Prep Football
All games to count in ILH

Advertiser Staff

All seven games in this year's revised Interscholastic League of Honolulu football schedule will count toward the league championship.

The private-school league's coaches this week changed a formula drafted last month in which only five games would have counted toward the title.

The six-team league's traditional 10-game, double round-robin schedule was cut to seven games last month when officials divided the league in half, according to strength, and decreed that teams would play others in their own division twice and in the other division once.

Thus, Division I teams St. Louis, Kamehameha and Punahou would play each other two times but would play once against Division II teams Iolani, Damien and Pac-Five, and vice versa.

In last month's plan, only the full round of games against all teams would have counted toward the championship. Coaches revised that at a meeting Monday night.

Now, all games will count, but if a team in the weaker Division II ends the season with a record equal to or better than the winner of Division I, those two teams will play off for the championship.

The playoff was inserted to solve the problem of the Division II teams playing a "softer" schedule and to answer the complaint of those who felt five games were not enough to determine a champion.

League games will begin Sept. 8, a week later than usual, and there will be an open week between the first and second rounds, on Sept. 28-29.

In the five weekends between Aug. 30-Sept. 1 and Sept. 28-29, when ILH teams have played every weekend in the past, they will play only two games each this season and have three open dates.

Teams are scrambling to fill open dates, most looking to Neighbor Island teams because the public-school O'ahu Interscholastic Association does not allow any non-league games once its season starts.

St. Louis, winner of the last 15 ILH championships, has scheduled preseason games at Nanakuli Aug. 17 and against San Clemente of California at Aloha Stadium on Aug. 25. The Crusaders have filled their first open week with an Aug. 31 game against Waimea on Kaua'i.

The other St. Louis open weekends, Sept. 15-16 and Sept. 28-29, will be difficult to fill, coach Cal Lee said yesterday.

"We're looking, but it's going to be awfully tough, even to get Mainland teams, once everybody starts league play," he said.

Iolani and Punahou, old rivals now in separate divisions of the ILH, might play each other on an open date in a game that does not count in league standings.

In the second, full round, all six ILH teams will play every week for five weeks ending Nov. 2. The playoff, if needed, will be Nov. 8.

The state tournament starts its three-week run on Nov. 16.

The new championship arrangement requires approval of athletic directors, but no problems are expected.

"Four of the six were there Monday night and they all approved," said Lee, who is the league's football coordinator and St. Louis' athletic director.

The ILH moved toward splitting its league last month after Damien president Brother Greg O'Donnell announced his school would forfeit both its games against St. Louis because he feared for the safety of Damien players.

St. Louis has outscored Damien 415-7 in their last six meetings, including 84-0 last year, when, O'Donnell said, six Damien players were injured.

With the new schedule, Damien will forfeit one game instead of two. O'Donnell has not changed his stance.

Lee said the ILH will not revive junior varsity football this season because only St. Louis and Kamehameha said they would be able to field teams.

ILH 2001 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

• Saturday, Sept. 8: At Aloha Stadium, Damien vs. Iolani, 4:45 p.m.; St. Louis vs. Punahou, 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Sept. 15: At Aloha Stadium, Damien vs. Pac-Five, 4:45 p.m.; Punahou vs. Kamehameha, 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Sept. 22: At Aloha Stadium, Pac-Five vs. Iolani, 4:45 p.m.; St. Louis vs. Kamehameha, 7:30 p.m.
• Sept. 28-29: Open
• Friday, Oct. 5: Damien at Punahou, 3:15 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 6: At Aloha Stadium, Kamehameha vs. Pac-Five, 4:45 p.m.; St. Louis vs. Iolani, 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, Oct. 12: At Aloha Stadium, Iolani vs. Pac-Five, 4:45 p.m.; Punahou vs. St. Louis, 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 13: Damien vs. Kamehameha at Iolani, 2 p.m.
• Friday, Oct. 19: Damien at Iolani, 3:15 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 20: At Aloha Stadium, Pac-Five vs. St. Louis, 4:45 p.m.; Kamehameha vs. Punahou, 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, Oct. 26: Pac-Five at Punahou, 3:15 p.m.; Kamehameha vs. Iolani, time and site to be arranged; Damien vs. St. Louis (Damien has indicated it will forfeit this game).
• Friday, Nov. 2: Punahou at Iolani, 3:15 p.m . At Aloha Stadium, Pac-Five vs. Damien, 4:45 p.m.; Kamehameha vs. St. Louis, 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, Nov. 8: Championship playoff, if necessary, at Aloha Stadium, 7:30 p.m.
• Nov. 16: State tournament begins.