Amid concerns raised by the conferences comprised of the largest high schools in the state, the South Dakota High School Activities Association is scheduled to listen to comments, concerns and opinions regarding the proposed sanctioning of soccer at its board of directors meeting on Wednesday.

According to the agenda posted on the SDHSAA Web site, the board will consider a request from the Greater Dakota Conference and the Eastern South Dakota Conference to rescind the motion to begin soccer in the fall of the 2010-2011 school year due to funding, budgeting and scheduling concerns.

"There has been a lot of discussion about playing the sport in the fall or spring," SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Bob Lawery said. "The board is on the record as saying the boys will play in the fall and the girls in the spring."

Soccer is currently a club sport in South Dakota and if the sport were to become a sanctioned high school sport it would be the final state to do so.

Rapid City Central activities director Darren Paulson said because of the issues of budget, funding and scheduling adding soccer is a tough choice for all schools.

"In adding another sport you have scheduling concerns, trying to determine how any games a season will consist of and you don't know how many schools will be adding it," he said. "Once it is sanctioned by the state it is each schools option whether they add it or not."

It is estimated that adding two more sports programs to a school district would come with a price tag around $20,000 for each team when schools are already trying to stretch athletic budget dollars.

One of the biggest issues raised is by putting the girls season in the spring it will be affected by the weather and hurt track programs around the state.

The Wednesday meeting is a chance for the eight-member board of directors to hear opinions of those from throughout the state. Lawery said the number of concerned voices he has heard has increased in recent months.

"I made the statement that the easy part would be deciding to sanctioned it, but deciding when it should be played would be difficult," he said.

Lawery said he did not expect the board to make a decision or vote on anything regarding soccer at Wednesday's meeting, but it would give it an opportunity to see how much interest there is in having soccer sanctioned.

"They may decided that there is no change and we continue forward, but they want to do what is best for the member schools," Lawery said. "We need to determine the level of interest because we surveyed the schools and there is not near the support that was there two years ago. With budgeting and financial concerns we need to know what plan of action there is to move forward."

This meeting was originally thought to be one where the seasons for both boys and girls would be firmly set along with several other key issues to the schools, but now that is not the case.

The decision to sanction soccer was passed by the board by a 6-2 vote on Oct. 31, 2007. Should the board decide to take action on Wednesday it would simply need a simple majority of the eight members to pass that action.

Paulson said that he will attend the meeting to listen to the ideas that are brought forth.

"We in Rapid City haven't really discussed soccer and the issues we would have to work out," he said.

The board meeting begins at 9 a.m. in Pierre with the soccer discussion set to begin at 1 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.