Spearfish Spartan Boys Soccer Head Coach, Jim Hill Retires after 27 Years of Coaching
After decades of dedication to Spearfish Spartan High School Boys Soccer, Coach Jim Hill is hanging up his whistle—but the impact he’s made on our players, Our program, and our community will be felt for generations.
Coach Hill’s journey in soccer leadership began in 1996 when he served as president of recreational soccer. In 1998, he was an assistant coach for the boys soccer team. In 2003, the Spearfish Soccer Association voted to have a designated head coach for both the girls and boys Spartan Soccer teams. Coach Hill accepted the Head Boys Spartan Soccer Coach in 2004.
Under his guidance, Spearfish soccer achieved incredible success. Hill was part of the coaching staff when the Spartans captured the AA state championship in 2004 and followed it up with a fourth-place finish in 2005. Soccer became a SDHSAA State-Sanctioned sport in 2013. Coach Hill lead the transition for soccer to become a state-sanctioned school sport in 2015, and the Spartans finished as state runners-up. The very next year, he guided Spearfish to the 2016 Class A state championship with a decisive 3-0 victory over Tea Area, capping a remarkable rebound from a narrow 1-0 loss to Sioux Falls Christian in the previous year’s title game.
Over his career, Coach Hill’s teams won seven Black Hills Conference Championships and compiled a remarkable regular-season record of 238 wins, 73 losses, and 19 ties. In the post season, the Spartans qualified for the state tournament 20 times, including two state titles, three runner-up finishes, four third-place finishes, two fourth-place finishes, three fifth-place finishes, and two eight-place finishes. These are numbers that reflect not just talent, but his dedication to building players of character both on and off the field.
Coach Hill’s legacy is more than wins and titles. It’s the countless players he mentored, the standards he set for excellence, and the passion for soccer he instilled in the Spearfish community. His leadership and unwavering commitment have left an indelible mark on Spartan athletics. As we celebrate Coach Hill’s retirement, we thank him for his years of service, his championship mindset, and his role in shaping Spearfish soccer into what it is today.