Hanson Classic in limbo due to weather

For 28 years, the weather has cooperated with the Hanson Classic, but that streak is in serious jeopardy this year.

With freezing rain and snow expected to begin tonight and last into Saturday, a decision will be made at 2 p.m. today whether to let Saturday’s Hanson Classic go on as scheduled or to postpone the event. In its 28-year history, the boys’ event has never been postponed, and the girls’ event, which was played Saturday, hasn’t either.

“We don’t want to leave teams hanging when we have them coming in from all the way across the state,” Hanson boys’ coach Josh Oltmanns said, referring to several teams that are coming in from Rapid City and another from Minnesota. “If they back off on the forecast, we’ll still have it Saturday, but if it stays the same, we won’t.”

Oltmanns said the tentative makeup date would be one week later, on Saturday, Jan. 30. The problem with that date is that Dakota Wesleyan is scheduled to have a doubleheader against Dana College. The games are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., but those could potentially be pushed back to Sunday. However, that would only give DWU two days off before its next games on Wednesday.

The DWU games Saturday could also be pushed back to later in the day, giving the Hanson Classic some extra time to finish its games.

Saturday’s event is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and feature nine games throughout the day. However, if the event has to be pushed back a week, Oltmanns said only 12 teams would be able to make it due to schedule conflicts. That might allow the high school games to wrap up by 5:30 p.m., but that would require Dakota Wesleyan to agree to push their games back by six hours.

“(DWU) obviously has preferential treatment,” Oltmanns said. “But if we can only have six games, we could still run a regular schedule and start at 9 a.m., and they could play at 6 and 8.”

Tags: hanson classic, sports, basketball