OIA football back to East/West setup

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

O'ahu's public high schools have approved a football realignment that restores Eastern and Western divisions while maintaining separation of stronger and weaker teams.

Principals of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association voted Monday night to have two stronger divisions of seven teams each from eastern and western O'ahu, and a third division of eight weaker teams drawn from the entire island.

Since 1991, the OIA has split its 21 varsity football teams by strength into three (until 1998), then two conferences, regardless of location. Before that, teams were divided by geography into Eastern and Western divisions and before that, by even smaller districts.

"The coaches and athletic directors wanted to bring back the East/West concept. They wanted the rivalries" of geographically close schools, said Dwight Toyama, executive secretary of the OIA. Football is the only sport in which the OIA does not play in Eastern and Western divisions.

The change means that the league's two strongest teams, reigning two-time state champion Kahuku and Wai'anae, would be in separate divisions.

But they might still play each other in the regular season, Toyama said. The tentative schedule calls for each team to play one "crossover" game against the same ranked school in the other division.

A 12-team tournament to determine the OIA champion and its other three state tournament teams would replace the current eight-team tournament. Five teams from each of the stronger divisions and two teams from the weaker division would qualify for the league tournament.

"The change was approved in concept; there are still a lot of details to work out," Toyama emphasized. He did not disclose the vote count.

Among details to be determined would be how teams move between divisions.

In the current setup, the top three teams in the final White Conference standings exchange places with the bottom three teams in the Red Conference each season.

Toyama said the geographical split might play havoc with that. "What if the top four teams in the Blue (weaker) Conference are all from the East?," he said.

He said that splitting up the better teams geographically answered a complaint by coaches about the current setup of the 11 best teams in one conference that "the toughest teams were beating each other up every week."

Kapolei High will field its first varsity football team next season, giving the OIA 22 teams.