[ HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS ]
D-II tourneys put
on hold
New Division II state tournaments in boys and girls volleyball and boys basketball didn't make the grade yesterday.
Instead, the Hawaii High School Athletic Association's executive board voted unanimously to funnel all matters involving D-II growth and state tournament formats to a committee.
The move wipes out a proposal passed by the state's athletic directors last month that called for adding the three new D-II tourneys.
Just like last year, only football, softball and girls basketball will be classified in two divisions for 2004-05.
"So far, the Division II concept has worked well in the three sports, so the challenge now will be to determine what Division II sports to add and when," HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said after the board met in the Oahu Interscholastic Association office at Radford High School.
There are other challenges facing the committee, which meets for the first time Aug. 5. It will explore various avenues on how to uniformly classify teams statewide and what tournament formats will be used.
"Hopefully, all of the leagues (via the committee) will fully resolve all of the outstanding issues, which are many," Amemiya said. "It's my hope they resolve as much as possible. However, if for some reason they don't, at least everyone will know each other's position."
As it stands now, Hawaii's five leagues have the power to classify their member schools.
Another proposal the athletic directors passed last month -- mandating that leagues must declare their teams as either D-I or D-II prior to the start of the season without flexibility to move up or down -- didn't make it through the HHSAA board yesterday.
All leagues, however, still plan to designate which schools are in which division prior to the 2004-05 school year. But situations in which a D-II school is bumped up to D-I based on performance during the regular season could still arise. This is something the ADs were trying to eliminate when they voted overwhelmingly (61-6, with 12 abstaining) at their annual conference on the Big Island.
Late last season in girls basketball, Roosevelt had a chance to move up from D-II to D-I, and that possibility caused concern around the state.
Although they haven't acted on it yet, many OIA ADs support a league policy that would eliminate teams switching divisions after the season starts, according to OIA executive secretary Dwight Toyama.
The HHSAA board also voted to more accurately apply the league representation formula for the Division I softball and girls basketball tourneys.
The move could drastically change the number of berths a league is awarded.
Berths are determined on a league's percentage of teams competing in the state. Last year, when the four-team D-II events were added, the D-I formula continued to be based on the number of teams competing in both divisions.
Now, it's possible that leagues could stack more teams in Division I to ensure more berths.
Baldwin principal Stephen Yamada, one of the board's voting members, doesn't think the leagues' representatives will be devious.
"We'll be honest with the whole system," he said, speaking of the Maui Interscholastic League's plans. "We're looking at the best interest of the schools and aren't going to react differently just to try and fit things for the formula."
One subject the committee will look closely at is state tournament formats.
"We need to have procedures in place so we aren't reacting on a whim and jumping from tournament to tournament with different guidelines," Toyama said.
He cited last year's girls water polo tournament, where 38 percent of all teams in the state qualified for Hawaii's only eight-team tournament.
At the ADs conference, the OIA proposed 12- , 8- and 6-team formats based on the number of squads participating in a sport.
As it stands now, aside from water polo, all D-I tourneys have 12 teams and all D-II events have four teams.
In other matters yesterday, the board:
» Approved the ADs' recommendation that the state tennis tournament increase from three to four days.» Voted to keep the girls state cross country meet's distance at 2 miles this year and change it to 3 miles the following year.
» Voted to subsidize bus travel, and not just air travel, to girls basketball and softball tournaments.
» Voted to require a league to have five teams in a sport in order to place teams in both D-I and D-II tournaments.