Parkston athletics to see new competition in transition to Class B

PARKSTON, S.D. — After a long, successful run in Class A, Parkston High School is expected to start competing in Class B this fall with the start of the 2024-25 academic year.

On Wednesday, the South Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors will finalize new classification alignments on the agenda. If approved, Parkston will become a member of Class B in sports such as volleyball and basketball.

Parkston is slated to be placed in Region 4B, which will include area schools such as Avon, Freeman, Freeman Academy/Marion and Tripp-Delmont/Armour. Parkston has been in Class A for basketball, for example since the early 1980s.

“It was a little surprising,” said Adam Fischer, Parkston’s activities director. "But we knew we had a couple of smaller classes coming through enrollment-wise, so it was something we had talked about and was on our radar.”

Parkston football will continue to compete in Class 9AA. The Ethan/Parkston cooperative, which competes in sports such as cross country and track and field, is set to remain in Class A.

According to Fischer, Parkston’s normal class size is approximately 40 students. However, a rising class in the low-to-mid 20s had a noticeable impact on Parkston’s average daily membership figure, which is used by the SDHSAA in determining classification. A new factor that takes free-and-reduced lunch students into account also lowered the school's final ADM figure, ultimately a decrease of nearly 23% from its previous ADM figure.

During the most recent cycle, Parkston was among the smallest Class A schools with an ADM of 110. Some of the largest Class A schools in southeastern South Dakota were nearly three times that figure, including regularly scheduled opposition in Vermillion (307), Sioux Falls Christian (300) and Lennox (275).

Several other schools are also set to move from Class A to Class B this year, including Tiospa Zina, Waubay/Summit, Estelline/Hendricks, North Central, Bennett County, Dupree and McLaughlin.

In Class B, Parkston will be among the largest schools with an adjusted ADM of 85.4. The largest school in Region 4B based on the new adjusted ADM figures is Viborg-Hurley at 89.7.

”We look at it as an opportunity to go compete against other great competition of like size. We’re really excited about that opportunity,” Fischer said. “There’s going to be great competition at whatever level you’re competing at there’s no doubt about that.

“Ultimately, it will still be about our kids and our coaches continuing to develop our programs and putting in the work in order to compete and have success,” Fischer later added. “Whether it’s Class B or Class A, we’re not going to focus too much on that. We’re going to focus on our process here in Parkston.”

With the proposed alignments not being released until earlier this calendar year, much of Parkston’s scheduling for 2024-25 was already set. As such, Parkston will continue to play several Class A schools, including the rivals it most recently faced in Region 5A. Fischer noted that only of the lone drawbacks was not being able to work some new region opponents into the 2024-25 schedule, leaving potential first meetings for the postseason.

”When I look at our schedule and think about opportunities, our kids are still going to have those opportunities to compete and improve. I don’t really see any cons to it,” Fischer said. ”... It’s pretty much business as usual.”

A pair of Parkston’s Region 5A peers during the most recent cycle — Sanborn Central/Woonsocket and Kimball/White Lake — are also among the Class A contingent transitioning to Class B. KWL was in Class B as recently as two years ago, and SCW moved to Class A the year before during a one-year reclassification cycle.

Like SCW and KWL didn’t stick in Class A for long, Fischer doesn’t expect Parkston to remain in Class B for an extended period, either. Based on current enrollments and classification procedures, Fischer predicted that Parkston’s ADM could increase and push a switch back to Class A after one or two classification cycles — two to four years.

“I think it’s probably a short-term thing,” Fischer said, “but we’ll take wherever the state puts us and wherever our enrollment dictates.”