ILH basketball is on hold.
The official schedule on the Interscholastic League of Honolulu schedule shows the strikethroughs on varsity girls basketball games through Jan. 8.
Boys games have not been postponed in the ILH yet. The boys regular season is still slated to begin on Jan. 10.
The changes were made as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the ILH site. An emergency meeting for athletic directors was called prior to that.
Soccer in the ILH appears to be on track. The varsity girls soccer schedule has no change to its opening date, Jan. 5. The varsity boys slate is still Jan. 12 for opening day.
That doesn’t mean preseason/exhibition games are on the fritz. The Punahou Invitational boys tournament was set to begin Wednesday after being postponed on Monday. Punahou coach Darren Matsuda said there will be no spectators in the gym, but a live stream will air.
“We’re set to go for today,” Matsuda said.
He noted that one game, Kaiser-Saint Louis, has been canceled.
A Kamehameha-Damien preseason game at the Lady Monarchs’ gym was played on Wednesday. No spectators were allowed and the game was live-streamed.
“Luckily, they’re letting us keep this game,” Damien coach Mark Arquero said.
As of Wednesday morning, there are no official changes to the OIA girls and boys basketball schedules. The OIA girls basketball regular season began last Thursday.
“I know the OIA are playing games. Other ILH schools are still playing preseason games,” Maryknoll girls basketball coordinator Chico Furtado said. “Delaying the start of the season for a week will put more time between the first game and the holidays. Will that better the situation? COVID is not going to disappear. It will still be here in mid-January. Hopefully, the cases will start to lessen. The challenge is to find ways to continue with life’s activities as safely as possible and base decisions on what the medical science profession is telling us.
“I realize that there are no easy answers, but we cannot allow fear to drive the bus.”
