HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya confirmed yesterday that he received a copy of the incident report but said he hasn't had a chance to review it and discuss it with Mililani High School and the O'ahu Interscholastic Association.

"However, we take the allegations of a threat being made to one of our soccer officials very seriously and will take any appropriate action based upon our investigation," Amemiya said. "To be fair, we haven't heard the other side of the story and we need to do that as well before making any determination."

The alleged incident occurred after Punahou's 1-0 victory over Mililani in the semifinals of the girls state tournament at the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Stadium on Friday.

Referee Alex Dahlman said a Mililani family approached him and a group of other referees in the empty parking lot to talk about the officiating.

Dahlman, 22, said one of the family members told him he was being unfair in his officiating toward his younger sister all season and added, "If you continue to do it next year, just wait and see what happens."

Dahlman, who is Caucasian, said another family member uttered a derogatory expletive toward him. The alleged exchanges were witnessed by other referees, Dahlman said.

Dahlman said he plans to file a police report soon, and forwarded his complaint to Jan Allen, the HHSAA referee administrator and the president of the Hawai'i Scholastic Soccer Federation.

"I've already filed a report with the OIA, and sent something to the HHSAA," Allen said. "It's an escalation of the abuse we've been taking. We're used to verbal abuse, but we're getting more in-your-face confrontation."

The father of the Mililani family yesterday said they haven't heard or seen any documentation of the complaint. He said the family "did nothing wrong" and declined to comment any further.

The state Senate hearing is in response to a Feb. 9 incident in which a Konawaena basketball player tackled referee Mason Souza.

The bill would make it a felony to assault or threaten an athletic official.

Advocates said the measure would help in the recruitment and retention of hundreds of Hawai'i athletic referees who have become targets of verbal — and recently physical — abuse, and bring Hawai'i up to speed with 21 states that have similar laws on the books.

Interest in the Senate bill intensified after the Kona incident was captured on home video and shown on television last week.

In a similar incident in the 2003 boys state soccer tournament, a Baldwin player knocked down a referee after the game. Baldwin forfeited its next game and eliminated itself from the tournament.