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SDHSAA To Limit State Tournament Crowds, Effective Immediately

State Basketball Tournament

The NBA and NHL have suspended their season’s, the NCAA has canceled both its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, and activities all across the country are seeing some sort of postponement.

On Thursday, the South Dakota High School Activities Association decided to reduce the possibility of potential exposure of the coronavirus at the ‘B’ girls state basketball tournament in Spearfish. As of now, the tournament is still going, but fewer fans can watch it in person. The SDHSAA is going to limit the amount of people who can attend games through the remainder of the event.

High School Activities Association Assistant Executive Director John Krogstrand says his office has been in close contact with the Governor’s Office and the Department of Health over the past two weeks.

“Ultimately we received guidance [Thursday] morning, just as the championships were starting here in Spearfish that they were looking at information from the CDC about maybe putting a threshold in place, or recommending to put a threshold in place, for numbers of people in a single gathering," exclaimed Krogstrand. "We’ve taken that recommendation now, again, from the Governor’s Office, from the Department of Health, based on those CDC thresholds to limit the attendance at the state basketball event this weekend.”

The SDHSAA is giving each school 125 tickets to hand out to their fans, and each ticket is specific to one game. These tickets are also required for players, coaches, and team personnel to enter the venue.

Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa have made similar decisions for their high school post season games. Wyoming announced Thursday that it is canceling the state basketball tournament in its entirety.

If you're unable to attend the event, here are all the ways you can watch - click here. You can also learn more about COVID-19 by visiting our coverage page.

The Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls has included the 'AA' boys and girls basketball tournaments (March 19-21) on a list of events at the venue that are either postponed, canceled, or not open to the public.

Nate Wek is currently the sports content producer and sports and rec beat reporter for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism Broadcasting and a minor in Leadership. From 2010-2013 Nate was the Director of Gameday Media for the Sioux Falls Storm (Indoor Football League) football team. He also spent 2012 and 2013 as the News and Sports Director of KSDJ Radio in Brookings, SD. Nate, his wife Sarah, and three sons, Braxan, Jordy, and Anders live in Canton, SD.