Melee puts Kalaheo
on road for playoffs

The OIA strips the Mustangs of
their role as host, sending them to
Radford for the quarterfinals

The Oahu Interscholastic Association sanctioned Kalaheo High School yesterday, ordering its scheduled home games in the girls basketball playoffs to be played elsewhere.

The protest review and sanctions committee ruled that Kalaheo, the No. 1 seed with an 11-1 record in the East, will have no home games for the remainder of the season.

Kalaheo (18-4) is ranked No. 4 in the Star-Bulletin Girls Basketball Top 10. Tomorrow's quarterfinal games in Kalaheo's bracket are Radford vs. today's Nanakuli-Kaiser winner and the Lady Mustangs against the Roosevelt-Pearl City victor.

With the sanction, the host site for games in Kalaheo's bracket will now go to the next-highest seed. That means tomorrow's games have been moved to Radford, which is the No. 2 seed in the West.

The decision was made in response to last Saturday's game between Kaiser and Kalaheo at the Lady Mustangs' gym. Unruly behavior culminated in a Kalaheo fan's attack on a referee at midcourt shortly after a player was injured.

During the long break after the injury and attack, another fan was ejected from the facility for inappropriate behavior.

"Basically, there was a sportsmanship report written. Kalaheo was asked to come up with a plan with how to make sure what happened won't happen again," OIA basketball coordinator Mel Imai said. "They did submit the plan to the league. Basically, the committee felt it wasn't sufficient."

Sanctions have been a part of discipline in the OIA before.

"There were times when schools were sanctioned in football, such as when a bus got stoned, schools weren't permitted to have night games," Imai said.

Prior to Saturday's game, Kalaheo and Kaiser had games that produced relatively well-behaved crowds. However, with first place in the East at stake for Kalaheo, the gym had a very intense atmosphere.

Imai believes no school is immune from unsportsmanlike behavior.

"Each school has a security plan for games, which includes having administrators and security there to secure the crowd. It's just unfortunate. I'm sure Kalaheo had a plan in place, but unfortunately, something can always happen," he said.

"Each of our schools will need to go back and review our plans."

The opening round of the OIA playoffs tips off today with four games. At Leilehua, Mililani plays Farrington at 5 p.m., followed by the host Lady Mules against Moanalua at 7.

At Kaiser, Roosevelt faces Pearl City at 5, followed by Nanakuli and the host Lady Cougars.

On Friday, quarterfinal games at Kapolei begin at 5 p.m. The Leilehua-Moanalua winner plays Kahuku, followed by host Kapolei against the Farrington-Mililani winner.

Quarterfinal winners earn automatic state tournament berths.