On Tuesday, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem announced the closure of K-12 schools in the state through May 1st. As a result of this, all springs sports practices and competitions are canceled through May 3rd.
South Dakota High School Activities Association Executive Director Dan Swartos released this statement as it pertains to the direction of Governor Noem and her office.
“The SDHSAA Board of Directors will meet in coming days to decide on the 2020 Springs Sports season, as well as the suspended/postponed events of State Basketball, Visual Arts, Region Music, and All-State Band,” said Swartos.
On Monday, the Sioux Falls School District announced their own decision to keep all public-school buildings closed within the district until mid-April. Governor Noem’s action extends this window for not just Sioux Falls, but for all of South Dakota.
Dr. Maher: SF Schools will be closed for students until at least April 14 as we await the governor’s announcement tomorrow which may change things.
— Sioux Falls Schools (@SFSchools) March 23, 2020
Earlier this month, the Class B Girls’ basketball tournament was underway in Spearfish. While the quarterfinal round was completed, half with limited fan guidelines enforced, action was halted prior to the start of the consolation semifinal round.
From there, a decision was made to postpone all six basketball tournaments until it was deemed safe by both the Governor’s office and state department of health.
The date and time of the SDHSAA board meeting is ‘to be decided’ yet, but it has been announced that it will be live streamed to the public.
Even though high school baseball in South Dakota is a club sport, and not an SDHSAA sanctioned activity, they are following the same rules as all of the other school sports and activities. This means also no high school baseball (practice or games) until at least May 3 as well.