One of the newest sanctioned sports in South Dakota is continuing to grow throughout the region and this year will include the first ever Northeast Conference Softball Tournament in Redfield on May 2.
South Dakota was the last state in the country to sanction softball as a high school sport and began play in 2023. Since then, numbers have grown every year and continue an upwards trend. Softball will be added as an event at the 2028 Olympic Games.
Although fastpitch softball was already big in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, it’s been slowly catching on in the northeast region. A big ambassador of the sport is Redfield coach Bradley Cihak.
“I grew up down in southeast South Dakota where fastpitch is a lot bigger deal. I kind of grew up around fastpitch, coached a little bit while I was in college, helped a little bit in high school,” said Cihak. “So, I was excited when the girls came to me. They knew I was around the game previously, so I said whatever you need to do, I’ll help you with. And if we get this started, I’d definitely be interested in coaching.”
Redfield softball started with a petition from interested players that was taken to the school board a few years ago.
“Three years ago, the year before, some girls gathered a petition to add softball that they then took to the school board and got board approval to add softball here in Redfield,” Cihak said. “We got some things ordered and things started. Then the girls were super excited year one coming in, ready to go, just excited to play.”
Once Redfield established a team, it joined other teams in the area. Redfield was able to host a tournament last season, but not quite a conference tournament because it was one team short.
With the addition of NEC member Groton this spring, it has changed a few things moving forward.
“We added Groton this year, so we have six conference teams now, which is what we require to do any conference awards, anything for conference that way,” said Cihak. “So, we switched it over now to a conference tournament just as our Northeast Conference is growing large enough in softball currently to be able to do that.”
With the help of Redfield athletic director Joel Osborn, who helped set everything up on the back end of things, there will now be an NEC Tournament for the first time.
“It was a fairly easy process I guess you could say, for the most part. I shouldn’t say easy, but my AD took care of it I guess so it was easier for me,” said Cihak. “The transition over to NEC was just the ability that we could get enough NEC teams now to continue to add softball.”
The Northeast Conference has already started to build its own softball tradition as Deuel captured the State B championship last season.
Current conference schools that have softball include Clark-Willow Lake, Deuel, Groton, Milbank, Redfield and Sisseton.
If softball continues to grow in the NEC, Cihak believes there is another school that might be the next candidate to join the mix in the near future.
“Next school in the area is probably, I would say, going to be Webster,” Cihak said. “I think Webster’s probably not too far behind in that area. Warner’s started fast pitch last year in the summer, but just with track being so big there, I think that’s going to be a hard sell.”
Track and field seems to be the biggest challenge for schools looking to add softball as the two run during the same season, which makes it difficult for girls to participate in both. Especially programs like Warner, Ipswich, and others which historically have solid track squads.
“I think the big hold up for a lot of schools right now is worried about their track programs and not wanting to see track programs take a hit, which is obviously a great concern,” said Cihak.
“But allowing kids to dual sport we have found is a great way to work together for both sports,” Cihak said, “and allow the kids to get as much experience as possible.”
