By Dana Hess
For the S.D. Newspaper Association
PIERRE — E-sports and girls’ softball could be sanctioned for South Dakota high schools as soon as the 2022-2023 school year. At its meeting on Thursday, Aug. 12, the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors learned that SDHSAA staff will have proposals ready for the two sports at its November meeting.
At the meeting SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Jo Auch said there was some difference of opinion among schools as to when the girls’ softball season should take place. She said that schools were polled as to whether they were interested in adding the sport and what the preference would be for scheduling the season: in the spring, fall or summer.
South Dakota is the only state that does not offer high school girls’ softball. Of those states that do, 44 offer it in the spring, four in the fall and one in the summer.
“Obviously the weather is much better in the fall,” Auch said, noting that of the 25 schools that want to offer the sport, 16 preferred the spring, two the summer and seven the fall. The survey results showed that 34 schools might be interested in adding the sport and 15 said no. The 74 schools that responded to the survey represent a little more than half of the schools that belong to SDHSAA.
Auch said a steering committee tasked with starting the sport prefers offering girls’ softball in the spring. The sport could run for eight to nine weeks and end before Memorial Day.
Board member Terry Rotert of Huron asked if there was too much of a rush to get the sport started in the spring of 2022-2023. Auch said the sport has been under consideration for three years and that the 16 schools that said yes to offering it in the spring was enough to get it started.
“We’ve started sports with a lot less teams than 16 and played a state tournament,” Auch said.
SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos said E-sports would be fairly easy to offer as it can be done through the PlayVS program offered by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
“They essentially take care of everything,” Swartos said, adding that the board would need to decide on which games to sanction and whether to offer one or two seasons of the sport per school year.
