Maryknoll girls were
farther from states
than it seemed

The basketball team found
out the night before playing
Iolani that a win did not
mean a berth

The bylaw language of any league can be difficult to digest. Such was the case for Maryknoll's girls basketball team.

Maryknoll played Iolani on May 13 for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's tournament title and a state-tournament berth -- or so a lot of watchers thought. Fact is, if Maryknoll had won, there would have been another game to determine the state berth.

Why? Because Maryknoll carried a player from ASSETS school on its roster. Though the player didn't log significant game minutes, her participation made the Spartans a combined team. That means that the game would have been moot had Maryknoll won.

The Spartans would have needed to play against Iolani the next day without the ASSETS player. Maryknoll wasn't aware of the rule until the night of May 12.

League bylaws (Section 8.6 Championship Classifications, C.4) stipulate that if a combined team is in position to qualify for a state berth, it must first play the next-highest team for that berth.

That wording, however, pertains only to "Class A" (now called Division II) teams in the ILH: "If a Class A combined team qualifies for a state-tournament berth, that team, minus those players from another school, shall play off with the next non-combination team in the standings that did not qualify for that state tournament berth. If the Class A team wins, it shall retain its state qualifying position. If the non-combination team wins, it shall move into the state tournament qualifying berth."

The wording, ILH basketball coordinator Bill Villa explained, needs to be adjusted to include all teams.

"I think we'll be looking at that in the next ADs league. Very rarely have we had combined teams qualify for states. So we did have to uphold the bylaw," Villa said yesterday.

Maryknoll coach Bobby Samson was reached for comment, but preferred to refrain, for the most part. He does have a solution to last-minute recognition of who has a combined team.

"I've always advocated the distribution of eligibility lists among everybody like they do in the (Oahu Interscholastic Association), but in the ILH, they don't do this because of privacy issues," said Samson, who has coached in the OIA.

He added that the current eligibility list in the ILH has only basic information, such as name, birth date and the date the player entered ninth grade.

The addition of information regarding a player's current school of attendance and distribution of the lists could prevent complications.

The complexity matters not, at this point, since Iolani won 42-41 to earn the state berth. But it does raise questions for all ILH athletic departments about whether accepting additional players from other schools is worth the risk of having to win an extra game in a playoff situation.

Round it up: When Sarah Nicolaisen won two events at the Island Movers State Track and Field Championships recently, it marked a remarkable pinnacle.

The Ka'u sophomore, who won the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, has no track to run on until she competes in league and state competitions. Without a facility, the Trojans train on grass, using herbicide to mark lanes. They fill the markings with white paint and make do.

Nicolaisen and three-event champion Fran Weems of Kealakehe weren't the only neighbor islanders to shine in the girls meet. In the high jump, Kapaa's Jennifer Lindsey edged Tiara Dole of St. Anthony for the win.

Lindsey cleared 5 feet, 3 inches, her personal record, and came close to setting a meet record at 5-5. On her second try, at 5-5, her foot caught the bar as she descended.

The win capped a difficult month for the 6-foot-2 senior. "This year, I thought somebody didn't want me to win," said Lindsey, who had an injured left ankle for three weeks. That left her with a second-place finish in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation championship meet.

Before the state meet, she was diagnosed with strep throat and had to take antibiotics.

On top of that, her second state title in the high jump was filled with a lot more anxiety.

"Last year, I was so stoked just to be here. I wasn't nervous at all," she said. "This year, such bad nerves. I missed my first jump (at 4-11) but once I got a jump, I settled down. I like this bouncy surface. The rubber is more boingy."

Dole capped a remarkable season by winning the long jump (17-234) and finishing second in the high jump. The St. Anthony junior is also a standout player on the basketball team.