High School sports are underway in South Dakota with soccer, boys golf, and girls tennis already underway with sanctioned contests. Also, this Friday will see the regular season start for four of the seven high school football classes in South Dakota. The top three classes of high school football will begin the following Friday.
Just because everything has been given the green light to this point, some feel the status of fall sports and activities in general, throughout the Mt. Rushmore state, is still in question. Will everything get shut down again? What will the landscape of fall sports and activities look like come the end of September? While these are questions that many may be asking themselves, there are few answers. And it could just be because nobody truly knows…
Obviously, a mass outbreak of COVID-19 could potentially cripple the status of sports and activities, but a few high school representatives in the state have sited that ‘personal responsibility’ among student-athletes is something to take seriously.
“We can put all the safeguards in that we want while they’re with us during the school day, during practice, those types of things, but if they’re not conducting themselves in a responsible manner outside of that, it’s all for not. It goes back to everyone taking responsibility for themselves all the time,” explained Mitchell high school activities director Cory Aadland. “We feel like we have a little better control when they’re with us sometimes, but certainly what they’re doing outside of the time that they’re with us will be, maybe the most crucial part of this whole process.”
Mitchell is one of the bigger school districts in South Dakota. Like many of the larger districts in the state, including Sioux Falls and Rapid City, they’ve put a plan in place to limit the overall fan attendance at their high school sporting events. Each student-athlete will receive a set number of tickets that they can distribute to family and/or friends with student body attendance being allowed for both the home and away team as well. While this doesn’t drastically cut down on fan attendance, it is still a way to control the overall number.
Hamlin head football coach Jeff Sheehan, despite being at a much smaller district than Mitchell, echoed Aadland’s remarks about personal responsibility.
“Do you want to have a season or don’t you? If you want to have a season, we have to take it day by day as it is, you’ve got to be smart when you leave here. When you’re here, I’m not too concerned, because when you’re here we’re going through all the proper checks. We put the paperwork down, I have to ask them questions every day, I have to take their temperatures every day, but when they leave here they’re on their own, and I trust them to do the right thing,” Sheehan stated. “Don’t put yourself in a situation that could possibly hinder what we’re doing. You’re here because you want to play, so let’s keep that going.”
Even with ‘personal responsibility’ from student-athletes and school staff being a focal point for districts around the state, it still doesn’t guarantee whether or not this attempt at normalcy will ultimately work or not. I think it’s safe to say we all want it to work, but nobody knows for sure. As cliché as it sounds, only time will tell.
