ILH, OIA to meet each other in football

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

How about Saint Louis vs. McKinley or Farrington against Punahou?

Interscholastic League of Honolulu football rivalries from the past could resurface, as the two O'ahu high school leagues have reached a two-year agreement to play interleague games starting next season, the ILH and O'ahu Interscholastic Association jointly announced yesterday.

Details will be revealed later, but a league official gave an idea of how the schedule would work. The official requested anonymity because details have yet to be finalized.

The interleague would involve the OIA's East and West teams against the six ILH programs. For the OIA, the interleague games would be in lieu of interdivisional games that start each season. The past two years, each West team played a corresponding East team. Then they played teams in their own division for a seven-game regular season.

The interleague games will not count in each league's respective regular season standings. The OIA Red teams will play six regular-season games, while the ILH's schedule is expected to remain at seven.

Schools may still schedule other non-league games.

For now, OIA White teams, classified as Division II for state tournament play, will not be in the interleague mix, the official said. The eight-team conference already gives each team seven regular-season games.

The leagues hope interest in interleague play will generate more revenue, the official said.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8042.