 19 late 1970 to become the chief of staff for the governor, Richard Knipe I mentioned it to the governor, and he was kind of fired up about it.

He found a very nice thing ahead for the state final vote to authorize.

It was in on a Saturday morning.

The governor was so committed to the project that he I remember he went up on the legislative floor of the Capitol on a Saturday morning, which was a rare meeting, and lobbied personally on behalf of the bill that had passed.

8 million to build the dome.

And a lot of that came from the work of Joe Robbie.

You know, Joe, Robbie was at USD eventually on the Miami Dolphins, had his own stadium built in Miami, and that's why we have the Joe Robbie Award winner now in football for the MVP.

And I remember when we had the groundbreaking, we had some of our major donors and alumni and sports people there, and we had a team of horses and plow and we broke ground with a walking plow and team.

And the way we broke ground for the whole state of South Dakota at one time.

Lauren Lewis, in my opinion, was probably the single most important individual because the president of the Board of Regents, because the Regents had to go along with all this.

And he was very steady supporter.

1978 is when I moved to Vermillion.

I'm a first year out of radio school, went to Brown Institute in Minneapolis.

And so walking into a situation where I get there in 78, my first year doing high school football games for Vermillion High School, playing at Inman Field.

But across the street, people could see the dome was being constructed and there was a lot of excitement and that following year it would have been in late August of 1979, the very first high school football game, the first fact, the very first football game ever in the dome was Vermillion versus Yankton.

Yankton came in and just whooped up on vermillion.

5000 people were there, but it was so hot there was no air.

People were just sweating to beat the band.

The roof was translucent and it would capture heat, and you had to keep a constant pressure inside the building to keep the roof inflated.

And if the outside pressure was greater or lower, you had to adjust the inside pressure.

And of course, as you entered and walked out of the building, it was like walking into a windstorm because all of that air would be rushing out of the building.

And the people, if you were serious about your hairdo, it, kind of messed things up.

In 1978 and 1979, you know, when the dome is opening there, there really wasn't talk of a football playoff.

There was discussion of we should have won what we never did.

It would be two years later when the playoffs finally came to be.

Probably one of the calls that that Craig and I are most famous for was the end of the Winner - Tri-Valley game, but people forget that was incredibly dull.

But the final play, of course, was very, very memorable.

Lindenberg is the quarterback.

He'll go under center.

No doubt he's going to drop roll right side the throw and he'll throw it as far as he can.

Horseman tip in the air.

Got down and the winner was Jaden Odell.

Touchdown winner Warriors.

Well I know it's when they decide not to call time out and stop and try to get the ball back.

We just said well run runner down to five and what the heck.

Take a shot of at least we throw a pick.

We feel we can at least make a play.

And honestly, when it when we don't work that play, I just said trips, right?

Hail Mary, you know that's not a play.

You're going to work a lot.

And, we thought Zach would maybe have a chance to jump somebody.

Well, he got a hand on the ball.

And then, you know Jaden Odell.

It's crazy because, Jaden O'Dell has worked for everything he's got.

I never had a kid who worked so hard, and he had.

And he makes plays.

And the reason he makes plays is because you just go so dang hard all the time.

So it doesn't surprise me that he was the one that that ball got tipped to.

Who knows what happened.

It went to overtime.

But, you know, just, just a great game.

Touchdown.

Championship winner.

Warriors.

Many factors.

And people went into the establishment of a high school football playoff system.

A lawsuit changed the voting rules on a high school football playoff format for the South Dakota High School Activities Association, lowering the requirement from a two thirds majority to a simple majority.

It was the efforts of one family that made a difference.

A lawsuit was ultimately filed which was headed up by Tony Weisensee of Sioux Falls.

But behind the scenes, Tony's brother George was doing the heavy lifting.

George, a former state's attorney from Minnehaha County, was experiencing declining health and no longer was practicing law.

The two worked on it together.

But my dad was the kind of the push on that and got it going.

And, I don't know why there was such a struggle then to to get that, but they did, and they got it, you know, and now it's what it is.

George passed away in June of 81, just six months prior to the inaugural state football championship games.

Hey, it gives me quite a bit of pride.

And, you know, I remember thinking I it's something that he should have been able to share as well.

And we we're going to see it as well.

And it was pretty neat just to see that you know, that's something that he did.

