RAPID CITY - The move toward the South Dakota High School Activities Association sanctioning boys' and girls' soccer for the 2010-11 school year is set to come a little more clearly into focus at the Nov. 5 SDHSAA board of directors meeting.

"I think that we'll start to get some of the things figured out, like when the seasons are going to be, at that Nov. 5 meeting," Rapid City Central activities director Darren Paulson said. "Then we'll have to start figuring some of the other things out."

Outside of the initial 6-2 vote by the board to make South Dakota the last state in the nation to have its state activities association sanction soccer, little about what form soccer is going to take under the auspices of the SDHSAA has been decided.

"Right now, I think the only thing you can really say is that there's a lot of uncertainty," Paulson said. "Nobody knows how things are going to end up with it."

One of the arguments for having soccer come under the umbrella of the school districts and the SDHSAA is to encourage play amongst students that may not be able to afford the expenses of joining a non-sanctioned sport. With the school districts picking up the tab for uniforms and transportation, amongst other things, it is hoped that more students will get the opportunity to play.

While increased participation may be one of the goals resulting from the SDHSAA sanctioning the sport, that doesn't mean that all school districts are going to pick the sport up. There are currently 30 schools with soccer teams in the state at the Class AA and Class A levels.

Some schools have both boys' and girls' teams, some just have one or the other. During a period of time in which school districts throughout the state are lacking funds, the idea of adding yet another sport to the annual budget presents another problem for activities directors.

For even the biggest schools in the state, sacrifices must be made somewhere.

Two more athletic programs - estimated at costing a district another $20,000 per team - are another expense for activities departments already feeling a financial crunch. The two votes from SDHSAA board members against the proposal to add soccer were directly related to dwindling finances in school districts.

"The school boards all over the state are going to have to look at adding (soccer) really hard," Paulson said. "I don't know that there are going to be many districts adding it as a result of the decision to sanction it or not, but it's going to make for some interesting decisions about how to pay for it. I don't see how a lot of districts are going to be able to do it without cutting something somewhere."

The sport is currently sanctioned by the South Dakota Soccer Association and has been since the sport was first introduced at state high schools in 1997. Both the girls' and boys' seasons are currently played together in the fall, and initial statements from SDHSAA executive director Wayne Carney indicate that the organization would like to see those seasons split up in 2010-11, with the boys continuing to play in the fall and girls beginning play in the spring. Some worry that the girls' season could be jeopardized by poor weather and the track season. Others worry that the soccer season will force girls to decide between track and soccer.

Either way, it's just another in a long line of decisions that everyone - including school board members, administrators, players and parents - are going to have to start making in the next year.

"It's a little early in the process to be worrying about the details," Paulson said. "There are a lot of decisions that still have to be made about simple things, like when the seasons are even going to be, before we start worrying about a lot of the other stuff. But tough decisions are going to have to be made, that's for sure."