New football playoffs would have 12 teams

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

The lower-division football championship tournament being studied by the state's high schools would add four teams to the present structure, bringing it to 12 — the same number as in all other team sports.

"Our long-term goal is to fund inter-island travel for all state tournaments," said Keith Amemiya, executive director of the HHSAA. Advertiser library photo • Feb. 6, 2001

The one-year trial would basically continue the structure of the existing tournament, which has been in place since 1999, but with two divisions. In what would be called Division I, each of the state's five leagues can send its champion, and the O'ahu Interscholastic Association, the largest football league, can send three additional teams.

Division II, the so-called small-school tournament, would include one representative each from four or five leagues.

Kaua'i, where all three schools are small but some want to play in the big-school division, would be the swing league. Each of its schools could declare, before the start of the season, if they are going to play in Division I or II.

If the Kaua'i champion opts for Division I, its tournament structure would be the same as now: four OIA teams and the champions from the private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu, and the Maui, Big Island and Kaua'i leagues.

If the Kaua'i champion chooses to play in Division II, there would be a five-team field for a four-team bracket. The plan calls for a "play-in" game prior to the tournament, such as been held most recent years in boys soccer.

Kaua'i's absence from Division I would open that bracket for an at-large team, which the state football committee would select.

The proposal addresses concerns of O'ahu public schools about a possible all-private school final game in Division I. It says that the at-large team — likely to be the ILH runner-up — would be placed in the same bracket as the ILH champion, meaning only one could get past the semifinal round.

Each of the four leagues other than Kaua'i would recommend before each season which of its teams should be eligible for the Division I playoffs and which would be in the Division II pool. Kaua'i teams would declare individually.

Any team winning the Division II championship three years in a row would be elevated to Division I for the following year.

The committee addressed many concerns raised by the OIA when it blocked the proposal last year at the state athletic directors' conference, where it lost in a 37-34 vote.

"They've eliminated any reasons not to have it," one athletic director said privately.

Keith Amemiya, executive director of the HHSAA, feels so strongly about the financial viability of the small-schools championship that he and his wife, Bonny, have pledged to pay for any losses in the first year.

The Amemiyas have also pledged $20,000 from their personal savings to pay for transportation for girls teams from the Neighbor Islands to O'ahu for the 2004 state softball and girls basketball championships.

Even though Amemiya has two letters from Valerie M. Bonnette, the nation's leading gender equity specialist, opining that the added football tournament raises no Title IX problems, he said he felt "it is the right thing to do" to promote girls' programs with the donation.

"My wife and I strongly feel that our female student-athletes are just as important as their male counterparts, and thus deserve to receive the same amount of support, attention and appreciation," Amemiya said.

"Our long-term goal is to fund inter-island travel for all state tournaments, from corporate sponsorship, gate receipts and donations," Amemiya said. "This is a start."

Bonny Amemiya is finance director for Anheuser-Busch Sales of Hawai'i. Keith Amemiya, who is 37, left a downtown law firm and took a substantial pay cut to take on the HHSAA challenge in 1998.

They have a son, Christopher, who will be 4 in July.