Three league championships up for grabs Friday night
• OIA football playoffs and state football tournament schedule
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
Three league champions will be crowned Friday night, setting up first-round matches for the state football tournament, which starts Nov. 16.
The O'ahu Interscholastic Association will intentionally crown co-champions for the first time in its 61-year history.
Because the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks caused a postponement of a week of regular-season play, the domino effect wiped out a tier of the eight-team playoffs. The championship game was knocked off because the OIA did not want to cause an inconvenience to the other leagues by holding up the state tournament another weekend.
The OIA had co-champions in 1947, when Waialua and Kahuku finished the regular season tied and played to a scoreless tie in a playoff. Apparently there was no overtime back then.
On Friday at Aloha Stadium, OIA tournament top seed Kahuku will play fourth-seeded 'Aiea at 5:05 p.m. for one championship, while second-seeded Castle and third-seeded Kailua will face off in a rematch of Red Conference rivals at 7:35 p.m.
For state tournament seeding purposes, the higher seed of the two winners will have the OIA's first state berth. The higher seeded team of the losing teams will get the third state berth. That means the highest 'Aiea can finish is second and is guaranteed to be fourth if it loses.
On the Valley Isle, first-round champion Lahainaluna will play second-round champion Baldwin for the overall Maui Interscholastic League title. The winner earns a state berth. Game time is 7 p.m. Friday at War Memorial Stadium.
On the Big Island, Konawaena (7-0) will play Waiakea (6-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Wong Stadium. The Wildcats need a tie or win to claim the Big Island Interscholastic Federation title. If the Warriors win, the two will share the BIIF crown, but Waiakea will get the state berth because of the head-to-head tie-breaker.
Only Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation champion Waimea and Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion St. Louis have set state tournament berths. Waimea will play the OIA's third-place team at Vidinha Stadium, while St. Louis will play the OIA's fourth-place team at Aloha Stadium. The MIL champion will play the OIA's top seed at Aloha Stadium and the Big Island champion will play host to the OIA's second seed.
