Posted on: Sunday, April 15, 2001
Strike causes Maui league to cancel regular seasons
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Maui Interscholastic League has canceled the remainder of its regular-season baseball and girls basketball games because of the public school teachers' strike.
In their place, the league plans to hold a double-elimination tournament in baseball for all eight teams and a single-elimination tournament in girls' basketball for all 10 teams.
But Stephen Kim, the MIL's executive secretary, said yesterday that even tournaments could be jeopardized if the strike continues into next month.
No public high school sports events have been held in Hawai 'i since April 4, the day before the strike began.
Maui is the first of the state's five public-school leagues to cancel its regular schedule.
Dwight Toyama, executive secretary of the 22-school O'ahu Interscholastic Association, said yesterday his league was "waiting to see" what happens with the strike and that athletic directors have not formally discussed contingency schedules.
OIA baseball coordinator Keith Morioka said the league could complete its regular schedule if fewer than five games were postponed by the strike. Three sets of games have been postponed so far; the fourth set would be on Wednesday.
Big Island Interscholastic Federation athletic directors have adopted several contingency plans for rescheduling their games if the strike ends any day between today and April 29. They have canceled their usual post-season tournaments and plan to finish out the regular-season schedules in baseball and girls basketball.
But if the strike were to last as long as April 29, they would abandon the regular-season and conduct tournaments similar to Maui, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy athletic director Stephen Perry said yesterday.
Most spring sports were approaching the halfway point of their schedules when everything, including organized practices, stopped on April 5. Even coaches on O'ahu who were not teachers were not allowed by the OIA to conduct practices.
The tournaments on Maui would determine the league champions and the MIL's two entries in Hawai'i High School Athletic Association tournaments.
"We play a double round in baseball, and because of travel (to and from Maui, Moloka'i and Lana'i), some teams play both first- and second-round games the same weekend," Kim explained. "When the strike happened, a lot of teams hadn't played each other yet, and they won't be able to. The fairest way was to put the tournament in."
The first-half girls basketball championship was won by Baldwin High the night before the strike. Kim said Baldwin would get one of the league's two state championships berths and the league tournament would decide the overall MIL champion, which would get its seeded state berth, and the second team to go to the state tournament.
The league golf tournament will be cut in half, from 72 holes to 36, and played the last weekend of April, Kim said. "We have to give the golf course enough advance notice," he said.
The Valley Isle Track and Field Relays, scheduled for April 20-21, and the league freshman and junior varsity championships are eliminated, Kim said.
"Even if the strike were to end (tomorrow), the kids need time to get back into shape," Kim said. "No matter what, next week is out. We are down to two meets, the Blue and White hosted by Maui High and the MIL Championships. It's the fairest way to go."
Kim said that if the strike goes past Friday, "we have asked the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association to look into moving state tournaments back a week or so."
State golf tournaments are scheduled May 3-4 and 10-11, tennis May 10-12, track and field May 10 and 12, girls basketball May 15-18 and baseball May 16-19.
"We want states badly enough that we are willing to do down to the last week or use times we already have for track or scores kids already have for golf," Kim said.
"But we definitely would not do anything in June; and even the end of May presents problems," he added.
