The journey may have been long and challenging at times, but South Dakota is finally underway with a sanctioned league of high school softball. This week, the season began for schools across the state.
On Tuesday, the three inaugural games with the sport were Beresford vs Dell Rapids, Canton vs Dakota Valley, and Pierre vs Rapid City Central. At the Governors and Cobblers matchup in Pierre, there was a bit of a pre-game ceremony to ‘cut the ribbon’ for the sport. South Dakota High School Activities Association assistant executive director Jo Auch, who was a key proponent in getting softball sanctioned in the Mt. Rushmore state, was invited to throw out the first pitch.
“It wasn't pretty,” Auch said jokingly. “But I did get to throw the first pitch. So, that was really an exciting, proud moment for me, just to know that we're finally there and it's been a long time coming. And to see this come to light, I had tears in my eyes. It was something that was super exciting and just to provide that opportunity for these kids.”
The Board of Directors for the SDHSAA voted to officially sanction high school softball in November of 2021 with the spring of 2023 being the slated as the inaugural season. But the journey towards sanctioning the sport extends back longer than most think. Nearly two decades ago, before Jo Auch was even on the executive board, the high school activities association was tasked with finding another girls sport. Cheer and Dance and soccer were discussed as options, but so was softball.
“I think there was some fear that if we add softball, baseball would fly right in there, and that's not going to help our girls' numbers, things of that nature,” Auch explained. “But all of those sports were kind of in the mix for that.”
Cheer and Dance became a sanctioned activity in 2007, and then boys and girls soccer followed in 2012. But yet softball was still left out.
“About six, seven years ago as I was sitting in this chair, and we're one of the few states that doesn't have softball in the nation, I'm going, we are really missing the beat here,” Auch stated. “So, we started that conversation at our AD's conferences and just said, "Hey, when are we ready to get on board?" And our policy here has always been the schools need to bring that to light, but let us know when it's time for us to add an activity in this process.”
The process really gained momentum three years ago. To be clear, high school softball has been a part of some of the state’s member schools for some time, but it was like baseball, a club sport. This means it wasn’t a school funded athletic activity. And another key difference, high school (club) softball was played in the fall. Now that it’s sanctioned, the sport is being played in the spring.
“My goal was to get 30 schools involved,” Auch said. “I didn't know if we were going to have one class, two classes, three classes when this started. But when I started getting these participation forms back and schools were yes, yes, yes, I'm just going, yes, yes, yes.”
For the inaugural season of softball, there are 49 teams in three classes. Class AA has 16, Class A with 19, and Class B being represented by 14 teams.
“I'm absolutely hoping and planning on this softball continuing to grow throughout our schools, throughout our A and B especially,” exclaimed Auch. “I think that's where we have the potential for the most growth with this. And there'll probably be some co-op teams, and that's okay. It's just, like I said, it's finding those coaches, finding those kids. We know we're going to spread kids a little thin if they want to be involved.”
The state tournament for the inaugural sanctioned season of high school softball will take place in Aberdeen on June 1-3, where the sport will crown its three inaugural state champs.
