The state basketball tournament location — one of the state’s hot button topics — was again discussed during Wednesday’s South Dakota High School Activities Association Basketball Advisory Committee, via Zoom. 

During Wednesday’s committee meeting, a proposal to move all three girls basketball tournaments to one city was again discussed among committee members. The proposal was again tabled after committee members, along with SDHSAA executive director Dan Swartos and assistant executive director Jo Auch, discussed it.

Proposals need to be passed by a majority vote in the seven-member committee. If passed, the proposals will be voted upon at the South Dakota Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association meeting in the spring. If passed, they will go before the SDHSAA board of directors in April, with a final reading in June. 

Sioux Falls Washington girls basketball coach Jamie Parish — the Class AA representative — proposed the idea of holding all three girls basketball tournaments in one city, citing decreased participation in girls athletics. 

In his proposal, he also cited other states that use the one-city model and “Having all the best teams playing in the same city on the same weekend would give opportunities to highlight the female athletes and find new ways to grow our game and hopefully increase participation over time.”

Auch feels moving all three tournaments to one city would make it feel like a YMCA tournament.

“Where we are going from one place to another place to another place for that particular tournament,” Auch said. “For us to have all three classes in the same city, we limit our potential of groups that can potentially host.”

In recent years, the state girls basketball tournaments have been spread out among cities such as Huron, Brookings, Watertown, Spearfish and Sioux Falls. This year, the girls tournaments are again in three cities: Rapid City (Class AA), Brookings (Class A) and Watertown (Class B). 

“We’ve always kind of had a philosophy of sharing the love so-to-speak with other groups,” Auch said. “I am not saying I'm opposed to looking at this, but we have a lot of cities that have done a fantastic job and create an environment for our girls B and our girls A and our girls AA. We’ve kind of found homes for those locations where we really work well. I hate to take that atmosphere and that environment away from those that have done a fantastic job for those for so many years.”

Parish has coached in state tournaments in all three classes — Centerville (Class B), Vermillion (Class A) and Sioux Falls Washington (Class AA). He said the proposal is something he’s wanted to see come to South Dakota for some time. 

“This is not something I have come up with since I’ve been in Sioux Falls,” Parish said. “This is something I feel is a long-term thing we can do that’s really cool.”

In 2019, the State A boys and girls basketball tournaments were combined in Sioux Falls. Winner claimed the girls basketball championship and coach Larry Aaker — the Class A representative — felt his players didn’t get to enjoy their moment in the spotlight. 

“We were told, ‘You have X amount of minutes and you have to get the nets cut down so we can get the boys team on there,’ ” Aaker said. “Then we were rushed over to the Arena and I just didn’t think the kids were able to enjoy it. That’s what I really worry about is those first two championship games of those kids being able to enjoy that moment. I don’t want that taken away from them.”

Aaker added he sees both sides of the argument, but praised recent Class A hosts for putting on quality tournaments when his teams qualified. 

“As far as Class A goes, Watertown does a great job of hosting it when we’ve been there,” Aaker said. “It’s a great atmosphere. The same thing with Spearfish. In Spearfish, the atmosphere was awesome. I haven’t been to a Class A state tournament where the atmosphere wasn’t top notch.”

From the Class B perspective, the Huron Arena has been a regular spot for the girls basketball tournament. While on the boys side, Aberdeen’s Wachs Arena has hosted every Class B tournament since 1995. 

“I go to that B boys tournament every year in Aberdeen and that place is wedged — from the first day until the championship game on Saturday night,” said Stewart Bohle, who is the Warner girls basketball coach and the Class B representative. “If you talk about atmosphere for kids, there’s no better place than the Barnett Center for that. With the girls state tournament, we’ve been fortunate enough to be involved with some of those and the Huron Arena, there just isn’t a better place on a Saturday night.”

Spearfish Athletic Director Steph Ornelas — the athletic director representative — agreed about spreading out the tournaments to other communities. But was also intrigued by the one-site model. 

“I think providing that environment for the championship games, if they were all at one site, would be kind of cool,” Ornelas said. “The fact we could have it on both sides of the state with Monument and Sioux Falls being able to host. I get both ways with it. I just want to make sure that we provide the best atmosphere for our athletes.” 

Class B SoDak 32 format tabled

A Class B SoDak 32 postseason format was also proposed, but ultimately tabled after more discussion. 

The SoDak 16 for basketball began in 2017 for Class A, while it followed for Class B in 2018. As it stands, two teams from the eight regions qualify for the SoDak 16 and they are reseeded 1-through-16. The eight winners qualify for the state tournament.

Canistota boys basketball coach, Pat Jolley, submitted a SoDak 32 model for Class B schools and stated: “Round of 16 has been an improvement but there can still be a very good team left out under the current system. If our goal is to get the best eight teams to the state tournament, a round of 32 would make more sense.”

The travel concerns were the biggest issue with the SoDak 32 proposal, which would reseed four teams from each region into a 1-through-32 round. After that round, teams would play the SoDak 16 round before advancing to state. 

Ornelas has been contacted by West River athletic directors opposed to the SoDak 32 idea.

“They are not in favor of it and mainly because of the travel,” Ornelas said. “When you get to that level — round of 16 — you have already established you are a state team and we just kind of keep watering it down. Sometimes cut ties and start the playoffs.”

While others say the current format is still relatively new and has drawn positive reviews. 

“I don’t think there’s anyone that disagrees that the SoDak 16 is working quite well,” Auch said. “It’s just a matter of can something else work better?”

Bohle added there will always be teams on the outside looking in and it’s no different than the NCAA tournament. 

“There’s always that team that gripes because they aren't in it,” Bohle said. “I think we are in the same boat here. At one point do we just say ‘Hey, here we are at 16 and that’s where we are going to be.’ I think we are getting eight pretty good teams to the state tournament with our system. So I am not sure we want to try and fix something that maybe isn’t broken at this point.”