SDHSAA Not a Tool of the Jockocracy?

A perusal of the minutes of the last SDHSAA board meeting (October 31, 2007) deflates (just a little) some of the heated accusations that have flown that the SDHSAA is either anti-Christian or, as this very blog suggested, ruled by the jockocracy. At the same meeting where the SDHSAA put St. Thomas More on probation for violating All-State Orchestra audition rules (and socked the school with a $600 fine plus $1170 in legal fees -- ouch!), the board also put Crow Creek HS on a similar one-year probation for playing an ineligible student in two football games. See? The SDHSAA doesn't give jocks a free pass on everything.

However, we may find some evidence of the arts-athletics dichotomy in a comparison of the perspectives of the SDSHAA Board of Directors on the state events for football and theater. Last September at the annual convention of the Speech Communication Association of South Dakota, the SDSHAA convened a meeting of one-act play directors to discuss, among other things, changing the State One-Act Festival, the theatrical equivalent of All-State Orchestra or the State Football Championships, from a three-day to a two-day event. The SDHSAA felt that three days was just too long for this state event and wanted to condense the time frame to two days. To make this happen, the SDHSAA was willing to consider sending the shows from each class to different venues or even limiting the number of shows that get to perform at State.

Fortunately, the one-act directors appear to have prevailed with an easier solution: tighten the schedule just a few minutes for each show so folks can still get on the road home at a decent hour after awards on Saturday. Kids still get a big three-day festival of theater, a fitting event to crown their competitive theater experience.

Note, however, that at the same time SDHSAA was grumbling about three days being too long for a festival involving 45 schools, the SDHSAA decided two days was too short for a state event involving just 12 schools. For the second year, SDHSAA has scheduled the State Football Championships for three days. This year, the 11A and 11B games go Thursday, while all three 9-man games happen Friday. They now rotate each year -- next year, the three 9-man games go on Thursday. As usual, the AA get the choice spot every year, prime time Saturday night. "When we first talked about it, the board felt that the 11AA game should always be the last game on Saturday," Carney said. "They just thought that was the way it should work" [Mick Garry, "Changes Relax Seat Scramble," that Sioux Falls paper, 2007.11.08].

Theater and football are two very different beasts. There is a big difference in the logistics of the two contests. Let the boys throw balls around for three days. Let the fans have a good time and an easier passage in and out of the Dome. But if we can take three days to play six games of football, we can certainly take three days to let kids stage 45 plays.