WAIKOLOA >> A proposal to continue the three-tiered state high school football tournament was passed 63-27 by Hawaii’s athletic directors on Thursday.
The voting at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island went exactly in line with league affiliations, with all 27 ADs from the Oahu Interscholastic Association voting against it. All representatives from the four other leagues — the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, the Maui Interscholastic League and the Kauai Interscholastic Federation — voted unanimously to keep competition for three football championships in the Open Division, Division I and D-II on the final day of the week-long 57th Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association meeting.
Going into the conference, it appeared the proposal had enough support, but early in the week it was tough to get a read on the way things would go down. There were some who thought the OIA would try to make amendments and that it would generate lots of open discussion and debate on the pros and cons of the three-tier format that began as a pilot program last year.
Instead, there was not one word of discussion about it from HIADA’s 90-person voting body Thursday. There was a motion, a second and then the vote. Earlier in the week, ADs were tight-lipped about closed-door proceedings on the issue, which moved out of committee by a 19-13 vote.
By voting as a bloc, the OIA’s wishes have become crystal clear. The biggest league in the state does not want three tiers in the state tournament and would prefer to keep just D-I and D-II. Previously, in unofficial gauging, the OIA’s attitude was split three ways — some for it, some against it and some on the fence. When the three tiers were originally proposed last year, it did not go through HIADA and went directly to the HHSAA executive board, where it passed Aug. 22 by the leagues’ vote of 4-0 with the OIA abstaining.
After the HIADA voting wrapped up Thursday, OIA executive director Ray Fujino was candid about the league’s posture.
“Since it was passed last year, that’s been our stance,” Fujino said. “We haven’t changed our stance. It’s the same reasons you published in your paper. Nothing changed. We played in (the tournament) because the HHSAA voted it in.”
At that time, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser published information obtained from a letter from someone close to the OIA. That Sept. 9, 2016, letter, from OIA president Wade Araki to HHSAA executive director Chris Chun, had a long and detailed list of concerns about the three-tiered state tournament, but it did not state that the OIA was opposed to it. At the time, the OIA’s abstention in the voting also muddled its intentions, since the OIA didn’t vote for it or against it.
Since then, there have been many requests to OIA ADs, principals and other league officials, including Fujino, to go on the record and state the reasons they are against it. All requests for specific reasons on the record have been denied.
In Araki’s letter last year, he stated, “The OIA is reviewing the merits of the proposal and is considering whether or not to continue to participate in the tournament.”
It was never determined what the OIA found in its “review of the merits,” but it did eventually participate without further questions and after a detailed response by Chun to Araki.
When asked about Thursday’s vote, several other OIA ADs referred all questions to Fujino.
Along with the continuation of the three-division football format, it is now required that leagues declare its teams for either Open, D-I or D-II by Sept. 1. Also, the D-I tournament will be six teams instead of eight, the same number of teams in Open and D-II.
All legislation passed at HIADA moves on to the HHSAA executive board for final approval, rejection or amendments today.
In other HIADA news:
>> Bowling state tournaments will run over three days. One day for boys and girls practice and one day each for the boys and girls competition.
>> Medals will be awarded to eight instead of six track and field athletes and swimming and diving athletes at the state meets. The seventh- and eighth-place finishers, however, will not score team points.
>> Hawaii will continue to use current baseball pitch-count guidelines instead of adopting the Pitch Smart chart recommended by USA Baseball and Major League Baseball.
