PIERRE, S.D.— The South Dakota High School Activities Association board held a special meeting on Thursday to discuss a couple of important topics. When to begin summer contact activities between athletes and coaches for the summer in view of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) Pandemic and football classification. The board announced a three-phased plan to help return athletes to their summer work outs. The June 1 start date for summer activities is to help athletes get in shape before the fall season begins. Based on NFHS recommendations, a three phase plan would begin on June 1st with no more than 10 people indoors or outdoors during drills and practices. Moving into other phases and allowing more people would be based on whether flat or decreasing number of documented COVID-19 cases over 14-day periods. The three phases However, not every school will start on June 1 as it depends where your school lies among the three phases. It revovles around the three different phases and then three different categories of sports based on the amount of contact and the transmission likelihood of the COVID-19 virus. The board also discussed the five-class football system plan that was proposed in April. The plan saw a lot of push back from coaches and smaller 9 Man football schools and the board agreed. The vote to accept the original five-class proposal that was proposed in April failed on a 4 to 4 vote by the Board. The next motion was to approve the request of a football advisory sub-committee. That vote passed unanimously, meaning the new sub-committee will have until November to provide a new plan for both a five and six-class system. The advisory committee will look at two classificatin plans. 5 classes and 6 classes. The board didn’t say which system they were going to use, but wanted to see what the sub-committee could come up with.
