November 21, 2025

SF Christian football coach Jared Smith on building back a champion, celebrating a title with mentor Kim Nelson, and the notion SFC should move up to 11AA

37 minutes

How did Jared Smith build SFC back after taking over for back-to-back champion Jake Pettengill in 2019, the year the Chargers' enrollment forced them to move up a class from 11B to 11A? Hint: It wasn't easy. Smith opens a vein about his struggles those first few years and the pain of losing last year's championship game as a favorite. How he harnessed that heartache for an entire year in the SFC locker room to motivate this year's group to accomplish nothing less than the title trophy is something you'll want to hear. Smith also describes his reuniting with Kim Nelson, the all-time South Dakota high school football wins leader who mentored Smith at Sioux Falls Roosevelt from 2009-16 and joined Smith's staff at SFC this past summer to run the offense. Nelson had retired after 45 years of head coaching, then spent a season as Roosevelt's freshman coach. The bond between the two, storytelling of how Nelson fit right in, and the moment the two shared as Saturday's clock struck zero on a championship is also something you'll want to hear. Oh, and Smith's response to a growing chorus of South Dakota high school football fans who feel SFC has an unfair dominance in Class 11A and needs to move up to 11AA? Yeah, you'll want to hear that. He doesn't hold back.

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