The Sabers shelved practices for varsity and junior varsity football, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls bowling, boys and girls air riflery, cheerleading, and girls volleyball, according to athletic director Scott Soldwisch.

The decision came from Maui High principal Randy Yamanuha. Last night, Flossie was downgraded to a tropical storm from a Category 1 hurricane.

"Mr. Yamanuha decided to cancel all after-school activities because we have kids here until after 7 p.m. and a lot of them go home to Kihei,'' said Soldwisch to The Maui News yesterday afternoon. "If the storm would change in our direction late this afternoon, we didn't want our students to be stuck away from their families.''

Other Maui Interscholastic League activities called off yesterday included air riflery practice because of wet ground at Hana High and an open house at St. Anthony.

Kamehameha Schools Maui AD Kurt Ginoza said his school ended all practices 30 minutes early.

"We are finishing a half-hour earlier so we can get everybody home just in case,'' Ginoza said. "We should have everybody off campus by 6:30 when our practice bus leaves at 6:30 instead of 7 when it usually does. We will take it day by day to see if the weather takes a turn. Right now we are OK.''

Moloka'i AD Bob Takeo said that five athletes who live in outlying areas were sent home immediately after school on the Maui Economic Opportunity bus, but the school's boys and girls cross country and girls volleyball practices went on as scheduled.

The Farmers girls volleyball team was scheduled to leave today for the Ann Kang Invitational at 'Iolani, and Takeo said he would be watching the weather before sending that team on its way.

"I'll be watching the radar pictures like everybody else to figure out the volleyball trip,'' Takeo said.

Maui High gym is a Civil Defense shelter when needed and Soldwisch said that was also a factor in the decision to call off practices, but the overriding concern was safety.

"Mr. Yamanuha has been in contact with (Maui Complex Area Superintendent) Bruce Anderson and Civil Defense and after talking to them he felt this was the safest decision to make,'' Soldwisch said. "Our gym is a Civil Defense site as well, so if we had to change the gym into a shelter, we would have to jump on that in a hurry.''

Lana'i AD David McHugh said that all 55 fall-sport athletes for the Pine Lads and Pine Lasses — girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, and cheerleading — who attended school yesterday were at practice as normal.

"We are running practice as normal at this time, close to 5 p.m., but we are trying to determine whether or not we will practice (today),'' McHugh said. "Things look OK for Lana'i, but you never know. I will put an emergency plan together and we will inform the coaches of what we will do.''