Canoe paddling, cheerleading to make state championship debuts
• State canoe racing
• State cheerleading
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Kamehameha's cheerleaders do their routine at the National High School Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Fla., earlier this month. The Warriors took third place among 58 teams in the Small Varsity Division. The competition will be televised on ESPN next month.
Varsity.com photo |
The first is the official state team sport, long overdue making its high school debut, and the other has had to fight for recognition as a sport.
Their addition brings the total number of state team championships sponsored by the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association to 29 — up from 20 five years ago.
Canoe paddling will be held Friday and Saturday at Ke'ehi Lagoon and cheerleading Sunday at Stan Sheriff Center.
Although the Legislature designated outrigger canoe paddling as the state's official team sport in 1986 and thousands of paddlers compete in weekly regattas during the summer, the only high school league conducting the sport until 2000 was the private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu.
"There were concerns in the public schools over costs and liability," said Keith Amemiya, executive director of the HHSAA. "The bulk of the credit for the state championship should go to the OIA (the O'ahu Interscholastic Association), which became the first public school league to sponsor the sport three years ago. Once they introduced canoe paddling as a sport it encouraged the Neighbor Island leagues to introduce the sport as well."
The Neighbor Islands started canoe paddling this year and all five leagues will send boys, girls and mixed teams (a total of 24 in each category) to the state meet this weekend.
Cheerleading was also approved in September, and perhaps fought an even tougher battle for recognition.
Although there was a statewide Spirit Challenge competition among high schools for 20 years, detractors claimed that cheerleaders were not athletes and it was not a sport.
Dolly Wong, coach of Kamehameha's nationally recognized team, disputes that. "If you judge it on how athletic it is, sure it's a sport," Wong says. "The cheerleaders condition by running and weight training, like other sports. It's a multifaceted sport incorporating gymnastics, dance and partner stunts.
"It's a very long season (starting with summer practice) and it will all come down to one routine on Sunday," she said. "They will have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to show a perfect combination of everything they've worked for all year.
"If you miss a basket in basketball, hopefully you will get another shot," Wong said. "In cheerleading you absolutely get only one shot."
Judges grade the squads on a single routine. So far, scores have not been made public.
Amemiya said "the interest among cheerleaders for a state tournament and the dramatic increase in athleticism in cheerleading in recent years convinced me we should add it as a sport. They are almost like gymnasts.
"Also because it is female dominated, it provides another opportunity for females to participate in a sport," he added.
Many Mainland colleges offer athletic scholarships for cheerleaders and include cheerleading links on their athletic department Web sites, but there has been disagreement about whether the numbers should be used to help meet gender equity requirements.
"Gender equity numbers don't matter," Amemiya said. "It's the right thing to do."
Kamehameha won the ILH cheerleading championships Sunday at Kamehameha. Punahou was second, Iolani third, Maryknoll fourth and Hawai'i Baptist Academy fifth.
The OIA Pep Squad (cheerleading) championships were held last night at Stan Sheriff Center.
The HHSAA has added nine state championships since Amemiya became executive director in 1998. They are boys and girls air riflery; boys, girls and mixed canoe paddling; cheerleading; football; girls golf and girls wrestling.
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WHAT: Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association State Canoe Paddling Championships; Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's first championship regatta
WHERE: Ke'ehi Lagoon
WHO: 24 teams each in boys, girls and mixed divisions.
WHEN: Friday—Preliminary heats, quarterfinals and semifinal races, starting at noon. Saturday—Championship races, starting at 8:30 a.m. Opening ceremonies will start at 11:45 Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday
ADMISSION: Free
PARKING: Free, limited
Results on the Web:
WHAT: Local Motion State Cheerleading Championships; Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's first championship event
WHERE: Stan Sheriff Center
WHO: 18 coed or girls squads in two categories (medium 11 or fewer members, large 12 to 18 members)
WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday
ADMISSION: $7 for adults, $5 for students (grades kindergarten-12)
PARKING: $3
Results on the Web:
