Posted on: Friday, June 25, 2004

Division II will remain the same this year

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Division II state tournaments and classification received the most attention at yesterday's Hawai'i High School Athletic Association executive board meeting.

But at meeting's end, the only major decision regarding Division II was to form a committee to resolve everything the executive board couldn't during the meeting at Radford High School's O'ahu Interscholastic Association office.

"I think everyone agrees that the concept of Division II is a good thing, but the difference is everyone has their own ideas on how to classify teams, the size of the tournaments, what sports to add next, and when," HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said.

For the upcoming school year, Division II football, softball and girls basketball will run the same as last year.

But for Division II sports beginning in 2005-06, the committee will set an implementation plan that will include the criterion to place a school in Division I or II, and whether or not a school would declare its classification before the start of the season and remain in that classification regardless of how it ends the season.

"We want to be able to establish what is a big school and what is a small school," Maui Interscholastic League executive secretary Stephen Kim said. "We want a standard way of determining that."

One of the major decisions the committee will have to make is whether or not the size of tournaments for Division I and II should depend on the number of schools participating in each classification.

If it does, state tournaments in sports with Division II state tournaments will likely shrink from a 12-team format to an 8- or 6-team format.

Also on the agenda will be Division II state tournaments for boys and girls volleyball and boys basketball for 2005-06.

"We should have some guidelines," OIA executive secretary Dwight Toyama said. "We need to get all these guidelines and procedures in place and not go sport-by-sport."

The committee, which will consist of the five leagues' executive secretaries and one athletic director from each league, will meet Aug. 5.

Some of the proposals that did pass, all unanimously, increase the distance for girls cross country from 2 to 3 miles in 2005-06, and change the state tennis tournament from three days to four.

Other changes came in judo and wrestling. Schools can enter two participants per weight class for state championships instead of three, and the number of wrestlers from one school eligible to compete in a weight class increased from one to two.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.