OIA decides to postpone all contests
| • | Schools close for 183,000 students |
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
Citing the uncertainty brought about by the Hawai'i State Teachers Association strike, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association has postponed all high school events through Saturday.
On the varsity level, the decision postpones 13 girls basketball games — three tonight, four tomorrow and six on Saturday. It also affects nine baseball games, four judo matches and the team tennis championships on Saturday.
The finals of the OIA track relays scheduled for tomorrow have been canceled. The top finishers from yesterday's trials were declared champions.
Makeup dates for the other events will be determined once the strike is over.
"I think part of the rationale (for the postponements) was to get everybody on the same page and to alleviate confusion," said Kailua athletic director Mel Imai, the OIA girls basketball coordinator. "At first we were going to wait (until today) to see if there was a strike, but then we knew there might be some people who weren't gonna get the message. This way, everyone knows ahead of time."
Meanwhile, a strike would shut down all school-related activities, including team practices.
That is the official word from the OIA. But the word on the street is that many high school athletes plan to hold informal workouts off school grounds, something administrators want no part of due to liability concerns.
"It has to be a complete shutdown," OIA executive secretary Dwight Toyama said. "A coach cannot even suggest (workouts), because then it might be construed as unsupervised practices. We cannot have our coaches say, 'I want you guys to run, stay in shape.' It has to be a total shutdown."
Toyama said that applies to all coaches, including those who are not HSTA members. The fear among OIA officials is that anything resembling a school-related activity could draw them into complaints or lawsuits.
"We need to tell our coaches, 'Don't even mention it, there should be no organized practices,' " Toyama said. "The biggest thing is the liability."
However, Toyama acknowledged that the OIA and its coaches cannot prohibit athletes from initiating their own workouts, as long as coaches were not involved.
"If it comes from (the athletes), what they do on their own, that's up to them," Toyama said.
