An Honest
Day’s Word

By Joe Edwards

Wednesday, March 10, 1999

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Nunokawa’s idea is
right on the money

THIS and that to chew on over lunch:

Jill Nunokawa blistered the old boys down at the first open Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive meeting yesterday.

I'm sorry my final edition deadline kept me from attending, too. I would have paid admission to see her rightfully dog them.

I did, however, get a copy of her testimony. She couldn't be more right.

Nunokawa, a Honolulu lawyer who also represents a group called the Gender Equity Sports Club, basically handed the HHSAA its lunch over the organization's failure to comply with Title IX, a federal law that mandates equal educational opportunities for both sexes. That includes athletics. It's been on the books for 27 years and is the bane of all old and young farts who discount female athletes.

Nunokawa made 13 recommendations to the board that would help ensure equity. All of them are worthy, most particularly No. 13: Make sure the makeup of the HHSAA and tournament committees represent both genders.

Currently, all 13 members of the HHSAA's executive board are men. Does that sound right? Not to me.

Does the HHSAA just not get it? Does that group -- and many more similar to it (are you listening up on the UH campus?) -- just not understand?

One always hears the old coach's saw about how sports builds character and leadership.

Are those not just as important for our daughters as our sons?

Most of the friends I've made in life, I made through sports. Shoot, I met my wife because she explained to me one day how she thought Lou Piniella was a good manager but that the Seattle Mariners wouldn't win their division because they lacked pitching depth.

Only boys are supposed to be interested, or even have the opportunity to be interested?

I find it hard to understand how a group of educated men can't understand this set of facts:

Girls who play sports in high school are less likely to drop out.

Girls who play sports are less likely to be involved in drugs.

Girls who play sports are less likely to have health problems, including eating disorders.

Girls who play sports are less likely to get pregnant while they're still in high school.

Oh, hey, there's one that involves men. Maybe that will get their attention.

It's time for the old boys at the HHSAA -- and their young leader, Keith Amemiya -- to wake up and listen to people like Nunokawa.

For the good of their daughters and grand daughters and their friends.

It's not just the law. It's a good idea. It's the right idea.

March Madness starts tomorrow. Everyone is saying Duke is the team to beat and I can't argue. The Blue Devils are loaded down the the 12th man.

But I find it somewhat ironic that the Dookies are being compared to the great UNLV teams of the early Nineties.

The Rebels ran everyone into the ground in winning the 1990 title. Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony and Anderson Hunt and Co. simply overpowered the field, crushing Duke 103-73 in the finals.

They came back the next year and were unbeaten, heading into the semifinals, where they met Duke. Virtually the same Duke team they had whipped one year previous.

And lost. It happens.

Sleeper? Utah. Rick Majerus' teams always play better at the end of the season and they have the country's best point guard, Andre Miller.

In the women's tournament, Purdue is No. 1 in the polls, but Tennessee will win this one, again.

Chamique Holdsclaw can flat play and there is no better coach anywhere than Pat Summit.