KADOKA — It was a sight to behold. 

Lights were flashing, horns were honking and a caravan of vehicles, in what seemed like a mile long, ushering the Kougars volleyball back into the town of just over 500 people, Kadoka.

“There were cars, like just the whole town.” senior Breezy Amiotte said. “There was like a train behind us, like a mile and a half of cars, crazy.”

For just the second time in school history and not since its inception in 1982, the Kougars had qualified for the South Dakota high school state volleyball tournament.

“We played in so many games this season, it kind of just felt like another game,” junior Madisyn Nemecek said. “But at the same time, it was just like ‘Whoa, this is really happening.’”

Kadoka's Madisyn Nemecek, from left, Shaylee Porch, Maggie Thompson, Bella Williams and Breezy Amiotte pose in front of a state bound banner in the school following the Kougars SoDak 16 win over Parkston. The Kougars will face Burke on Thursday at 12:45 p.m. in the first round of the Class B state tournament at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls.

In 1982, the South Dakota High School Activities Association held its first-ever high school state tournament. With just one class the first couple of years of the tournament, the Kougars qualified and met Sioux Falls O’Gorman in the first round of the tournament held at Brookings High School. 

The Kougars would finish seventh at state that year, defeating Webster in a best 2-out-of-3 side-out scoring match.

Having not qualified for the state tournament in 42 years, the Kougars are excited.

“That’s so crazy,” Amiotte said of the last time the Kougars had qualified.

“Maybe it’ll put us back on the map a little bit,” junior Shaylee Porch said with a laugh.

“We had kind of talked, tried to look back and see when the last team was, but we really weren't sure. So then when they said that this morning, I was like ‘Oh, that's pretty cool,’ ” Porch said.

That 1982 squad that qualified included relatives of this year’s squad. Amiotte’s aunt, Dondee Amiotte; Shaylee and her sister Haylee Porch’s cousins Peggy Porch and Jan Jeffords; and junior Landyn Koehn’s aunt Joanne Herber were all a part of that ‘82 team.

The 1982 bracket was scanned and hangs inside the Kadoka High School. 1982 was the last time the Kougars qualified for the state tournament.

Throughout the season, the Kougars showed they were a team to watch out for.

Heading into SoDak 16, the Kougars had a 27-3 record which included winning the Lead-Deadwood Tournament and Douglas Invitational earlier this season. 

The Kougars also have yet to lose to a Class B school all season with their three losses coming from Brookings twice in the Rapid City Invite and a match at Class A Hill City on Sept. 28.

Since then, the Kougars won 21 straight matches and earned the No. 4 seed heading into the SoDak 16 against Parkston at Todd County High School on Nov. 12.

“I felt confident if they played the way they have been playing all year. I knew what the outcome was gonna be, but it's high school girls volleyball,” Kadoka head coach Maggie Thompson said. “You never know what the outcome will be or who's gonna show up, and that's the truth.”

In the first set, the Kougars came out hot while the Trojans didn’t seem to have gotten off the bus yet as Kadoka Area took the set 25-7. But Parkston got back into it quickly, winning the second set 27-25. 

Despite the rally by the Trojans in set two, the Kougars did what they’ve done most of the season and just took it one set at a time and would go on to win the match 3-1 (25-7, 25-27, 26-24, 25-14).

“I was very surprised at the first set,” Thompson said. “I mean, we came out and I think they weren't ready. We knew what we needed to do. And then again, high school girls, you beat them and then it's like, Okay, we got this but they came back and they were ready to compete too. 

“I told them, I go ‘It's gonna be hard. It should be hard. This is not easy to get to state’ and it's all the sweeter when it's harder.”

Thompson, who is in her first year with the Kougars, said she knew from day one, these Kougars had the potential to qualify for state.

“Barry Hutchinson has done amazing with this program, and he had these girls rolling,” Thompson said of her predecessor. “He kind of saw a lot of potential in them early, and they've been pulled up since middle school, so they've been playing varsity for a while, and so they've been hungry and they finally got it done.”