He left his stamp there in this world.

And that's we're pretty proud of that.

I thought it was a really big deal.

I thought it was really neat.

But you know, my husband's dad, you know, my father in law was responsible for getting this started.

And Joe would always tell me stories about the dome.

I grew up in Colorado.

We played football outside.

Like, why do you need a dome to play football?

And then when I saw it for the first time, I, I it was pretty neat.

I agreed it was pretty cool.

Joe and Michelle have since witnessed their sons, Will and Tim, play in state championship games.

To.

There's a big third and goal from the two I.T in motion.

Manning up the middle.

And he did make it.

And it's a stop on his return by the Braves.

The ball game's over.

The Braves applauded on the fumble at the goal line, and, just ran the fullback dive in the line.

They blew up the play.

Our defensive linemen just.

They dominated the line of scrimmage, and they popped our linebackers, popped the ball out, saw the ball rolling around right on top of the pile, and I just hopped on it held on for dear life because I knew it meant the state championship.

We're constantly doing stuff together, hanging out every weekend, just watching film.

Watching the 2000 and 2001 dome game, just hanging out.

We have team chemistry like no one would believe.

Trevor Zuehlke, Britton, Hecla Braves are your champions in class 9A.

Numerous players have had the experience of playing in the Dakota Dome throughout the years, but for one USD football player, he's had a few stops that have overlapped with the venue.

Obviously, the dome's a great experience.

You know, it's such a great environment and, you know, like, I just remember taking take my last night of high school football and you see, you see a student section jump in and everybody.

And it gets so loud.

But you know, as a, as a college player, understanding the history of the dome and, and what this university has been through and the guys that have all come through here, it's it's something we take pretty seriously.

With Tea Area Caden went to the dome in 2020 and was part of the Titans state championship.

I mean, that's something that, you know, the town can rally around.

You know, it brings communities together.

And I think I think that's the most special part about it is the whole town comes together to support one team, support one mission.

Having that support from a community makes.

It makes you play hard at the end of the day.

So it makes, makes a great competitive environment for football.

Caden also played in the dome when he was younger growing up.

Obviously junior football.

You get that?

That one game in the dome.

So that was always something to look forward to.

And boy, that never made it in the playoffs.

But everybody's guaranteed that one game.

So that was always cool experience.

Coming to play on the turf is something different.

You know you know always playing on grass field after high school.

Caden stayed in state to play for USD.

When the opportunity came to become a Yote, I jumped on it as something, you know, I wake up and thank God for every day like to be a I mean, some of my best memories aren't even on the field.

You know, it's it's those team dinners.

It's, you know, traveling on the road, spending time with your team on the bus, on the plane, wherever it is.

And just, you know, it's that's, it's kind of corny, but it's the memories you make along the way.

Dome is home, for sure.

But, there's so many memories here.

Like, the highest of highs, lows, the lows.

I mean, I've been through it all at this place that.

I mean, it's it's a place, very near and dear, for sure.

And here they got a chance for a championship.

Lucas.

Flamer in motion.

Roll out.

Throw the championship belongs to the Cardinals.

Yeah.

After I started cramping up, I was getting really gassed.

And I couldn't run at the same speed, but played with heart and got it done.

Had to dig deep because I noticed a couple of times you.

I mean, everybody was getting a little tired.

Oh, we have a remind group and our coach sent out, continue playing and quitting hurt but obviously continue playing has a much better reward.

Has a feel.

I always have to ask, how is it?

It doesn't feel real quite yet, but I think I'm their bus ride home.

I'll.

I'll be okay.

I'll take it.

All right.

Thanks so much.

Congratulations.

Throughout the state championship history, we've witnessed numerous dynasties and elite programs.

One of these schools is one of the more recent ones.

The Pierre governors.

000.

Oh.

Okay.

Yeah.

I mean, it wasn't bad before we got here by any means.

I mean, they were a competitive football team.

They'd won one, a few years before we came here.

And then they were in the dome and lost in the in the championship the year before we came.

So it wasn't bad by any means.

You know, and it was a lot more of a thought process of, of how do we go from good to great?

You know, so we really focused on trying to get as many kids out for football as we could.

You know, our, our big focus right away was, you know, are the ten best athletes that we have in this high school playing football.

If so, why not?

And how do we get them to play football and not be ready to go?

J.V., you're going to be up right after this.

