Classification options
sent back to the leaguesThe HHSAA's football committee
will resume discussions next week
The Hawaii High School Athletic Association's football committee decided to hold off on approving a format for the state's first classified tournament yesterday to give league officials a chance to discuss the proposals with their schools.
The committee met yesterday at the Oahu Interscholastic Association's office at Radford High School to address the issues regarding the Division I and Division II tournaments and agreed to meet again Wednesday to iron out the major points.
"All of the leagues need to go back and get feedback from their football schools on the various issues that were discussed," HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said. "At next week's meeting we should have decisions on how each league is going to be classified and the tournament formats for Division I and Division II.
"There were a lot of ideas, but none of the league representatives have had an opportunity to fully discuss it among their leagues."
Details of the Division II tournaments for softball and girls basketball were also discussed yesterday. Those committees will meet again on Aug. 6 to finalize the tournament formats.
The Division II tournaments were approved by the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association and HHSAA executive board last month to give smaller schools a more realistic opportunity to compete for state championships.
A major issue for the football committee is determining which schools will compete in Division I and Division II. The OIA has a form of classification in place with its Red and White divisions, while the Interscholastic League of Honolulu has competed in two divisions the past two seasons.
The current eight-team state football tournament was established in 1999. The current format consists of four OIA teams along with the ILH, Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Kauai Interscholastic Federation and Maui Interscholastic League champions.