HHSAA picks seeds for state baseball, basketball tournaments
Advertiser Staff
How do you seed league champions into a state tournament when you don't know who half of them are?
That was the predicament facing Hawai'i High School Athletic Association officials when they met Sunday to draw brackets for this weekend's state baseball and girls basketball championships.
The Kaua'i and Big Island championship basketball games are tonight and the O'ahu public-school league doesn't finish up until tomorrow night. Any one of four teams could still win the OIA.
In baseball, the OIA championship game was last night, and the Kaua'i title game is today.
But the state committees couldn't wait. They have to get programs to printers, assign officials and a myriad of other details.
So they went with history, and what they did know.
The private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu has dominated the spring tournaments, winning half the 42 baseball championships and the last 14 girls basketball titles, and 21 out of 24 overall.
In addition, the ILH was unfettered by last month's public-schools teachers' strike and played out its normal seasons. Its champions were crowned two weeks ago — Mid-Pacific in baseball and Punahou in basketball.
So state officials seeded the ILH champions No. 1 in both sports.
Keith Amemiya, executive director of the state association, knows he will be criticized for the seeds. Kalaheo of the OIA has been No. 1 in the coaches/media girls basketball poll since Punahou lost its only game to Kamehameha on April 27.
"Many people assume Kalaheo will win the OIA girls basketball title," Amemiya said, "but what if we seeded them No. 1 and they lost in either the semis or finals? You never can tell, especially in the OIA playoffs.
"Then most people would say (in hindsight, of course) that Punahou should've been seeded No. 1.
"Secondly, the ILH schools have played a full season without a three-week layoff, and avoided a murderous post-strike schedule to make up as many lost games as possible. . .
"Thirdly, Punahou (girls basketball) and Mid-Pacific (baseball) can make strong arguments to be seeded No. 1, regardless of the other factors.
"Most people would agree that they are pretty good teams with an excellent shot at winning the state title in their respective sports."
Because the state championships had to be compacted to avoid missing any public-school class time, the fields were cut from 12 to eight teams.
The tournaments had been 12-team, four-day events for 15 years or more. Girls basketball was increased from eight to 12 in 1984 and baseball in 1986.
