Collection of sports items from SDHSAA board of directors meeting

Note: Here's a collection of sports-related stories from the April 22nd (2026) meeting of the South Dakota High School Activities Association's board of directors.

PIERRE — At its six regular meetings per year, the board of directors of the South Dakota High School Activities Association is usually concerned with finding more and better ways for students to take part in activities.

At its meeting Wednesday, April 22, the board took the rare action to endorse discontinuing the state duals wrestling tournament.

The action was among a variety of first readings of changes to the organization’s athletics handbook. Those changes were first considered by each sport’s advisory committee. Then the changes go to a meeting of the state’s high school athletic directors who vote on the modifications prior to the SDHSAA board meeting.

Discontinuing the state duals wrestling tournament was one of 36 proposals the board considered. A second reading for the proposals approved by the board will be held at its June meeting.

Discontinuing the duals wrestling tournament had wide support among athletic directors with 84% voting to do away with the event. Wrestling was the only sport with two separate statewide events, making it tough to schedule. Schools can take part in a varied number of duals, making the selection of teams for the tournament difficult.

SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos said the South Dakota Wrestling Coaches Association has expressed interest in sponsoring a dual event.

SDHSAA members to vote on constitutional amendments

High schools belonging to the SDHSAA will have a chance to vote on three proposed amendments to the association’s constitution.

One amendment clarifies that eligibility for high school activities starts with the completion of the eighth grade. There have been some instances of parents trying to hold their children back after the eighth grade. They want to “reclassify” or “redshirt” their children in hopes of using their high school athletic eligibility when they are a year older.

Swartos explained that this usually happens with the parents of wrestlers who want the opportunity for their child to put on more weight before beginning competition in high school.

“You don’t get a year off to do club sports,” Swartos said.

According to the rationale offered to members, “the whole concept of redshirting or reclassifying for the purpose of sports goes against the concept of education-based activities.” Students who must be held back for other reasons will have their high school athletic eligibility decided by the association on a case-by-case basis.

Another amendment clarifies that when a school closes, a student may transfer to another school after the end of the school year. According to the rationale, the amendment is offered to provide clarity to the school districts that must accept students from a closed school. It also provides clarity for parents who, when a school is rumored to be closing, want to transfer their children early to another school.

Swartos said questions about this came up twice in the past year with the closure of Freeman Academy and the vote on closing the Oldham-Ramona-Rutland school.

A third amendment clarifies that students who graduate early lose their eligibility to participate in activities.

Ballots must be returned to the SDHSAA office in Pierre by May 31. In order to pass, an amendment must receive a 60% favorable vote from member schools.

There won’t be an election for a new board member as Jeff Kosters of Frederick was the only nominee for an opening on the board to represent small high schools. Kosters, who currently serves on the board, was able to run for a new five-year term as he was filling a term of less than two years.

No carts for golf coaches

One of the ideas brought forward each year is allowing golf coaches to use carts during state and regional tournaments. This year, the request came from Class A coaches with 53% of athletic directors in that division voting in favor the change.

Part of the rationale for the change was that some schools don’t have more than one coach for the golf team, making it hard for the coach to keep track of players on the course.

The handbook change would have allowed host golf courses to offer the carts if they wanted to allow them and if they could find enough.

“It’s giving the courses an out if they don’t want those carts,” Swartos said. He explained that he didn’t want a policy that mandated that carts be allowed because it was already tough to find courses that would host regional and state events.

The change to the handbook failed for the lack of a motion.

No third and fourth place games for soccer

Athletic directors were split along conference lines about the worth of adding third and fourth place games to the state soccer tournament. The move would put the sport in line with others like basketball and volleyball. Eighty percent of Class AA directors were against the move while 57% of Class A directors were in favor.

While the addition of the games got some approval from athletic directors, that approval came without any indication of when or where the games would be played.

“I have significant concerns about the logistics of this,” Swartos said.

The change to the handbook died for the lack of a motion.

A change to speed up the pole vault event

Board members approved a change that would create a two-pit system for the pole vault at the state track meet. Swartos explained that by borrowing equipment from the University of South Dakota and Brandon Valley, the association could avoid the $60,000 cost of implementing a second pit.

A second pit should allow the event, often at the end of the day, to move along faster as one pit will be used for competition and one pit for practice.

“It will help keep us on time,” Swartos said. “At the end of the day, there’s hardly anyone there.”

Too many questions about ‘unified’ 4x100 event

No one made a motion to add a non-scored unified 4x100 event to the state track meet. In the event, athletes from the state meet would compete alongside athletes from the Special Olympics.

Athletic directors were split on whether to offer the event with directors from AA schools voting 60% no, A schools voting 52% no and B schools voting 69% yes.

“Some of the trepidation is not understanding how it works,” Swartos said, explaining that there were questions about travel, housing, nursing care and how to pick the athletes that would compete.

Sit-out rule for basketball officials eliminated

A change from the Sports Officials Council asks that the rule mandating that basketball officials who work state tournaments sit out every fifth year be scrapped.

Swartos said the council asked why “are you making the best officials sit out every five years? It’s one of the hot-button issues in the officials’ world.”

Swartos said the association uses a basketball officials selection committee to choose officials for state events. The committee is made up of board members, school officials and observers who watch the officials throughout the year. The committee also considers votes from coaches as well as evaluations of the officials.

SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Randy Soma said the committee has been good about working new officials into the rotation for work at state tournaments. The change was approved by the board on an 8-1 vote.

Success factor policy faces uphill battle for SDHSAA

The SDHSAA isn’t having much success in drumming up interest in a success factor for athletics. Such a policy would allow teams to move up or down in classification based on their success or lack of it.

Creating a success factor is one of this year’s goals for the SDHSAA board of directors. They were updated about the goal at their meeting on Thursday, April 23.

In his report, SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos admitted that it’s a complicated issue. “It would create a lot of issues, particularly with football.”

Football is one of the areas where Swartos said the success factor would help most. He said some teams are blown out in every game. This hurts the program as athletes decide to no longer go out for the sport. “You’ve got kids saying, ‘I don’t want to do that again.’”

 Using the success factor in football would “throw a lifeline to struggling teams,” Swartos said, but also cause scheduling problems. He said football may need a broader discussion about its classification system.

A power point presentation developed by Swartos listed the positives of a success factor as parity and addressing inequities. There were far more negatives including scheduling difficulties, particularly in football; legal or legislative challenges; plentiful appeals; and cycles of small schools moving up and down in classification.

Swartos also shared a survey of 63 high school athletic directors. In the survey, 65% said they were very unlikely or unlikely to support a success factor policy. Just more than 17% said they were likely or very likely to support the policy.

In the survey 35% of ADs said SDHSAA should end the study without a recommendation and another 34% said to drop the study until a policy comes along that better suits the association.

Asked the three most important issues facing SDHSAA right now, the success factor came in last on the list. According to ADs, the most important issues include classification structures and balance, 51%; parent behavior as spectators and toward programs, 44%; eligibility and transfers, 37%; geographic equity, 32%; in and out of season issues like club participation and private lessons, 24%; AD burnout, 22%; privatization of sports, 19%; home schools, micro-schools and academies, 19%; football classification structure, 18%; and success factor, 11%.

The board will consider how to proceed with the success factor at its strategic planning meeting in July.

Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: S.D. High School Activities Association board meeting