Sioux Falls City FC to host WPSL regional championship tourney
Sioux Falls and the Sioux Falls City Football Club will host the Women’s Premier Soccer League Central Region Championship Tournament this weekend after a historic season.
The regional semifinals will take place on Saturday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Bob Young Field, with Sioux Falls City facing FC Pride in the first matchup. If Sioux Falls wins they’ll face the winner of the Colorado Pride-Union KC semifinal in the championship game on Sunday at 4 p.m.
“This is an incredible opportunity for not only us to show the city who we are and what we’re about, the level of soccer that we’re bringing to the city and the state, but to be able to host something like this is huge,” Sioux Falls City FC owner Emily Thomas said. “It’s the first of many big opportunities to showcase the community that we live in and to just bring in more revenue, more awareness of who Sioux Falls is.”
Sioux Falls City has had a historic campaign in their first season at the WPSL level. The Leapers had an unblemished 9-0 record and only allowed one goal all year. Now they have a chance to help continue growing the game in Sioux Falls this weekend.
“We want to continue to have that kind of impact where young players want to aspire to a level and think, ‘Hey, we can do that here,’” Sioux Falls City FC Sporting Director Joe DeMay said. “I think for them, you know, they find a lot of inspiration in the fact that they’re role models and can help the game elevate.”
DeMay said he’s had fans tell him they hope their daughters get to play on the team someday and others have asked how their kids can join the team once they graduate high school.
A big part of inspiring the younger generation in the area has been developing ways for the youth to watch, interact with, and speak to the Sioux Falls City FC players. At the end of each season, the club allows young fans to walk onto the pitch and meet their heroes in person.
“It’s so cool to see the kids come over and feel excited to get our autographs,” Sioux Falls City FC defender Jordan Tenpas said. “We’re nothing crazy. We’re just playing soccer, but it kind of shows that they can do the same thing and hopefully there will be more and more opportunities as time goes on.”
As Sioux Falls City has done in the past, the team will highlight women in sports during the tournament over the weekend. The team is planning to play videos highlighting women in sports and are designing T-shirts that say “All
“We want to continue to have that kind of impact where young players want to aspire to a level and think, ‘Hey, we can do that here.’” Joe DeMay
Sioux Falls City FC sporting director
of us” on the front and “Elevate her” on the back.
How we got here
After having a strong season a year ago, sporting director Joe DeMay had a good feeling about 2023-24.
Sioux Falls City FC was returning plenty of talent and they also knew what positions they needed to recruit for. Once all the pieces were in place, the team hosted Zoom meetings to talk about culture and establish how they wanted to play.
Although a lot of the players have busy schedules in the spring, they made a concerted effort to log on for those meetings and actively engage in what was being discussed. If for whatever reason a player couldn’t make a meeting, more often than not they’d reach out to ask for a recording so they could go back and listen.
“When you see that commitment from them to join in those meetings and not just attend, but actually join in and participate, then you know, okay, we’re doing the right things, and we have the right people,” DeMay said.
Once the season started, the Leapers quickly established themselves as one of the best defensive teams in the conference. They allowed only one goal during the entire season. Tenpas was also recently named WPSL National Player of the Week after leading Sioux Falls City FC to its first Northern Conference title and a Central Region Playoff berth.
The Leapers are one of the best at putting the ball in the back of the net as well. They’ve scored a conference-best 32 goals and are led by right winger Mia Mullenmeister and central midfielder Katharina Oelschlaeger, who have each posted seven goals in the regular season.
Sioux Falls City will face FC Pride on Saturday, June 13 at Bob Young Field at 4 p.m. with a spot in the conference final at stake.
You can buy tickets for the match on the team’s website or follow along on social media. Dakota News Now will also be broadcasting the game.
Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him at jfernandez1@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFERN31