By Ryan Deal

605 Sports

Ten years ago, 12 schools merged to form a Class A power conference.

But what was it going to be called?

“What I remember being the biggest controversy was coming up with the name,” said Vermillion teacher Jodi Zeller, who was at Elk Point-Jefferson at the time. “The name was huge. Obviously there were 12 schools, and so there was a big controversy about whether they wanted to include Dak-XII in the name. But the 12 did represent the 12 original schools. That without a doubt was the biggest controversy, which is kind of silly.”

A decade later, the member schools can agree on one thing — the Dak-XII Conference has been a highly successful and dominant conference. The East River-based conference now regularly wins state and individual championships across all sports. 

“You can look at the history of the conference and you can see every state tournament, Dak-12 is very well represented,” said Zeller, who is the Dak-XII Conference executive secretary. “It’s self proclaimed, but we would consider ourselves the elite conference in the state — for sure in Class A.”

Dell Rapids hoists the 2023 Class 11A state football championship at the DakotaDome in Vermillion. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

Beginning in 2013-14, schools from the dwindling Big 8 Conference and Big Sioux Conference officially merged to form the Dak-XII Conference.

The Big Sioux Conference comprised of Beresford, Canton, Dakota Valley, Dell Rapids, Elk Point-Jefferson, Sioux Falls Christian, Tea Area and Tri-Valley. The Big 8 Conference, however, was not living up to its name.

The conference had been reduced to Lennox, Madison, Vermillion and West Central. Harrisburg, which was a former Big 8 member, joined Class AA and Eastern South Dakota Conference in 2013-14. Brandon Valley, which had also previously made the jump to Class AA, Canton, Elk Point-Jefferson and Beresford were other former Big 8 members at different points. 

It left the remaining four schools scrambling for a new conference collaboration. The Big 8 administrators approached the Big Sioux representatives and a 12-team league was kicked around. 

“We were excited to think about what it would look like,” Sioux Falls Christian Athletics Director Jim Groen said. “Some of us served on the steering committee and along with our administrators, superintendents came up with a 12-school conference.”

Once agreed upon, the administrators ironed out the details and wrote a conference constitution to align with the league’s vision for success. 

The four remaining Big 8 members were among the highest enrolled Class A schools, and some Big Sioux schools were smaller in enrollment. 

But the possibilities for the conference trumped any reluctance. 

“The excitement was what a great conference this would be, with some really good competition and that kind of won the debate,” Groen said. 

There’s no debate now. Instead, the Dak-XII Conference has erupted into a power conference and the results bear fruit. 

The member schools regularly have teams and individuals competing and winning state titles. In team sports, volleyball, boys basketball, football and wrestling have been wildly successful. 

Dakota Valley hoists the 2023 Class A boys basketball trophy in Sioux Falls. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)

In volleyball, Sioux Falls Christian has won nine state championships from 2014-23 and Dakota Valley won titles in ‘13 and ‘16. In the recent Class A state volleyball tournament, Sioux Falls Christian, Lennox, Dell Rapids and Dakota Valley represented the league. 

In boys basketball, Madison, Sioux Falls Christian, Tea Area and Dakota Valley have each won two state championships since the merger, while it’s regularly been Dak-XII vs. Dak-XII for the title. 

Football does not count as a conference sport, but the league schools are regularly competing for state championships. Class 11A, which is made up of eight Dak-XII schools, has been ruled by the league for several years. 

It’s regularly two conference teams playing each other in the Class 11A championship, with Madison (four) and Dell Rapids (three) winning the most state titles since the merger. 

Sioux Falls Christian won back-to-back Class 11B state championships in 2017 and ‘18, while Canton (2013) and Elk Point-Jefferson (2022) also won recent titles in the class.

In wrestling, Canton has collected seven Class B state championships since 2016. The league has also produced multiple team and individual state champs across the other SDHSAA-sponsored schools. 

“Things are good,” Zeller said. “I feel like we are a strong conference. We represent well all across the state. We are really proud of the conference and what we accomplished.”

The championships not only bolster the conference’s reputation, but as the saying goes, iron sharpens iron and pushes other members to succeed. 

“I get a strong vibe from all of our schools that certainly within the conference we want to compete at the highest level and win those games,” Groen said. “But we do celebrate it when other Dak-XII schools go on to succeed at the state level. There’s quite a bit of pride among our conference schools and what our conference is about and the high level of athletes we come out with year after year.”

Despite the Dak-XII moniker, the league is currently at 11 schools and will be down to 10 members next season. Beresford, which was a charter school, is now a member of the Big East Conference. In March 2023, Tea Area announced it will join the ESD and Class AA ranks in the 2024-25 season. 

“We would love to get back to that 12 number of teams,” Zeller said. “We have some feelers out right now. We do have a very serious looker as to coming in, and we are always on the search for another to make it 12.”

The 10 remaining schools are scattered across southeast South Dakota and any expansion wouldn’t necessarily be based on geography, said Groen. 

“There’s a fair number of bigger Class A schools in there,” Groen said. “Most of the schools that you’d think would fit, are either already in a conference or are part of the Dak-XII. So travel isn't always a big consideration. We are fairly compact. Dakota Valley is furthest south and Madison being furthest north.”

Currently, the 10 remaining schools have healthy enrollment numbers. Dakota Valley has the largest average daily membership of 339, according to the SDHSAA, which is calculated with grades 9-11 during the 2021-22 school year and used for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. Elk Point-Jefferson has the smallest ADM with 159. 

No matter what the future holds, the Dak-XII is in a good spot and it has a decade’s worth of championships scattered throughout the league. 

“I really appreciate the cooperative spirit among our schools,” Groen said. “There’s certainly rivalry type games you develop with those schools, but across the board I really get a good vibe for a good cooperative spirit and sportsmanship that we certainly want to continue doing.”