McKinley wrestling upset over omissions

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

McKinley High's wrestling teams, perennial championship contenders in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association, were not allowed to compete in the league's Eastern Division tournament Saturday because their entry list didn't arrive on time.

"This is my 16th year coaching at McKinley and nothing like this has ever happened," Tiger coach Chris Johnson said yesterday.

"The athletic administrators were not doing their job by not having the courtesy to call back and tell us our fax didn't go through," Johnson said.

McKinley athletic director Neal Takamori said he had telephoned Kahuku athletic director Joe Whitford, the OIA wrestling adviser/coordinator, Thursday afternoon to tell him he was about to fax the entry list.

Returning to his office later, Takamori said, he found an error message that the fax had not gone through.

"I faxed it again, but they already had left their office," he said.

OIA rules require entries to be submitted before seeding meetings. McKinley's appeal was denied Friday by the OIA and the boys and girls varsity and girls junior varsity teams did not wrestle on Saturday.

"Deadlines were missed and there was some miscommunication," Takamori said. "We'll take responsibility for what wasn't done."

Kahuku, which was the tournament host, won both boys and girls championships.

"How and what do we tell the children?" Johnson said. "No player had done anything wrong."

Whitford, the wrestling adviser, could not be reached on the school holiday yesterday.