State tourneys
add teams

The HHSAA executive board
also approves Division II play
in boys and girls volleyball

The Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive board yesterday passed a proposal to set state-tournament fields at 12 teams for both Division I and Division II championships in all team sports.

The vote to amend last month's proposal went 3-0 in favor of the 12-12 format, with two abstentions. The Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Maui Interscholastic League and Oahu Interscholastic Association voted in favor. The Interscholastic League of Honolulu and Kauai Interscholastic Federation abstained.

Yesterday's action reversed a proposal, originally passed last month, that would have reduced Division I berths to eight teams. The earlier proposal also increased the possible Division II state berths to eight.

OIA executive director Dwight Toyama, who submitted the proposal that passed last month, initiated the new 12-12 amendment.

"The main thing I want to see is equity. What's good for one school should be good for another," Toyama said. Regardless of whether the state berths were at 12 or eight for the two divisions, Toyama said he wanted to see a rational approach.

"I can't see having a smaller tournament for either division," he said.

Toyama's lists of ratios and totals showed that in several team sports, there are approximately equal numbers of teams that play in both Division I and II.

Increasing the Division II berths made the Kauai Interscholastic Federation happy. "We want more participation. There's a lot of interest and growth there. We honor the work of the committee, and we need to tweak it. I'd hate to go status quo," KIF president Bill Arakaki said.

MIL executive secretary Steven Kim was ecstatic.

"I feel good for our little schools. It turned out better than I thought. I wasn't expecting to leave with 12 berths in D-II," he said.

For board members and school administrators, taking this giant step could also mean opening a Pandora's Box of fiscal concerns. The HHSAA board intends to study cost-efficient measures during this 12-12 format, which will be reviewed after one year.

In addition, the board moved to establish Division II state championships in boys and girls volleyball effective this fall. The vote was 3-1 in favor with one abstention. The ILH, KIF and MIL voted in favor, while the BIIF was opposed. The OIA abstained.

Because the girls and boys volleyball tournaments will be held concurrently, 48 teams will play for state titles on Oahu.

By necessity and because of cost, the first three days of the volleyball tournaments should be held at school gyms, Toyama said. Only the championship matches, on the fourth day, should be played at a bigger venue like Blaisdell Arena or the Stan Sheriff Center, if available, he said.

Though teams will invariably prefer to play at a large venue, the financial constraints are real.

"It makes sense to have only the finals at the site to save money. This way, you make money. The rental is high," Toyama said. "What happens when we see girls basketball, in consolation, we pay for air conditioning, ushers and all that, and nobody is there. It's not cost-efficient. Makes more sense to go doubleheaders at school sites."

The meeting at Radford High School yesterday was not on the HHSAA board's calendar in June. However, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu recently requested a special meeting to clarify its vote regarding a key proposal that was approved.

In June, holding the key votes in last month's vote, the league hurt itself. The ILH voted in favor of a proposal to reduce the number of teams in Division I state tournaments from 12 to eight. After its athletic directors voted 20-1 in a league meeting recently, the ILH reversed field.

On behalf of the ILH, Mid-Pacific principal Richard Schaffer explained his league's change of heart.

"It's my understanding that the ILH's athletic directors were not clear about this," said Schaffer, a former coach who recently replaced Tony Ramos as the ILH president.

The league, he noted, supported the previous proposal, which required a formula to determine the number of Division I and II teams in state championships. However, athletic directors indicated by their vote that they did not favor decreasing the number of teams in Division I.

"I think our ADs will be very happy about Division I staying the same (at 12 teams)," he added. "The smaller schools will be very happy, too."

The only reason Schaffer abstained in the 12-12 vote was simple.

"I chose to abstain because I was here on a directive regarding the other proposal," Schaffer said. "I'm enthusiastic for the opportunities for more student-athletes to go to states."

The 12-team formats could mean a change in the HHSAA's policy of issuing stipends to neighbor-island teams for softball and girls basketball state tournaments. HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said that issue would have to be explored.

Kim knows the limitations, but persisted.

"We're the guys doing the transportation. If you don't hear me arguing against it, we don't mind," he said. "For us it's a simple thing. We just want more opportunities for our kids. We're going to send ours no matter what."

Criteria to determine classification is still unresolved. The item was one of the topics in the proposal that passed last month. At least two leagues shed light on the topic.

"If we're going to compete together, I do want big brother to tell me what to do," Schaffer said. "In many states, it's based strictly on enrollment numbers."

Amemiya doesn't support a numbers-only criteria, which has been discussed by the executive board and was voted down at the 2004 Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association meeting on the Big Island.

"Hawaii is so unique that enrollment-only is incompatible. You have a five-team league on one end, a 24-team league in the OIA where almost every school is a big high school. If you go strictly by enrollment, you have some weird standards," he said.

Amemiya said a hybrid classification system (based on power rating, and to a lesser degree, enrollment) might be the right way to go. He cited a format used by Middlesex County, N.J., which measures the strength of schools' programs in each sport -- won-lost records from the past few years and how many state championships or division titles a team has won, among other criteria.

New HHSAA president Meredith Maeda suggested that the leagues be certain whether they want standards set outside of their realms.

"The discussion is whether you want the HHSAA to make the decisions for you. You need to have a discussion with your leagues before you do that," he said.

Toyama has called for a set criteria since Division II was implemented two years ago.

"That's why we're in this predicament now. We'll be discussing this in two years from now," he said. "We need some kind of guidelines so we're not grabbing numbers from the sky. I need something rational to help me make a decision."

Revenues from the football championships have allowed the travel stipends for softball and girls basketball. With the addition of Division II volleyball, programs will need to be proactive.

"We talked with Keith (Amemiya) about this and he said D-II volleyball is on their own," BIIF executive director Keith Morioka said. "Our programs will have to do fund-raisers."