The 2015-2016 high school sports season has arrived, and this year will bring changes to both Dell Rapids and Dell Rapids St Mary schools for the upcoming seasons.
The biggest change will be for the Quarrier football team. Class 11A football will be completely different this year. The first change the Quarriers will face is no “open” date. Class 11A football will be moving from an eight game schedule to a nine game schedule. After the Quarriers complete the new nine game schedule, they will see a change in the playoff format. 11A will move to the same format that 11AAA and 11AA use. Only the top eight teams in powerpoints will advance to the playoffs, thus eliminating one playoff game. Class 11A will play the quarterfinal game on October 29th, and the semifinal game will be played on November 6th or 7th.
Head coach Steve Hansen said that he was a little hesitant about the change in the playoff system. “With our schedule, the Dak-12 Conference, we are going to be playing the top teams in 11A week in and week out, and with the west river schedules, they will probably end with better records than some of the schools around here. With the new power point system, they say that won’t matter, the best teams are going to make the playoffs. We will have to see how it all shakes out this year.”
Both Dell Rapids and Dell Rapids St Mary will see new teams this year. Canton and Sioux Falls Christian both make the jump from 11B to 11A this year. Dell Rapids St Mary will have a couple of new teams on their schedule this year. Arlington and Lake Preston have entered into a co-op for football this year. Castlewood and Estelline have also entered into a co-op for football. The Cardinals will have games against both of those combined teams this year, and have added Canistota and De Smet to fill the two empty spots created by the co-ops.
Both schools will have a change in their respective district and region plan. Baltic has made the jump to Class A this year, meaning District 7B will now be a five-team district. Baltic will now join Dell Rapids, Flandreau, Flandreau Indian, Garretson, Madison and Sioux Falls Christian in Region 3A making that a seven-team region.