The sanctioned high school softball tournaments are coming back to Aberdeen.

The Hub City hosted the inaugural combined state tourneys last month and will get the opportunity to do it again next spring.

“We’re going back to Aberdeen next year because they just knocked it out of the park for us,” said Jo Auch, assistant executive director of the South Dakota High School Activities Association. “The ability to have two classes in one location and the other class at NSU worked out really well.”

So did the first ever sanctioned season for the sport, according to Auch.

“It was an amazing season,” she said. “There’s no question about it.”

Auch said the biggest disappointment was that the weather played a factor in delaying the number of games some teams were able to play.

“If the weather would have just cooperated for us to get that spring season in that would’ve helped a lot,” Auch said. “I think any other year our ability to play softball in April would’ve been much better, but unfortunately the weather just did not want to cooperate with us this year. I think once we got up and running and got to the main portion (of the season), people started getting a lot of games in and I think everybody was pretty darn happy.”

Auch said the season exceeded her expectations once she saw the state tournament play out.

“I think the final endeavor of the state tournament was the icing on the cake, so to speak. Watching those kids be able to compete for a state championship title that they never had had the opportunity to before, it was quite a revelation,” Auch said. “It was something that was just fantastic to see, and seeing the excitement from the girls.”

Auch also applauded the city of Aberdeen for taking the initiative to host the first-ever state softball tournament.

“Seeing how Aberdeen handled the whole situation and took the bull by the horns and ran with it gave everybody a fantastic experience,” Auch said. “I didn’t think it could’ve gone much better. I was pleased with it.”

Although there were many positive takeaways, Auch said there were also several issues that needed to be looked at throughout the course of the season.

“There were some things that we didn’t think about,” Auch said. “I think people were surprised at how long the games were taking. We did not allow a time limit for any of the games in the early stages because we thought that there might be some manipulation from coaches and players and things like that.”

Auch said changes such as a five-inning limit and time limit were discussed and implemented during the season to account for the extended amount of time that games were being played, especially during tournaments.

“We made some adjustments in the season to allow for some of those things, which I think worked out well,” Auch said.

Auch talked with several coaches who said the state tournament was a success and only felt a need to change some minor rules for next season, particularly at the sub-varsity levels.

“We are going to allow the JV’s, I think it was more the sub-divisions and sub-varsity levels, to allow for them to play games in the way that they wanted to, and allow free substitution, those types of things which we didn’t have in the handbook,” Auch said. “I think all in all we’re going to give it another go with the way we have things for next year and then ultimately look to make changes from there.”

While everyone is comfortable with the length of the season, Auch said there is the potential that the season could start earlier.

“They wanted to potentially start the season a little sooner to give your pitchers and catchers time to work their arms a little bit and things of that nature,” Auch said. “Nobody wants to go later because then you run into the summer softball season as well.”

Another idea on the table has been potentially splitting up state tournament locations, similar to what is done during the state basketball tournaments where each tournament is in its own city and venue.

Auch said there are multiple factors to consider when determining state tournament locations.

“I had originally thought that turf was probably the way to go just because you don’t have to line fields and things like that, that stadium setting,” Auch said. “But I’m not so sure that has to be because not many people get to play on turf throughout the course of the year either.”

While Aberdeen will once again host the state softball tournaments, Auch noted that the tournament locations will be looked at again after next year.

“I think our board will look to see how that goes and if we want to split it up or keep it all together as such,” Auch said. “Not a lot of people in our office have a lot of softball experience, so I want to keep my hand in the cookie jar, so to speak, and make sure that everything went well, so keeping them together was first and foremost for us this year.”

While many were uncertain as to how many teams, players, and fans would be involved in the first season of high school softball in South Dakota, Auch is optimistic that the sport will continue to grow in the future.

“We had no idea what to expect for a fanbase, and I was pleasingly surprised,” Auch said. “Is it going to grow? Absolutely. I think I’ve got six teams right now that are telling me that they want to play next year. They saw what it looked like this year, and they want to be a part of that, and so that’s encouraging. North Dakota has told me that it’s their fastest growing sport, so I’m hoping that that will carry through for South Dakota as well.”