State administrators passed a proposal on Sunday that will send teams across the islands for the first two rounds of the state girls basketball and boys volleyball championships.
The proposal was one of several that made it out of committee and to the general assembly of the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association conference at the Ala Moana Hotel. Most of the remaining proposals involved rule changes, leaving the regionals proposal — drawn up by Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Chris Chun — as the one with the most discussion during the assembly.
"I’m happy," Chun said. "We can work out the details."
The original proposal on the board Friday was amended to include a one-year pilot-program basis, a trial-and-error experiment, more or less. By limiting the change to two sports, an ad hoc committee can monitor the idea as it becomes reality.
The proposal still has to be approved by the HHSAA executive board this morning. But Sunday’s vote was a shutout, with 55 votes for, none against and 31 abstentions. Most of the abstentions came from Oahu Interscholastic Association administrators. It was perhaps a concession by the state’s largest league, seeing that they were outnumbered by their peers from the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Interscholastic League of Honolulu and Maui Interscholastic League. In no other proposal vote did the public-school OIA vote entirely in abstention.
In recent years, the ILH, Oahu’s private-school league, has often voted in unison with the OIA on many key proposals, even agreeing to keep the state’s Division I football tournament limited to six teams — rather than add berths that might include the ILH’s runner-up.
But this time, the OIA was outnumbered. Even former OIA executive director Dwight Toyama, now retired, was smiling.
"In my opinion, it’s good to explore, and this is a pilot program," said Toyama, who suggested the possibility of regionals to Chun some years back. "I can see the reason for concern, though."
One of the issues raised during discussion was about the challenge fans would face. The new format would have champions from each of the D-I girls basketball and boys volleyball leagues hosting the first two rounds. In the amended version of the proposal, if the opening round matched an ILH team with an OIA team in a BIIF or MIL squad’s bracket, those squads would stay on Oahu to play. That would save one of the teams — the losing side — the expense of travel. But the winning team’s fans would have to find flights, hotels and rental cars at the last minute.
The HHSAA would be able to help teams book flights in that scenario, but fans would be on their own. Based on previous situations, only one ILH and one OIA team would have to travel off-island.
"It’s a good experiment. I’m hoping it’ll be a huge success," ‘Iolani athletic director Carl Schroers said. "I hope all 12-team tournaments go to this (format). We can eliminate four hotel nights (for traveling teams)."
The format would also make it a two-weekend tournament with games on Fridays and Saturdays.
"Kids wouldn’t have to miss school," Schroers added.
If it were strictly for fiscal reasons, the proposal stands on its own feet. First- and second-round games in the girls basketball state tourney have limited attendance on Oahu at high school gyms. But on Maui and the Big Island, girls basketball is a big draw at premier programs like Lahainaluna and Konawaena.
"The HHSAA will make money. Our BIIF girls basketball playoffs (semifinals and final) made $10,000," BIIF executive director Lyle Crozier said.
Granted, that two-day event featured defending state champion Konawaena on both nights. In the HHSAA proposal setting, the league champ would only play on the second of those two days (quarterfinal round). But even just $5,000 at the gate would be a strong improvement on what Oahu sites generate.
The BIIF’s boys semifinal and final rounds generated $10,000 to $15,000 at the gate, Crozier added.
One of the details to be worked out is the extension of the winter season, using a 14th week for the girls hoops season.
"The schedule part is tough. It’s going to take some creative planning, but I’ll work hard on it," Chun said.
Working with all parties will be crucial to the change. Chun worked with the OIA for several years before becoming HHSAA chief.
"It’s a new OIA with new leadership and new ADs," he said. "I have good relationships with the league."
A baseball proposal also stirred up some talk. The BIIF’s proposal to have the league enter the D-II hosting rotation was initially defeated in committee on Saturday 22-6. But the league brought the proposal to the general assembly via minority report. That’s when the floor vote was tallied up as a defeat, 39-37 with eight abstentions.
Then the numbers were corrected to 40-39 (eight abstentions) in favor of the proposal. That was followed by a long roll-call vote with a 39-39 (eight abstention) tally — in effect, status quo and a defeat.
But Laurie Koustic of Kohala kept her own count of the roll-call vote and asked that the votes be recounted, noting that the official count was way off. That’s when the final official count was announced as 41 in favor, 38 against with six abstentions. The miscount was due to a "technical glitch."
Whether the HHSAA board goes along with that today remains to be seen.
A move to limit the wrestling season to no later than week 33 — which would make judo’s preseason longer — was defeated 48-37 with one abstention. Konawaena AD Bill Trumbo cautioned that one sport shouldn’t "dictate" another sport’s dates.
Other proposals included:
>> Wrestling weight classes will be adjusted to match national federation standards.
>> The state paddling meet will be held on a Saturday instead of a Friday.
>> A proposal to separate D-I and D-II cross country team scores passed 46-38 with two abstentions.
>> The medium division in cheerleading would include 11 or fewer participants.
All proposals are subject to today’s HHSAA board vote.
