The South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors approved the formation of steering committees for both softball and esports during a regular meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The proposal includes meeting this summer to develop a broad outline of a handbook, seasons, and formats to be presented in November for a board vote. Schools would then commit to both of those in January with the intention of implementing both in the fall of 2022.
“For two years now, we’ve been discussing it. I’ve met with every superintendent group across the state on this,” SDHSAA executive director Dan Swartos said. “We believe our next step here would be to approve the steering committees for both softball and esports.”
South Dakota remains the only state in the country without softball as a sanctioned sport, following Wyoming’s start to their inaugural season this spring. Swartos added in esports because of its growing popularity within the country and on the collegiate level.
“We’ve had multiple universities in our state with esports collegiate teams and scholarships. We view that as a very cost-friendly way to include kids who otherwise may not be a part of another organization.”
Here are the other modifications from the meeting.
State Track and Field
The two-day event was approved by a 5-3 vote to be held across three sites in the Black Hills area, along with other proposed changes due to COVID-19. The most contested change in the schedule was the removal of the on-site practice day that was originally proposed to “mitigate risk concerns.”
Other changes include preliminary races only for the 100-meter dash, boys 110 hurdles and girls 100 hurdles. All other events — with the exception of the 1600 and 3200 — will be run as three-heat finals. The two distance races, sprint hurdles and open 100 will be one-heat finals.
The 2021 state track and field meet is slated for May 28-29.
Football
First round of playoffs for nine-man will have the top 16 teams seeded in a bracket as opposed to the former of taking three from each region and four next best teams. The format will mirror the first round of playoffs in 11B.
The change was prompted by early exits from some of the top teams in the state against equally matched opponents.
“Specifically, this last year, two teams that would’ve been top five in the state if seeded 1-16, were playing each other in a region game as two and three and someone was staying home,” SDHSAA assistant executive director Dr. John Krogstrand said.
The motion was unanimously approved for all nine-man classes.
Golf
Decrease the field of 60 percent of region qualifiers for Class A state meets to 50 percent. Players will be reduced to 10 to 12 players, which would make a dynamic change in the flow of the tournament.
Class AA will follow a 75th percentile system where six members of each school must average their scores within that range all season long. The working average for boys is 94 and 107 for girls.
Coaches are allowed to be with the golfer all the way up until the green.
Tennis
Class A teams will play on Mondays and Tuesdays, while Class AA is on Thursdays and Fridays.
Substitutions for singles are allowed as they have been with doubles. If necessary, a seventh or eighth player is able to come into to play. Tie breakers are now at seven-points.
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