PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota High School Activities and Athletic Directors will discuss possible changes in football classifications and the soccer season when they meet for their annual conference in late March. The South Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors found out about the proposed changes Wednesday after they reviewed a report from the football advisory committee. Currently South Dakota has 7 Classes of football but when Pierre beat Spearfish 103-0 in the opening round of the playoffs, there was a call from all over the state to revamp the football Classifications to 5 Classes. Class 11AA would be made up of the 9 largest schools by male only average daily memberships and Sioux Falls O’Gorman. Class 11A would inlcude the next 16 largest schools of which Pierre would be one of those. Both of those divisions would play a 9 game scheduled with 8 team post seasons. Class 11B would include all of the remaining schools with a 56.001 male only average daily membership with an 8 game regular season schedule and a 16 team post season. There would be only two 9 Man football divisions with Class 9A including the to phalf of all 9 man teams by male-only average daily membership. Classd 9B would be made up of the bottom half of those schools. Athletic Directors must approve the change and then send it to the SDHSAA Board for final consideration. If it passes it would take effect in teh 2021 Fall Season.
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The Athletic Directors will also be considering a proposal from the Soccer Advisory Committee that is calling for the sport to be moved from the fall to the spring season. The reasoning according to SDHSAAS Assistant Executive Director John Krogstrand is that some schools would field a soccer team but with football and volleyball played in the fall, they are having difficulty to finding enough players to go out for the sport.
