Friday night brought more blowouts as Oahu high school football teams that did not belong on the field with each other went through farces that ended in scores of 59-7 and 65-0.
"Who do you play next," scoffed an athletic administrator who didn’t want to be identified, "Kapalama Elementary?"
Anticipating similar fates, two schools with small teams decided earlier in the week not to play their scheduled opponents.
Like injuries, mismatches are not new and are unavoidable in high school football. But as noted in last Wednesday’s column, with student-athlete safety issues at a higher profile than ever before, changes to improve competitive balance are necessary as soon as possible.
Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Chris Chun doesn’t necessarily agree merging the two Oahu leagues and creating a third classification is the solution. But he did say Saturday that modification is needed.
"We recognize that as it is, it is not good," Chun said. "Something has to change within five to 10 years."
I hope for much sooner, but with all the politics involved in high school sports here, a decade could be optimistic.
Chun added that the neighbor island leagues have similar problems and a "shortage of teams" makes classification difficult.
"(Forfeits) hurt the kids," Chun said. "They only have so many high school football games to play."
Chun has a committee of one athletic director from each of the state’s five leagues that meets quarterly to brainstorm and propose legislation at the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association’s annual meetings. He said the committee will look at this issue.
CYNTHIA CLIVIO is the head trainer at Kamehameha. She said she is unaware of definitive research proving there are more injuries in lopsided games but added, "It would be a logical hypothesis."
Various factors come into play when a powerful team with a deep roster plays a team with much fewer and smaller players.
"We know that fatigue leads to poor technique and consequently more injuries," said Clivio, who has been a high school sports trainer in Hawaii for more than 25 years. "And I have seen times when it appears the winning teams are intentionally trying not to hurt anyone and their own players get injured because they are not going full speed."
Clivio is the parent of a Kaiser High School player. The Cougars are a focal point of the competitive balance issue because they have severely overmatched their White (lower) Division opponents this season. Not counting two forfeit wins, Kaiser has won its games by an average of 47.5 points. Kalaheo chose to take a forfeit instead of playing Kaiser this week.
Clivio remembers 2011, when Kaiser was in the Red (upper) Division and was outscored 147-7 in a string of three division games during her son’s sophomore season.
"I’ve seen both sides of it," she said. "It’s a no-win situation for both teams. My personal opinion is that if there is a way to find more competitive balance, I’m all for it."
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.