Kadoka's Breezy Amiotte digs out a ball during a match against White River during the Belle Fourche Tournament on Sept. 28 in Belle Fourche.

Unlike most schools, Kadoka Area doesn’t play with a libero and only utilizes one substitution. 

“These girls are pretty solid to me,” Thompson said. “My good passers are my good hitters, my good hitters are my good passers. And that's hard to find, I think, especially in volleyball, because it's so position specific. In small schools, I don't have that luxury, so they play, and they knew that from day one. I'm pretty sure the first day, I said, ‘you guys better learn every spot, and you better learn it quick, because you’re going to play every spot’ and they did.”

“I was nervous because I didn't even know where to go half the time,” Amiotte said with a laugh.

“Maggie tells us all the time. She's like, ‘Just be creative. I don’t care where you’re hitting it, just hit it,’” senior Bella Williams said.

“That ball goes down, put it down. Swing harder. I don’t care where it goes, just put it down,” Thompson said. “I repeat myself a lot, but again, they're high schoolers. I have five kids. I'm used to that.”

In the Kougars SoDak 16 match up against Parkston, the girls said the community support was “crazy” with the number of people in attendance for their match. They said it felt like almost the whole town of Kadoka was on hand for the match with a lot of support from people in surrounding communities.

While the moms of the volleyball team are the ones taking care of the players, for these Kougars it's the dads who get into the most.

Kadoka's Bella Williams (16) celebrates a point with teammate Madisyn Nemecek (1) and Shaylee Porch (14) during a match in the Douglas Invitational on Oct. 19 at Douglas High School in Box Elder.

“From the moms who give us plenty of food for tournaments and away games and anything like that. The girls are always well fed, well taken care of, even the coaches, they do an awesome job taking care of us,” Thompson said. “But the dads, you normally don't see dads, I mean, it's kind of getting more popular, but our volleyball dads are — they're always the ones standing at the door, because they're more nervous than the mom.”

“(At the SoDak 16 match) they were at the door. And I know (William's dad) was and (Amiotte’s dad) mine was, and they were down there at the door and something bad happened,” Porch said. “And I looked out over at the corner and they're all sitting over there with their hands over their faces or their heads.

“If something is going wrong, they have to move because they have to switch it up.”

Coming into school Wednesday morning following the Kougars win over Parkston, the school was filled with pride as banners, streamers and ribbons were on full display throughout the school with some faculty wearing vibrant outfits to show off their support.

“Everybody around here has been amazing,” Thompson said. “Just thanks to them for all the support they have given us and hopefully will give us next weekend.”

While the Kougars are excited to reach state, they’re not satisfied with just qualifying.

Thompson gave the girls just that Wednesday after the SoDak 16 off and then it was back to work.

Thompson and the Kougars are going into the state tournament with the same mindset that got them there. 

Taking it one step at a time.

“Since day one I’ve told these girls, I don't mind losing to a team that's better than us, but when we lose to a team that is not, that's where — I'm not okay with that, and you guys need to understand that,” Thompson said. “When I push them, and when we're competitive out here on the practice floor, I go, we always have to have that intensity and that practice level up high.

“We go one day at a time, one practice at a time. Even if it was a tournament, it was still one at a time. I don't care if we know who we're playing. We play this game first, and then we worry about the next game after.” 

The Kougars head into the Class B state tournament as the No. 4 seed and will square off against the other West River school to qualify in Class B, No. 5 Burke.

“I think we're just gonna go in there and just compete as hard as we can, because it's gonna be  harder games than some of the ones we’ve played,” Williams said. “It'll just give us another chance to show how good we can play.”

“I'm excited to play Burke in the first round, because two years ago they knocked us out in SoDak to get to state,” Nemecek said. “So I'm ready to get another chance at them.”