Travis Kriens. KORN News Radio Sports Director
I pulled back into Mitchell at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday morning after covering the Mitchell Kernels girls and boys basketball doubleheader at Watertown on Tuesday night, Dec. 17.
That’s too late. For anybody. And especially on a school night.
It’s too late for the student-athletes who are expected to compete at a high level and then be ready for class just a few hours later. Too late for students or parents in the stands who traveled to support their classmates. Too late for teachers and coaches who wear multiple hats. And too late for broadcasters and media members who had alarms set for 4:45 a.m. the next morning.
Mitchell to Watertown is roughly a two-hour drive in good conditions. Everyone involved knows that. Yet the way this doubleheader was scheduled made a late night unavoidable.
The doubleheader was supposed to start at 6 p.m., but sub-varsity games ran long. The girls varsity game didn’t tip until 6:50 p.m. The boys game started around 8:30, went to overtime, and didn’t finish until just after 10 p.m. By the time teams packed up, completed postgame responsibilities, and made the drive home, the next calendar day was right around the corner.
Even if everything had started right at 6 p.m., both teams still would have been getting home close to midnight. On a Wednesday.
That’s not good for anyone.
Now, to be clear, this isn’t always easy to avoid. Scheduling is complicated. Distances between schools matter. Officials have to be available. Other sports are competing for gym space. This is not a criticism of any one school or activity director.
But we still need to do better.
There are approximately 12 Fridays and 12 Saturdays on the high school basketball schedule. Those nights need to be prioritized for long trips. If the distance between two schools is more than 90 minutes to two hours, those games should be played on a Friday or Saturday whenever possible.
This issue really only affects a handful of Class AA schools — notably Mitchell, Pierre, Yankton, Aberdeen, Watertown, and Brookings. It does not impact the Sioux Falls schools, Brandon Valley, Tea Area, Harrisburg, or most West River schools like Douglas, Rapid City Stevens, Rapid City Central, Spearfish, and Sturgis in the same way.
For the most part, Mitchell’s schedule actually does a good job utilizing non-school nights.
The Kernels host Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central in back-to-back doubleheaders on Dec. 19 and 20. The Mitchell girls play at Harrisburg on Friday, Jan. 2. Yankton comes to Mitchell on Friday, Jan. 9. Mitchell travels to Brookings on Friday, Jan. 16. Sioux Falls Lincoln visits Mitchell on Friday, Jan. 30. Mitchell makes the long West River trip to Sturgis on Friday, Feb. 6, and Spearfish on Saturday, Feb. 7. Pierre comes to Mitchell on Friday, Feb. 20.
That’s how it should look. Long trips on Fridays and Saturdays. Non-school nights.
But there are still a few problem spots. Mitchell hosting Aberdeen Central on Tuesday, Feb. 10, for example, is simply too long of a weekday trip for Aberdeen. Meanwhile, Mitchell playing the Sioux Falls schools on weeknights makes sense. Those are the shortest trips the Kernels will make all season.
In fact, Mitchell’s shortest road trip this year is still 70 miles and at least an hour away.
West River schools often voice concerns about travel, but their longest East River swings are typically scheduled on weekends. Rapid City Stevens, for instance, has East River trips grouped on Fridays and Saturdays — Huron and Mitchell, followed by Sioux Falls Roosevelt and Lincoln, then Watertown and Brookings, and later Yankton and Harrisburg. Those are long trips, but at least they aren’t on school nights.
Pierre, as usual, probably has the toughest hand dealt. The Governors travel to Huron on Tuesday, Feb. 10, a two-hour, 116-mile trip. Then they go to Brookings on Tuesday, Feb. 17, which is nearly 190 miles and more than three hours away.
There aren’t many of these long weekday trips on the schedule. But when they happen, they are really long and they take a toll.
High school sports are supposed to enhance education, not undermine it. When teams are getting home after 1 a.m. on a school night, something is off balance.
The games matter. The rivalries matter. The competition matters.
But not more than the students at the center of it all.
We can do better and with smarter scheduling, we should.