I think over the period of time, you know, I think we probably started out with 4 or 5 of the ten best playing football, and now we're probably maybe not at ten, but we're at 8 or 9.

And, you know, I think any high school in the state, if you have your ten best athletes that are in the high school playing football, you're probably going to have a pretty darn good team.

You know, I think there was there was luck involved.

There's timing involved.

And, there's a heck of a lot of great athletes involved.

But, you know, you look back at our first one against Harrisburg in 2017, I mean, you could watch that game and not think that we want it, because there was, you know, right, amount of luck, the right amount of execution.

And, you know, we just found a way to get it done.

And now that's the ball goes backwards.

Yep.

That's a fumble.

The Pierre governors can go in the victory formation 2018.

There was another you know amount of luck involved.

So there's there's all these different things that go into it.

And I think once you kind of got over that hump of, you know, a few grades, then all of a sudden it became an expectation.

And then as that expectation grew, you know, it was just the kids didn't know anything else and they understood that, hey, this is how we do things.

This is how hard we have to work.

This is how we have to build this unity as a team.

And, you know, it's not always how you start.

It's how you finish.

You know, as long as we can play our best three games, you know, Halloween weekend forward.

We got a shot to win the whole thing.

Lincoln Kienholz.

You know quarterback architect of that of the pure football run you know went to Ohio State now at at Louisville.

Whenever those the governors were on that run with him, you really felt like you were, documenting and covering something pretty special.

With Lincoln just just a great athlete.

He's going to go the distance.

Touchdown, Tea Area.

In his junior year, the game against area, that was certainly, a game.

Whenever you talk about Lincoln Kienholz appeared governors.

That's a game you got to talk about.

They were down 27 to 7.

You know, t had all of the momentum, and felt like Pierre run a win in those, consecutive state championships.

Was going to end, but then Lincoln Kienholz put the cape on.

It all nice lob there.

He gets Zabel and Zabel will score.

touchdown Governors.

He started moving the governors up and down the field and throwing some touchdowns to Jets able and running for some some touchdowns.

And that was certainly one a game.

Whenever we talk about Lincoln Kienholzthat you really got to start with that game.

Good snap.

The hold is down.

It's long and up and it is good.

Look here governors.

The last play of the game everybody's villian is also somebody else hero.

You know.

And while we might be the villain, you know outside of Pierre you know if people are sick of it inside of Pierre everyone loves the Govs.

And you know, despite, you know, other people maybe wanting to see us fall for see us go down.

There's so much more positivity here.

But, you know, like I said, you may be we may be the villain.

No one wants the Empire to win unless you're in the Empire, you know, then Darth Vader was somebody's hero.

Some stormtrooper love.

Darth Vader wanted to go to battle for him.

I mean, that's that can be the exact same mentality we have here.

If you want us to be the Empire, you know, we're going to embrace that, and you're still going to be heroes to all these little kids.

And the governor spent it on their championship season.

But the record of nine and three.

Little halfback pass, a gadget play the pass is caught.

All the way Broden Sales touch down.

It's been 21 years of not getting to the top.

When they made that first appearance back in 2004.

21 years later, the Cavaliers are at the top of their class.

Yeah, it's a great group.

I mean, I wouldn't rather be playing for any other team in the world right now.

You know, we all helped each other get to this point.

It wasn't just one person doing all the running, scoring, defending.

It all came down to the offensive line, defensive line, receivers, DBS, everyone.

It was all a team effort.

We did have such a great team and all the coaching staff around us.

We want to been able to do it.

How does it feel to bring the first state title back to Saint Thomas?

But it feels great.

I mean, doing it, it wasn't.

We always said it.

We just do it for ourselves, do it for our team.

But reality, we're also doing it for the city of Rapid City, doing it for our school, doing it for everyone else.

That always supports us.

And the building.

Back in 2019, a new league began in South Dakota called the All Nations Football Conference.

What started as a bit of an experiment has grown into a stable league made up of the native schools of South Dakota and some surrounding states with the game of football.

How wonderful has the All Nations League been for participation, for school pride, for so many things.

you know, it kind of comes down to the experience of having us, you know, playing football against maybe some similar caliber teams and things like that that maybe has rejuvenated it to an extent.

But at the same time, you know, not seeing that you would ever get to the end and, you know, at the end of it, get to the dome, which is the big talk all the time.

