South Dakota High School Activities Association director Dan Swartos says one school was penalized at last week's state boys tennis tournament in Rapid City.
A weather delay last Thursday led to venue changes for the teams. Swartos says teams were notified of match start times through a group messaging system.
He says a clock begins when teams are called to the court. Swartos says the Flight One and Flight Two men’s doubles teams from Sioux Falls O’Gorman High arrived late to matches. He says the Flight One team was penalized three games. Swartos says stricter punishments are in place for players who are more than 15 minutes tardy.
"If you're beyond 15 minutes late, your match is defaulted. And, their flight two doubles team was right around 20 minutes late for that match. So, they were issued a default, it was appealed to our assistant executive director Jo Auch, who upheld that default. And then, it was appealed further to myself and I also upheld the default. So, that team, once that default happened the team they were playing moved on in the bracket - the team from O'Gorman moved into the consolation bracket and played their first round consolation match Thursday evening."
Swartos says the O'Gorman flight was the only duo that forfeited a match at the tournament.
The Argus Leader reports a parent of a Knights player and O'Gorman coach Don Barnes filed a restraining order on Friday against the SDHSAA that would continue through this Friday.
A judge granted that, but the plaintiffs withdrew the order later in the day. The tournament's second flight continued as scheduled from there. ?
Sioux Falls Lincoln won the tournament. O'Gorman finished in fifth place. In court documents, Barnes says cellphone service near the venue was not reliable. The plaintiffs also alleged the association's decision impacted the Knights' chances of winning the state title.
SDPB has reached out to Barnes and to O'Gorman athletic director Steve Kueter. Neither have responded for comment.