OIA enforcing
rule limiting
when bands play
Bands are being asked not to play during certain parts of Oahu Intersholastic Association football games this fall, and at least one band director is having a hard time understanding why.
OIA football coordinator Richard Townsend has received four complaints about a national federation rule regarding band noise that the league is taking seriously this year for the first time.
"All of the athletic directors have been told to tell their band directors not to play during the time the other team has the ball in front of the band," Townsend said. "It's an old rule that we didn't enforce in the past. It's in the (national federation) rule book under 'unfair acts.' "
Townsend said the league decided to enforce the rule after an unpleasant situation developed during last year's state tournament when game officials asked Castle coach Nelson Maeda to get his band to stop playing at one point when the Knights' opponents had the ball.
For several years, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu has successfully enforced a rule that prohibits bands from playing at certain times, said Townsend, who added that most OIA personnel didn't know about the rule at the time of the Castle incident.
"We don't want to make a big thing of it," Townsend said. "But everybody's complaining about it, so maybe next year we'll have to pass a rule similar to what the NCAA has -- when the ball is alive, no bands can play."
In June, using the Castle scenario as an impetus, the Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive board also passed a rule for state tournament games similar to the one the ILH and national federation already have in place.
Kaiser High School band director Michael Bataluna hasn't received any official memo about where and when the OIA bands can and can't play, so he's wondering why things have changed.
"The kids in the band pay to get in the game, they follow a dress code, they're told to stay in one group for the duration of the game, they're asked to be conscious of their safety and the safety of their equipment," Bataluna said. "To be told when and when not to play makes no sense. It's random. If their opportunity to play is reduced drastically, then it's really not worthwhile for them to come to the game as a group at all."
Townsend said he may write to all ADs to emphasize and clarify the league's new policy.
He said the rule is meant to be enforced mainly when a team's offensive unit can't hear the quarterback's signals because the opponent's band is playing too loudly. Under the federation rule, the quarterback is the only person who can initiate discussion about a noise problem with the head official, Townsend said. The head official is then supposed to inform the opponent's coach, who should then tell the band director to stop playing. The first instance is a warning and the second is a 15-yard penalty.
In the third quarter of a game against Kalani last week, officials penalized the Kaiser football team and the public address announcer told fans it was due to the band playing too loudly at the wrong time.
Bataluna wondered why the penalty came late in the game and with no warning, especially since the band had been playing throughout the first half without any problems.
A nickname to remember: The new Pac-Three football team obviously wanted a nickname that people wouldn't easily forget, because the players voted to go with Titans.
"Remember the Titans" was a popular football movie that came out in 2000.
The team originally picked Sharks, but changed it when it was brought to the attention of team officials that the name is insensitive to Hawaiians who regard sharks as culturally significant in ways other than as an aggressor.
Players from three schools make up the Maui Interscholastic League football team -- St. Anthony, Kaahumanu Hou and Seabury Hall. It was formed due to a dwindling number of players in the St. Anthony and Kaahumanu Hou programs. Seabury Hall didn't have a football program, but its students now have the opportunity to play.
The Titans will be called Pac-Three, according to St. Anthony athletic director Dan Molin.
"We want to keep it simple and to remind people that it's the same concept Pac-Five uses on Oahu," Molin said.
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