New prep playoffs
see underdogs still alive
When the Hawaii High School Athletic Association created the Division II football state tournament last spring, executive director Keith Amemiya envisioned lots of teams around the state hungering for a piece of the action.
He already got what he pictured, even though the inaugural D-II tournament is still three weeks away.
Sixty percent of teams statewide are still in the running for either a D-I or a D-II championship. That's a huge difference from past years, when only a handful of teams were still alive for a postseason title this late in the season.
So far, just 18 of 45 teams have been eliminated from the dream of a state crown, and it's likely only six more will bite the dust this weekend.
Of the 14 total D-I and D-II spots, six have been filled and three more (the winners of Iolani-Damien, Radford-Aiea and Kalaheo-Kapolei) qualify this weekend.
The winner of Saint Louis-Kamehameha also makes it in, but if the game ends in a tie, a Nov. 8 playoff decides the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship and state berth.
The Oahu Interscholastic Association is already in the second weekend of its playoffs and the ILH, Kauai Interscholastic Federation and Big Island Interscholastic Federation conclude their regular seasons this weekend. The Maui Interscholastic League ends its regular season next week.
Kahuku, Mililani, Kailua, Farrington and Kauai already qualified for the D-I tournament and Waimea is the only team already in the D-II event.
Major difference: ILH football is more competitive from top to bottom than it was just three years ago, and the numbers tell the story.
In 30 league games in 2000, the rounded-off average score per contest was 41-9.
This year, the average score in 18 league games and one nonleague (Punahou-Iolani) meeting is 29-13.
The widest margin of victory in 2000: Saint Louis 84, Damien 0.
The widest margin this season: Saint Louis 42, Pac-Five 0.
ILH, MCS deal stalls: MCS Videoworks and the ILH's plan to televise the league's football games on OC-16 this season never materialized.
Neither MCS nor the ILH knows whether games of other sports such as basketball, volleyball, wrestling, softball and baseball will be televised as planned.
"We're still trying to work it out," MCS Videoworks' owner Ed McLaurin said.
According to a spokesman, the ILH is still waiting for MCS to present a contract to Don Botehlo, its executive secretary.
Hurricanes to get natural grass: Kapolei's new stadium will have natural grass and a cinder track instead of the synthetic turf the school had planned on.
Hurricanes athletic director Elden Esmeralda said the project's developer found the back-filled ground to be too "unsettled" and asked for a limited waiver of liability.
Some buildings on campus have shifted because of the back-fill, and Esmeralda said there was a concern that costly synthetic materials would be ruined if the stadium also shifted.
"We would rather have synthetic surfaces," Esmeralda said. "And the manufacturers are all saying the materials would hold up to movement, but somebody had to make a decision and the state attorney general's office didn't grant a waiver."
Construction (final bids are in November) could start as early as February. The estimated completion date is January 2006.
Red Raiders climb: Kahuku (9-0) moved up six spots this week to No. 11 in the Tony Poll national football rankings and from No. 11 to 2 in the West Region. Kamehameha dropped out of both after its 14-6 loss to Punahou.
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