The South Dakota High School Activities Association has released a statement regarding the finish to the Class A girls basketball state championship Saturday. In the end Sioux Falls Christian defeated Red Cloud in the closing moments and fans of Christian stormed the court in celebration. Red Cloud wanted a technical foul and claims they deserved one went viral online.
The SDHSAA says there is no rule in the handbook storming of the court results in a technical foul and the examples circulating on social media were from AI generated search results.
“A photo going around social media says that storming the court is a technical foul per SDHSAA rules. This appears to be a search engine/AI generated response and is incorrect. There is no NFHS or SDHSAA rule indicating a technical foul for court storming,” according to Dan Swartos SDHSAA Executive Director.
However, if students or fans storm the court SDHSAA rules do state teams do not get a medal ceremony. This rule was not followed and SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos apologized for the mistake and took responsibility.
“SDHSAA does have a policy stating that if fans come onto the court following a game, the medals and trophy are supposed to be given to a team representative rather than individually out to the players. This policy was not followed (Saturday) night. I take responsibility for that and apologize for it.”
