Eastern South Dakota Conference

The Eastern South Dakota Conference is a high school athletic conference made up of nine teams of Class AA in the East River Region of South Dakota. All schools are members of the SDHSAA. Sports offered are boys & girls basketball, football, boys & girls track & field, boys and girls cross country, volleyball, wrestling, competitive dance & cheer, and, starting in 2012, boys & girls soccer.

Eastern South Dakota Conference
ConferenceSDHSAA
Founded1927
No. of teams10 (12 for football)

Current members

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Team & mascot School Enrollment Year joined
Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles Central HS 1,412 1927
Brandon Valley Lynx Brandon Valley HS 1,306 1989
Brookings Bobcats Brookings HS 999 1927
Harrisburg Tigers Harrisburg HS 1,478 2012
Huron Tigers Huron HS 774 1927
Mitchell Kernels Mitchell HS 916 1927
Pierre T.F. Riggs Governors T.F.Riggs HS 854 1966

Rapid City Central Cobblers

Central HS 1,844 2015

Rapid City Stevens Raiders

Stevens HS 1,726 2015

Tea Area Titans

Tea Area HS 568 2024

Watertown Arrows

Watertown HS 1,259 1927
Yankton Bucks & Gazelles Yankton HS 944 1927

Former members

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Team & mascot School Year joined Year left
Madison Bulldogs Madison HS 1927,1939 1935, 1982
Vermillion Tanagers Vermillion HS 1930 1932
Redfield Pheasants Redfield HS 1927 1931
Sioux Falls Washington Warriors Sioux Falls Washington HS 1927 1966

Conference history

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The Eastern South Dakota Conference consists of eight of the Class AA teams in the East River Region of South Dakota. The conference was established in 1927 and went through many changes as schools only wanted to participate in certain sports. In 1994 Sioux Falls Lincoln, Roosevelt, Washington and O'Gorman were forced to leave the Sioux Interstate Conference with Sioux City, Iowa schools due to the non traditional girls sports seasons. The four schools applied for ESD membership but were denied due to the conference not wanting to expand beyond eight teams, in 1996 The Sioux Falls Schools approached Independent West River Schools Rapid City Central, Rapid City Stevens, Spearfish and Sturgis Brown to form a conference. After several attempts, the Greater Dakota Conference was formed. In the late 2000s West River schools have pushed to join the ESD Conference only to be denied membership, the 2012-2013 school year the Greater Dakota Conference will cease as a new Conference named the Metro Conference will be formed consisting of Sioux Falls Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, O'Gorman and Brandon Valley, thereby leaving Rapid City Stevens, Rapid City Central and Sturgis out of a conference. (Spearfish left the GDC for the Black Hills Conference in 2011 due to dropping to Class A.) The Metro Conference was formed due to travel concerns as the distance between Sioux Falls and Rapid City is 396 miles. Brandon Valley and Harrisburg will be in a dual membership with the Metro and ESD Conferences. In 2015 Rapid City Stevens and Central both got into the ESD, only for football. In the 2021–22 season, the football conferences were realigned and Aberdeen Central and Watertown dropped down to 11AA, leaving Brandon, Harrisburg, Stevens, Rapid City Central and the Sioux Falls schools in 11AAA. In football that leaves Aberdeen Central, Brookings, Huron, Mitchell, Pierre, Watertown, and Yankton in 11AA with a couple of other teams. Due to the massive growth to the Sioux Falls area and its schools, there is concern that Brandon and Harrisburg might just become too big for the ESD. In 2023 it was announced that Tea Area would join the ESD in the 2024–25 season, which will move them up to Class AA in all sports.

References

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http://local.brookings.k12.sd.us/activities/esdhistory.pdf