Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Friday, January 21, 2000

ILH considers
three rule changes

The league would adopt a
mercy rule in football, and toughen
guidelines on transfers
and eligibility

Star-Bulletin staff

An Interscholastic League of Honolulu task force appointed early last month to address parity in football has made three major recommendations.

The panel, headed by Iolani school headmaster Val Iwashita, has suggested:

The same "mercy rule" used by the Oahu Interscholastic Association be adopted by the ILH.

Under the rule, when a team goes ahead by 35 points , the clock is allowed to run. It stops only for timeouts, between quarters and for injuries.

There are already mercy rules in baseball and softball.

A student who transfers from any Hawaii high school to an ILH school as a 10th grader must sit out a year in the sport he or she played as a ninth grader. Right now, the rule applies only to transfers within the ILH.

Out-of-state transfers will not be affected.

Student-athletes no longer have five years to complete four years of eligibility in the ILH. Eligibility must be used up in four consecutive years.

This issue led to the OIA principals' decision to pull out of the Prep Bowl at the end of 1998.

Much of the impetus for the creation of the task force came from concerns about the St. Louis football dynasty and the effect it has had upon the league.

"We're concerned about the fact that there's a dwindling interest, and the JV program is where it shows itself," said Anthony Ramos, secondary principal of Kamehameha Schools, back in December.

The ILH dropped junior varsity football last fall due to a lack of interest.

St. Louis outscored its opponents, 516-110, last year. The most lopsided wins by the Crusaders were an 89-7 victory over Pac-Five and an 82-0 defeat of Damien.