Mid-Pacific may form own team
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Mid-Pacific Institute is studying the feasibility of fielding its own varsity football team within two years.
Mid-Pacific, a private school in Manoa, has been one of the cornerstones of the Pac-Five athletic program for 30 years, but school administrators think it may be time the Owls flew on their own.
Students and the faculty have been polled and financial feasibility studies are underway, athletic director Bill Villa said yesterday.
"Our administration sees football as a method of increasing school spirit and pride," Villa said. "Football is a rallying center for a lot of schools."
Villa said that about 50 students had expressed interest in varsity football next season.
Last year, 14 of the 49 players on the Pac-Five varsity roster were from Mid-Pacific, which has 560 students in grades 10-11-12 from which the varsity team would be drawn.
Villa acknowledged that a football team also could help increase enrollment, currently around 1,100 for grades 7-12.
Pac-Five was organized in the early 1970s to provide competition in various sports for students at schools not large enough to field their own teams. While five schools originally participated, athletes from as many as 14 schools make up Pac-Five rosters in some sports now.
The 2002 Pac-Five varsity football roster included students from 10 schools. Word of Life was second to Mid-Pacific with 13 players; Maryknoll and University each had six.
Mid-Pacific principal Richard Schaffer announced the plan to his students last month, but athletic directors of other schools that make up Pac-Five did not learn about it until Wednesday night.
"I was shocked and surprised," said Maryknoll athletic director Pattie Heatherly, "and very concerned that our students who want to play football would have a team to play on."
Villa said that if Pac-Five is unable to field its own team, "we will invite other schools to join us" under the Mid-Pacific name.
There is precedent in the ILH for combining students from several small schools under one school's name to form a team, especially in soccer and softball.
One plan Mid-Pacific is considering is fielding an intermediate (7th through 9th grade team) team next season and a varsity team in 2004.
Don Botelho, Pac-Five's head varsity coach for the past 29 years, resigned last month when he was appointed executive director of the 25-private school Interscholastic League of Honolulu.
Pac-Five athletic director John Hom has not sought applications for a new head coach, apparently while awaiting a decision from Mid-Pacific.
Hom said that Pac-Five, which fields 50 teams in 15 sports, always encourages schools to field their own teams if they can.
