Rod's Thursday Morning Sports Post

The annual spring meeting of the ESD Conference was held yesterday in Mitchell. Expanding the ESD Conference was discussed but ESD President and Pierre Riggs High Athletic Director Dan Whalen said that specifics from the meeting were not being disclosed until later today. The Conference invited Harrisburg and Sturgis to become new members last year. Sturgis has since accepted an invitation to the Black Hills Conference. Harrisburg has not yet made a decision to accept or decline. Whalen did note that the addition of a Class 11AAA in football earlier this week by the South Dakota High School Activities Association did not effect the scheduling aspect of the meeting because it does not take effect until 2013. Dues, scheduling, technology, event sites, conference champions and other business issues were also discussed at the annual meeting yesterday.

The South Dakota High School Athletic Directors will be voting on some possible changes in several sports in the state when they meet for their annual convention in Spearfish next week. The Athletic Directors will be voting on two changes in boys and girls basketball. One would be to change the seeding formula in Class A and B basketball and the other would be to eliminate District Tournaments in Class A basketball and go with 8 Region tournaments with two districts comprising of one Region. The winners of the Region tournaments would then advance to the State Tournament beginning in the 2013 and 14 school years. In football, there are recommendations that the South Dakota High School Activities Association assign officials to work all games, regular and post season. The other is that the field for 9 man football can be either 80 or 100 yards in length but the widt of the field will be 40 yards, no matter what length. The Athletic Directors will also be voting on eliminating Region Meets at the Class A level and all teams would qualify for Team Day. All votes taken by the Athletic Directors are non binding and passed along to the High School Activities Association for a final vote on implementation. The annual Spring Convention of the State's AD's begins Wednesday and wraps up Friday in Spearfish.

The Spring Sports season begins today for the Pierre Governor and Lady Governor track and field teams. About 80 members of this year's squad will open the season today in Aberdeen at the John Huth Indoor Track and Field meet being run in the Barnett Center on the campus of Northern State University in Aberdeen. Governor and Lady Governor head coach Misty Larson says that 6 to 8 teams including a team or two from Fargo, North Dakota will be competing the meet. It is scheduled to begin at 4 pm.

A pair of seniors on the Pierre Governor boys basketball team that finished 3rd last weekend at the State AA Boys Basketball tournament have been selected by the Pierre Area Coaches Association as their Riggs High School Co-Athletes of the Week. Both players are seniors who wrapped up their Governor basketball playing career last weekend and were nominated by the Governor basketball coaches. Tetzlaff averaged 9 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists and Berg averaged 8.3 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists during the State AA Boys Basketball Tournament, helping the Govs earn a 3rd place finish. Governor head coach Terry Becker says that Joe and Connor have been instrumental to the success of the boys basketball team all year with their ability to defend the opponent's best players, and their senior leadership will be missed.