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PIERRE -- State basketball tournaments for boys and girls teams from AA schools would be held at the same site on the same weekend, for a two-year trial basis, under a proposal that emerged Wednesday from the board for the South Dakota High School Activities Association.
The board gave first reading to a plan that would combine the AA boys and girls tournaments beginning in the 2015-2016 school year. The board will further deliberate later this year.
The board set the basketball tournament dates and locations for the two-year trial period on Wednesday.
For the 2015-2016 school year, the combined AA boys and girls tournaments would be in Sioux Falls on the weekend of March 17-19.
The B boys would play in Aberdeen and the A boys would be in Rapid City on that same weekend. The B girls would play in Huron and the A girls would be in Watertown on the weekend of March 10-12.
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For the 2016-2017 school year, the combined AA boys and girls tournaments would be in Rapid City on the weekend of March 16-18.
The B boys would play in Aberdeen and the A boys would be in Sioux Falls that same weekend, while the B girls would play at Huron and the A girls would be hosted by Spearfish on the weekend of March 9-11 in 2017.
Board members such as Gene Brownell, of Aberdeen, and Terry Nebelsick, of Huron, said it was important to collect two years of data on the AA experiment.
Association staff members said approximately 60 percent of the AA high schools have both a boys team and a girls team playing in state tournaments each year.
Attendance at AA girls tournaments declined since girls basketball season was switched from a fall sport to a winter sport.