And fall football in South Dakota has been for, you know, close to 40 years, probably.

You know, our kids have that opportunity.

You know, it's an achievable goal.

And, you know, it's not all about winning, but it if you if you know that you're never going to get to that, it dissuades kids from maybe being engaged.

To see that field filled with the native traditions, to see the teams that were able to participate in that, that has been absolutely a great addition.

And and just so heartening to give those kids hope.

Every year you could go through and list ten teams that you knew you weren't going to see in the dome.

depending on the size of the class.

And you take a look at the history of some of the primarily Native American schools, they weren't going to make it.

This is wonderful.

Now they get to experience that.

They get to play on the big stage.

It was also important for the All Nations organizers to look at the DakotaDome for their championships.

Well, when I think of the DakotaDome, I mean, it's just pretty evident.

That is the final, final game of the year.

We'll see what everybody plays to get to, and sometimes it takes a long time to get there.

So it's kind of the culminating event.

And I mean I think when we were discussing the onset of this league, nobody questioned whether the championship was going to be held.

I mean, we want to go to the dome and we don't know what it's going to cost us.

We don't know what it's going to be like to go there.

And but that's where we want to end up playing.

Our championship game was in the DakotaDome.

And, you know, to give them a little bit of caveat here is they've been extremely easy and friendly, and I can't say enough about how easy they are to work with and supportive of our league.

And it's been a good it's been a good fit.

And, we've been treated very well there.

And, they, you know, it's it's kind of like clockwork now you show up, they know what we're about, you know, doing and, our kids really aspire to that.

Make history.

Let's see what they can do.

Looking to make history.

Indeed.

It's fire.

Avoided the cornerstone.

Got him hit it got him.

Pine Ridge.

Oh.

Feels great being the first ever team to be in here and coming to win this, like, oh, my is amazing.

I know our town's going to love it.

We're going to get a great welcoming back.

And I'm just I'm grateful I got to be a part of this very good game from you or 240 yards offensively I will take those offensive yards, really propel your team in this game.

You know we got a great receiver and Dominic Ghost Bear had two like three defensive plays just shading him over the top over the middle on the inside was help me.

How about open me up for my run game.

Which is great because then you ask what we got.

All yours.

That's how we won this game.

When the All Nations Football Conference saw its birth, the DakotaDome was also experiencing a facelift of its own.

The west side concourse was completely renovated with brand new seating options, premium levels, and other amenities.

Throughout its history, the dome went from an air inflated facility to a steel roof, and now numerous upgrades on the interior.

To me, the DakotaDome represents the past, the present, and the future.

And really in the sense that it's still the most iconic venue in the in the state.

For me, I got recruited to come here when I was in high school.

Never took the visit.

So I first walked in here.

For a job interview in 2011.

You know, I remember being kind of taken aback by it.

Just.

I had no idea there was this little mini I grew up in the Twin Cities, so this little mini Metrodome right in Vermillion, South Dakota.

And at that time, we only had the east side of the dome.

And just the things I had always heard about it, having family in South Dakota.

So there's always been the nostalgia of the DakotaDome.

So seeing it and being a part of it has, has been great for sure.

When we renovate the east side, we've added suites, lodges, we're going to add a lot of other premium areas.

We will completely redo the east side concourse.

We'll go from having one men's and women's bathroom over there to multiple of each, and so the concourse will get completely redone and be much more opened up.

With more DakotaDome upgrades on the horizon at USD.

Along with it being a great experience for coyote players and fans, the stage will also be set for the future of the high school football championships.

But the state high school playoffs are such a big deal, it's iconic.

The kids grow up just like I grew up in Minnesota.

The road to the dome and the state high school championship.

And now U.S.

Bank, which used to be the dome.

You know, that's an important part of it for us.

And to make sure we can continue not only hosting those things, but providing a great experience.

The DakotaDome is much more than a building.

It's a symbol for numerous reasons, for many different people.

But most importantly, it's filled with memories that South Dakotans can take with them for a lifetime.

In the back end of the just gets the first hand down the side touchdown to break down to the left and they cut the arm coming under him as he throws touchdown Cowboys win!

Is car swing looking for his man and he's gonna tap the guy.

Hey!

No time to go.

Stand off!

Seiler to the left side.

Touchdown, Scotland!