Keeping Score
BIGGER is better. ..At least that's the thought when looking at the pairings for this week's state high school championships in boys' baseball and girls' basketball. Both tournaments are 12-team affairs, representing less than 18 percent of the state high schools. State tourney fields
need expansionIt's time for a change. It's time for expansion to 16-team fields.
"I think to be fair there should be 16 teams," said Dunn Muramaru, coach of the Mid-Pacific baseball team.
Muramaru's Owls got hot at the right time and survived the ILH's bizarre baseball playoff format to gain the league's second and final berth. Sitting at home this week are St. Louis and Kamehameha, which tied for second in the ILH regular season.
Also sitting home this week is the Maryknoll girls' basketball team. The Spartans are arguably among the top 12 teams in the state this year, but, because the ILH has only two slots in the state tournament, they won't have a chance to prove it.
It's not only the private-school league that has been short-changed this year. Castle's baseball team was the OIA East co-champ, but the Knights ended a very good season with two bad league tournament losses.
The Moanalua boys' basketball team is another example. The Menehunes went 10-0 during the regular season only to be eliminated during league tournament play.
The regular season should be worth something -- such as an automatic berth in the state tournament for the division winner.
The leagues first need to come up with a consistent formula to determine their representatives. Using the ILH for example, the league champion in basketball gets an automatic state berth, while in baseball the league champion must play in the postseason tournament.
THE athletic directors also need to find a more equitable solution for awarding berths in the state tournaments.
Consider this week's state championships. The ILH has dominated both, winning 19 of 22 titles in girls' basketball and 21 of 40 championships in baseball.
League strength should have some bearing on the number of slots given. Currently in use is a formula based on the number of schools in the league.
The ILH finagled a third spot in the state boys' basketball tournament by including all of its Division II teams in the equation. I'm not sure how or why the formula got changed for the girls' tournament but it did.
"Actually, since the ILH is hosting the state tournament, we were supposed to have a third berth this year," said Shelley Kahuanui Fey, coach of two-time defending state champion Punahou. "But then we got told that we only had two because "that's just the way it is.'"
There was a semi-equitable situation used in the past, where the OIA's fifth-place team played off against the third-place team in the ILH for a state berth. That gave Oahu schools seven slots.
The hope here is for the athletic directors to consider expansion at next month's meetings on Kauai. Instead of using the calculator to derive a percentage, it should be used for addition.
State soccer needs to expand to 12 teams and basketball, baseball and softball should grow to 16. The goal behind high school athletics is to provide a positive experience for the participants. That includes giving as many student-athletes as possible a chance to enjoy the highest level of competition there is -- at the state level.
The athletic directors made the right move when giving girls their own state golf tournament. Expanding the state tournaments would be another ace for them.
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.