High School News: South Dakota Becomes Final State to Sanction Prep Softball… Season Set to Start in 2023 Year (But Will It Be Fall, Spring or Both?)

October was an historic month for softball in the state of South Dakota as the South Dakota High School Activities Association (SDHSAA) Board of Directors voted by a count of 8-to-1 on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, to sanction softball as a high school varsity sport.

“I’ve been waiting for this forever,” SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Jo Auch told Nate Wek of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

“We’re the last state in the nation to sanction softball, and that’s embarrassing, that’s embarrassing for our state, and it’s embarrassing that we’re not giving our girls an opportunity to play softball. So, I’m excited about the opportunity and I’m excited about our board that said we’re moving forward with it.”

Still up in the air, however, is if the high school sport will be played in the spring, as most states do, or in the fall.

Initially, the idea was to have it begin two weeks after the conclusion of the girls’ basketball season and run into the first week of June, but there’s been some debate if the fall season wouldn’t be better.

Or perhaps a combination of the two.

“We heard from some of our ‘AA’ (larger) schools that they really didn’t believe spring was the best time to play,” continued Auch, “so it forced us to have another discussion, and there’s quite a discussion on ‘Should we have a spring season or should we have a fall season?’”

“We’re not opposed to having both a fall and a spring season,” she added, “if that’s what our membership tells us, but we’re kind of all over the map with our ‘AA’ schools.”

What the committee discovered was that the nine of the AA or larger schools preferred the fall while six preferred the spring.

Ultimately, the Board voted to begin softball in the spring of 2023 but the idea of starting an “AA” fall season in 2023 will be re-evaluated in January by the Board.

As it stands now, the earliest high school softball would be played in 2023 would be in the spring, with the season starting March 23 and ending with a state tournament on June 3.

If pushed to the fall, it would kickoff August 6 and concluded at state on October 1.