Last week, the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors approved a proposal to start all sanctioned high school sports and activities on time for the fall season. Most fall sports are outside, but volleyball is one of the exceptions.
Because volleyball is different than tennis, golf, cross-country, and football, it has led to questions as to what exactly the sport will look like when it starts at the end of August.
“We were really excited to hear the news that South Dakota decided to have the fall sports. I think that’s great, it’s a great decision. Let’s get these kids playing, right?! But we’ve got to be smart too. It will look a little different,” stated Sioux Falls Christian head volleyball coach Darci Wassenaar. “I don’t think we’re changing sides of the court and you’re just going to have to take different precautions. We’ve talked to the girls about, just love the game, love playing, and I think we really just want to focus on that.”
Not only will teams not change sides on the court after each set, but there also won’t be any post-game team handshakes either. We saw a preview of this at the one day of the state basketball championships in Spearfish, the post-game consisted of teams waving at one another from their own sides of the court.
“I think a lot of the coaches are willing to do whatever it takes to keep our kids safe, but also provide them some opportunities to play the game that they love, and I think that with the new guidelines and things like that we’re going to be able to do that,” said Nora Groft, Northwestern volleyball head coach.
Fan attendance is tricky as some districts may decide to limit fans, while another community may not put any restrictions in place. The power of who gets to come lies completely with each individual school district.
It’s about keeping everyone safe and keep everything as clean as possible. In volleyball, there’s rarely direct contact between opposing players – the only thing that changes hands is the ball. This is something that will also see a change this season.
“They can sanitize the ball every time,” said Groft. “Volleyball is a sport where you score and it’s a dead ball. We can get a new ball in and sanitize that next one, and we can come in no contact with the other team.”
There’s a lot of skepticism regarding the upcoming school year. Not only are there questions on what sports may look like come mid-September, but with school in general. For the coaches, it’s getting the kids ready to play.
“Even though we don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring, yeah, as a coach we’re preparing as if we’re going to have a full season. And that’s how we’ll go into it,” Wassenaar said. “Just with our reliance on God and his sovereignty, we know, ok, if we don’t get to play tomorrow, that’s ok – we’re all going to be ok. Just to put our trust in him too, that’s given us huge comfort where we’re just going to take each day at a time and trust him and his plan.”
Eighteen volleyball teams from the Mt. Rushmore State were in Sioux Falls Monday and Tuesday of this week, participating in a Summer Slam volleyball tournament at the Sanford Pentagon. This annual event is put on by Adrenaline Volleyball and brought in participation from five total states. The team from Northwestern won the SoDak bracket on Tuesday afternoon.
Sanctioned sports and activities in South Dakota will see practices starting as early as August 3rd for some. Volleyball programs can begin organized practice on Thursday August 13th with the first available contest date slated for Tuesday August 25th.
