With 2021 being the Patriots’ turn to host the Presidents Bowl, it is the LHS Booster Club who must come together and plan what the night of food, games, spirit wear, and double-header football games will look like for the three Sioux Falls public high schools, as well as one guest school for the game. This is what the tradition has been for years, but now with JHS being added to the mix next fall, the strategy for planning this year’s Presidents Bowl has become a lot more difficult.

This Presidents Bowl will differ from previous because there will now be four football games being played over the course of two days rather than one. This means that each of the four Sioux Falls public high schools will host one team for their Presidents Bowl game on either Friday or Saturday night. Along with the scheduling of the football games, it will be a new process trying to figure out how to manage tailgating, food, and spirit wear with an additional day to the Presidents Bowl, but also an additional team. Many fans and students have relied on a food truck or restaurant to host their meals courtesy of the LHS Booster Club. However, having to provide food for two days rather than one may be too far out of the budget limit for the Boosters. While food is always a hit, the Booster Club also helps organize what tailgating will look like for the schools each year. Unfortunately, being in the middle of a pandemic may be hard enough, but also throwing another school into the mix will be no easy task to prepare for. 

Many people find it frustrating that the Presidents Bowl has been the same for so long, and now it seems as though the tradition is being broken. Several think that the whole point of the Presidents Bowl is to be one night of football games with only the local football teams competing against one another. With multiple out of town schools now being asked for the first time to partake in the Presidents Bowl, there has been lots of tension stirring up between people around the Sioux Falls school district. 

It is unfortunate that the LHS Booster Club drew the short straw this year in being the first to host a Presidents Bowl with four Sioux Falls public high schools participating. The fact of the matter is, no matter how much we like or dislike the fact that a tradition is being broken this year, the changes that will be made are going to be an attempt to do what is best for everyone while including JHS for the first time. Whether this year is going to be breaking a tradition or not, this is going to be the year that a new one will begin for decades to come.