MITCHELL — South Dakota American Legion officials and representatives from the Mitchell Baseball Association are set to meet Thursday in Pierre to discuss the path for reinstating the program’s varsity-level summer baseball team.The Legion’s Athletic Commission will discuss the matter in a closed-door meeting. The Mitchell Republic requested access and was denied by the Legion’s Athletic Commission.
ADVERTISEMENT
After the Mitchell Legion baseball team’s season was canceled by the South Dakota American Legion in 2024,
Legion officials laid out a list of requirements to be met for reinstatement ahead of 2025
. Among the items listed, the Legion called for the MBA board of directors to be dissolved and for longtime head coach Luke Norden to be removed.Mitchell Baseball Association has not had a Legion baseball team on the field since the aftermath of criminal proceedings from rape charges in 2023 involving six Mitchell Legion players. Norden was charged but found not guilty of failure to report abuse or neglect of a child and misprision to a felony.The conditions from the South Dakota American Legion have not been met, as the two sides disagree on the merit of such demands.
The MBA pushed back by supporting Norden remaining as the team’s head coach
and stating it would be difficult for the association to have a new board. It also said it has adopted a new code of conduct and would consider additional suggestions to maximize player safety.The South Dakota American Legion in April confirmed that MBA sent an official response, though neither the Legion nor MBA would share that with the Mitchell Republic. Seven months later, the sides are finally meeting after the South Dakota American Legion originally sent MBA its demands in November 2024.Even if MBA gets the Legion’s approval to be reinstated, many of the deadlines for the 2025 season have passed. Teams were set to be entered for South Dakota 2025 play by May 31, while June 25 is the deadline for team roster forms to be submitted to the state to be eligible for national tournaments.In the meantime, MBA is forging ahead with summer baseball plans for many of the age groups that otherwise would be part of the Legion-age programs. This season, the program is offering games to players in the 18-and-under age group, which didn’t play in the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024 due to sanctions from the South Dakota American Legion. Norden is coaching the 18U team.The 18U players are scheduled to play in about 40% of the Mitchell Gold schedule, which is a mixture of 16U and 18U opponents and dates. Those include 18U tournaments in Jamestown, North Dakota, and the Gopher Classic in Minneapolis. The 16U roster is playing many of the same South Dakota programs that have Junior Legion teams, and will play in a postseason tournament under the South Dakota Class A baseball program, which sponsors state tournaments for the baseball associations in the state’s largest cities from ages 9 to 16.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The plan is to have a South Dakota Class A 16U team and a competitive 18U team,” the MBA said in May ahead of the start of the summer baseball season. “The 18U team is available to serve those players that are no longer age-eligible to play SD Class A 16U. While we are most likely not playing Legion baseball with this age group, we are putting together a competitive schedule for the 18U team for these ballplayers this summer.”Last year, the MBA didn’t have an 18U summer teeners team, as 16U was the oldest age group. Many of those athletes who were aged out of 16U but would have been eligible for 18U formed the Mitchell Aces amateur club that now competes as a Class A member of the Sunshine League.The Mitchell High School varsity club, which shares many of the same players and coaches with the summer club but is not governed by the South Dakota American Legion, has been able to participate fully in each of the past two spring seasons. Norden has refused comment to the Mitchell Republic since the newspaper published the demands letter from the South Dakota American Legion. He coached a portion of the 2024 season and all of the 2025 high school season.
