By Dana Hess
For the S.D. Newspaper Association
PIERRE — On Wednesday, the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors passed the first reading of a procedure that will provide a structure for adding new sports and fine arts activities.
“There’s not really a formalized process,” SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos told the board. “We thought a more structured policy in place would help us.”
The new policy calls for a formal written request for a new sport or activity from a member school or the SDHSAA staff. That would be followed by a completed proposal with information about the history of the sport/activity, data about how many schools would be interested in offering the activity, recommendations for when during the school year the sport would be played and projected start-up costs for member schools.
After the proposal was made, the SDHSAA staff or a steering committee would study post season finances and venues, the impact on the staff, the impact on the school calendar of activities and sports and the impact on current programs.
If the new sport or activity is approved by the board, the SDHSAA staff would establish an advisory committee and develop a handbook.
The board approved the first reading of the policy. A second reading will be held at the board meeting in April or June.
Even with a formalized procedure in place, Swartos said he doesn’t anticipate adding “a ton of activities” though he has fielded requests for adding rodeo, hockey, bass fishing and robotics.
At the meeting, the board also approved a report from its E-sports committee that recommends offering a pilot program for the sport in the 2023-2024 school year and fully sanctioning the sport in the 2024-2025 school year.
The committee recommended using Fenworks of Fargo, N.D., as the E-sports provider.
According to Swartos the pilot year will allow the association to develop a handbook and create guidelines for the kinds of video games that schools will use. “We obviously won’t have any first-person shooters,” Swartos said.
During that pilot year, schools can get the equipment they’ll need and start competing.
Because the teams will be competing against other teams via the internet, there will be no travel involved until the state finals. Swartos said he hopes one of the state’s universities would serve as a host for the tournament.
