Posted on: Tuesday, February 11, 2003

ILH runner-up Pac-Five out of tourney

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up will not be participating in this week's Meadow Gold Boys State Soccer championship, but its third-place team will.

That's because runner-up Pac-Five, a squad made up of players from Maryknoll, Lutheran, University, ASSETS and the Academy of the Pacific, is ineligible under a Hawai'i High School Athletic Association rule regarding "combination" teams.

The Wolfpack went 10-1-3 in the ILH regular season, losing only to champion Punahou. But because of the HHSAA rule, third-place Kamehameha (9-4-1) will be the league's second representative in this week's tournament.

The rule requires any team of combined schools to have at least 11 players from one school in order to participate. The breakdown of this year's Pac-Five squad is seven players from Maryknoll, five from Lutheran, three from University and two each from ASSETS and AOP.

Even if the Wolfpack were eligible under HHSAA rules, they still would have had to defeat Kamehameha, the ILH's third-place team, in a special playoff using a squad of players from only one school, Pac-Five athletic director John Hom said.

"We have a similar rule within the ILH," Hom said. "It comes from a concern among the bigger schools that we send our best teams to the state tournament. If a combination team gets a state berth, but takes only players from one school, then we might not be sending our best teams."

The ILH rule would have been applied last fall in the case of La Pietra's volleyball team, which lost to Iolani in a playoff for second place. Had La Pietra won, it would have had to play Iolani again in another playoff without two players it had on the roster from another school.

HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said the only way to change the rule is through the Hawai'i Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association conference in June. Hom said the ILH has submitted proposals "every year" at HIADA to make Pac-Five teams eligible for state tournaments, but the proposals have been shot down each time.

Even if a proposal is approved by a committee, Hom said, it still must pass an overall vote of athletic directors from the 84 member schools, most of which are public.

It then must be approved by the HHSAA's executive board, which is made up of principals from the state's five leagues — four of which are made up all or predominantly of public schools.

The Pac-Five boys soccer booster club held a parents meeting on Feb. 3 to discuss the situation and decide on a course of action. The group decided against a lawsuit or approaching the ACLU for help.

"We don't want to bad-mouth anybody or go to a lawyer, it's not a 'Let's sue 'em issue,' " said Cyndi Seminara, the Pac-Five soccer booster president. "But the HHSAA mission statement mentions 'equality for all players,' and to us, this is not equality. We know the rule, and we know it has to go to the ADs and a vote, but then it becomes about politics and about winning a majority, and that's not what it should be about. It should be about the kids."

The sentiment among players and coaches casually observed at the public-school O'ahu Interscholastic Association tournament last week appeared to favor letting Pac-Five into the tournament.

"I don't want to speak on behalf of the OIA or from the soccer community, but my personal opinion is that the boys at Pac-Five should have that opportunity," said Mililani coach Jeff Yamamoto, whose OIA champion Trojans are seeded No. 1. "I'm not sure why the rule is there, but all I know is they are not given the opportunity, and to me, it's unfortunate."

Seminara also said in the future the issue could include charter schools kids who play for OIA teams.

Hom said he suggested parents "bend the ear" of public school administrators to try to gain support, and encouraged them to "work within the system."

In the meantime, Hom said he hopes the Wolfpack will remember this season for what was accomplished, and not what wasn't.

"I'm real proud of them," Hom said. "Coach Paul (Fu) really got them working together and they had a lot of positive vibes, and there was a lot of positive buzz about Pac-Five."