ILH football proposal well-received

Advertiser Staff

The proposal to allow St. Louis and Kamehameha to field two varsity football teams has exciting possibilities, according to Clay Benham, executive secretary of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu.

Benham, the dean of Hawai'i's athletic administrators, said dividing the league into stronger and lesser divisions would reduce the disparity between top and bottom teams that has led to numerous blowouts in recent years and would promote participation by more students.

Pac-Five's Don Botelho, the dean of the state's football coaches, said, "I think it's a great idea. There are things that need to be addressed and we will study the positive and negatives, but the idea has great possibilities."

Botelho pointed out that the public-school O'ahu Interscholastic Association already has a two-tier system with Red and White conferences.

The ILH plan, revealed by St. Louis coach Cal Lee in yesterday's Advertiser, calls for St. Louis, Kamehameha, Punahou and 'Iolani to play in Division I with St. Louis and Kamehameha also fielding teams in Division II along with Pac-Five and Damien.

Each team would play every other team in its own division twice, and each team in the other division once, except the I and II teams of one school would never play each other.

Benham said he, Lee and Botelho have been working on the idea for several weeks and will present it to the league's coaches at a regular meeting next week. Benham said that if coaches and athletic directors endorse the idea, he believes the ILH principals will approve it.

Kamehameha coach Kanani Souza said on Monday that he had not given the idea any thought, but that he was concerned about the 40 or so players who will be displaced when the ILH's 65-player game limit takes effect this fall.

The roster limit was imposed by principals in an attempt to reduce the inequity between St. Louis, league champion the last 15 years, Kamehameha and the rest of the league. Blowouts, including at least five in the 80s, have become commonplace in recent seasons.

The ILH already has two-tiered competition in basketball, water polo, paddling and judo.

Benham said he was misunderstood last month about a bylaw prohibiting a school from fielding two varsity football teams. "There are no rules against it," he said yesterday. "We do that in several other sports."