WATERTOWN, S.D. — Years after laying the groundwork, the Watertown boys soccer team has transformed into a powerful force.
The Arrows finished their 2026 campaign with a 13-0-1 record, securing the school’s first-ever Eastern South Dakota Conference title. With the regular season in the books, Watertown is projected to claim the No. 1 overall seed when the state postseason kicks off Oct. 6.
It marks a turnaround from 2025, when Watertown finished 6-4-5 before enduring a 4-3 defeat to Brandon Valley in the state quarterfinals.
Driven by a core group of 16 seniors and a stingy defense that has allowed just six goals all year while posting eight shutouts, the undefeated Arrows are executing a dream run with their sights set on a state championship on home turf.
For head coach Jesse Hauck, the team’s breakthrough is the result of a multi-year process that began during a transitional campaign two seasons ago.
“We knew the year before that we had a whole bunch of seniors too, we had a great run,” Hauck said. “But we knew we had a lot of new young guys that were talented, but it was going to take some time. We had a young group coming in that was pretty raw, but had the skill set that we knew.”
That young group hit its stride late last season, earning a key 1-1 tie against Aberdeen and picking up a signature victory in the opening round of the playoffs over Sioux Falls Washington. The lessons learned in 2025 set the standard for this year’s conference-championship run.
“The whole talk at our end of the season meeting was everyone knew with this group that this was the goal for this year,” Hauck said. “That we know what to expect, we know what we have, we know what we should be. Those boys put the work in on the club side, and they came prepared this year.”
Most of the team’s 16 seniors have grown up playing together, creating an intuitive bond on the pitch. Managing a 21-player roster can present line-up challenges, but Hauck credits his senior leadership for buying into a team-first mindset where substitution depth keeps the momentum rolling.
“It’s hard to play 16 seniors,” Hauck said. “But these guys come every day to practice, they work hard, they don’t know what their minutes will be… The second I call on them, doesn’t matter if it’s a full game or 10 minutes, they’re giving their all, and there’s no letdown. The machine just keeps running.”
A cornerstone of Watertown’s regular-season dominance has been its backline, anchored by those eight clean sheets.
“We talk about the defense can lose a game, offense should win the games,” Hauck said. “And when those two entities are working together… if we can score some goals and we can play solid defense, it makes us a tough group.”
While the team recognizes the rare opportunity to host the Class AA championship game this October at Allen Mitchell Field, Hauck is keeping his squad focused on the task at hand as the playoffs begin.
“I would say that’s kind of our end goal, but we have some smaller ones leading up to it,” Hauck said. “We would love to be able to stay home and host games, all the way to the end. But we have little goals leading up to that, and if we complete those little ones, that should put us in a good spot to get to our end goal.”
