On Thursday, the All Nations Football Conference, a high school football league made up of native schools in South Dakota, and now Nebraska and North Dakota as well, decided to follow the national trend being seen at the college level by postponing the 2020 fall season to the spring.
This decision was expedited after the Oglala Sioux Tribe decided to cancel fall sports for all schools on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The five are Lakota Tech, Crazy Horse, Pine Ridge, Little Wound, and Red Cloud. Three of these, Crazy Horse, Little Wound, and Red Cloud compete in the All Nations Conference.
Last season was the inaugural season for the All Nations Conference, which is separate from the high school football that is under the umbrella of the South Dakota High School Activities Association. In 2019 the league had twelve schools, but this past spring it was announced that four more teams would be joining as well. McLaughlin is the lone addition from South Dakota. Omaha Nation and Winnebago are joining from Nebraska and Standing Rock is joining from North Dakota as well – giving the league a total of sixteen teams. Crow Creek won the All Nations Conference championship last year with a victory over Lower Brule.
As mentioned in the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, Lower Brule superintendent Lance Witte believes the decision to postpone to the spring was the right thing to do.
“Much like we’ve seen across the nation with college season and so forth, we felt for the safety and well-being of our children – [this was the right thing to do],” Witte said.
The idea is to have the All Nations Football season start in early April to early June. It would consist of a six-game regular season with post season play consisting of three total rounds – quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship. The sixteen teams in the league are divided into two division, the east and west.
There’s still some discussion surrounding officials for games in the spring. Even though the All Nations Conference is not directly connected to the South Dakota High School Activities Association anymore, the association still helps with the lining up of officials for the games.
