Prep Beat

Thursday, February 5, 1998

Girls’ state soccer
on Oahu after all

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Parents who opposed sending the girls' state soccer tournament to Maui yesterday celebrated the Hawaii High School Athletic Association's about-face on the issue.

The HHSAA and Gov. Ben Cayetano announced that the tournament, originally bumped from Aloha Stadium by the Feb. 21 Mariah Carey concert and relocated to War Memorial Stadium, would be played on Oahu after all.

The tournament will run from Feb. 25-28, with the second, third and fourth days at Aloha Stadium. First-day action will be held at Radford and Moanalua high school fields.

Parents from Iolani, Kaiser, Castle, Punahou, Kamehameha, Pearl City, Moanalua, and Mililani said they received short notice on the switch to Maui. They said the teams didn't have enough time to fund-raise for such a trip and they couldn't afford to travel with their children.

Despite the HHSAA's insistence that word of the switch went out in October, many parents and some coaches said they didn't know about it until the Mariah Carey ads appeared in the papers.

"The governor stepped in to correct an incredible injustice," said Jill Nunokawa, the attorney who spearheaded opposition to moving the tournament off the island.

"But it's sad that it got to the level where our governor had to step in and do the responsible thing. The girls' best interests were both ignored and dismissed by the HHSAA."

On Monday, a group of 25 parents and eight students were threatened with arrest at the security gate to Kamehameha Schools when they demanded the right to attend an executive board meeting of the HHSAA.

The board voted that day to reaffirm its earlier decision to send the tournament to Maui.

But the next day, Cayetano informed the HHSAA of what Aloha Stadium events manager Eugene Tokuhama said he learned last week -- that the Korean national baseball team's plans to use the stadium for spring training between Feb. 20 and March 6 had been scrapped, making the stadium available.

A press release from Cayetano's office yesterday afternoon said that he had arranged for a private sector donation of $15,000 to subsidize travel for the five neighbor island teams in the tournament.

In addition, the HHSAA will donate $5,000 of the $25,000 Tom Moffatt Productions paid to buy out the original tournament dates at Aloha Stadium (Feb. 18-21).

With $4,000 apiece, Maui, Big Island and Kauai schools will have almost twice what was offered to Oahu Interscholastic Association schools to travel to Maui.

"I just acted in good faith," Moffatt said. "It was a lack of communication between their board and the mothers. I'm delighted they get to play in the stadium as they wanted."

HHSAA president Anthony Ramos promised to propose scheduling future soccer tournaments at renovated War Memorial Stadium on Maui, where the HHSAA is charged a $50 rental fee.