After 30 years as a spring sport and with just six months' notice, high school girls basketball in Hawai'i finally moved its season to the winter, in alliance with the other 49 states and also with the boys season.

The move, while simple in concept, proved to be a huge undertaking which caused major adjustments by almost everyone involved — players, coaches, administrators, officials, fans and media — and had a big impact on the boys season as well. There were positive effects, and some negative.

With the first winter girls season reaching its conclusion after Friday night's state championship games, here is a closer look at what transpired over the past four months:

FACILITIES/PRACTICES

When the change was announced last May by the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's executive board (to address Title IX gender equity concerns about equal opportunities and discrimination), the first concern of many was the availability of gyms and other facilities for practices and games.

When the boys and girls played separate seasons, each rarely had to share gym time and practices with each other. But this past winter, teams were scrambling for practice times and limited space, with four teams each (boys and girls, varsity and JV) at public schools and up to 10 or 12 teams (boys and girls, two teams each at varsity, JV and intermediate) at some private schools sharing court times.

"Everybody just had to cooperate with each other," said Punahou assistant athletic director Scott Metcalf, who runs the school's Hemmeter Fieldhouse and helped find gym time for 12 Buffanblu teams. "The intermediate and JV teams mostly practiced outdoors, and the varsity teams usually overlapped where they would share a court with each other for 15 or 30 minutes."

Metcalf also said most practices were limited to 90 minutes, compared to two-hour practices in the past.

At McKinley, boys coach Bob Morikuni said a typical practice day would have the JV boys practicing from 3 to 4:30 p.m., followed by the girls JV and varsity from 4:30 to 6, then the varsity boys from 6 to 7:30.

The next day, the schedules would be adjusted and rotated.

"We might have to share with the JV for one hour," said Morikuni, who previously coached both the boys and girls varsity teams and now oversees both programs. "It affected how much fundamentals or game planning we could work on depending on how much time we had and if we had the full court. But it's not like we could tell the next team, 'Uh, give me 10 more minutes ...' The main thing was to come up with schedules that were fair to both the boys and girls."

MAINLAND COMPETITION

One of the benefits promised by the season's move to the winter was the opportunity for Hawai'i girls to play against Mainland competition and showcase themselves against high school teams in season, something that was almost impossible before.

The inaugural 'Iolani Girls Prep Classic was held in December, featuring three highly regarded California teams: Redondo Union (Redondo Beach), Narbonne (Harbor City) and Granada (Livermore).

Punahou defeated Granada and Narbonne before falling to Redondo Union in the championship game.

Later in the month, Punahou and Kamehameha-Hawai'i traveled to Phoenix to compete in the prestigious Nike Tournament of Champions, featuring 80 of the top programs in the nation.

"I think I did benefit from all that experience against Mainland teams," said Punahou junior guard Janelle Nomura. "Last summer I played in the End of the Trail tournament in Portland (Ore.), and I got some (college recruiting) letters. But after the Arizona tournament, I started getting letters from bigger schools like Nebraska and Columbia. I had played against Mainland club teams in the summer, but I had never seen Mainland high school teams. Some of them were amazing."

SCHEDULES

The convergence of girls and boys seasons also presented a huge challenge to league coordinators, who suddenly had twice as many games to schedule.

In the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, with teams at the varsity, JV and intermediate levels, Division I coordinator Bill Villa had to schedule 265 games alone. He said Division II coordinator Peter Estomago had to schedule a similar amount for Division II.

"We staggered the lower levels — the intermediate boys started their season on Nov. 19 and ended in late December — so that helped," said Villa, the athletic director at Mid-Pacific Institute. "It was a combination of staggering the seasons and condensing some. We altered the number of games, so some intermediate teams had an eight-to-10-game regular season. The intermediate girls ended their season the first week of January, so that freed up some gym time."

Villa said Estomago was able to schedule games at community gyms like Salt Lake District Park, Palama Settlement and Manoa Valley Recreation Center.

"That was huge," Villa said. "I don't think we could have done it if we weren't able to use those gyms."

Both the ILH and O'ahu Interscholastic Association also played a full slate of games on Monday nights for the first time.

OFFICIALS

The heavy schedule of games stretched the resources and stamina of referees, many of whom worked six nights a week, sometimes two games per night.

"The key concern was that we were barely able to cover the number of games when the seasons were separate," said Thomas Yoshida, president of the O'ahu Basketball Referees Association, which has a contract with the OIA. "Where we used to assign 20 to 25 officials per night, now we were assigning 45 to 50, and instead of three or four nights per week now they're doing four or five nights per week. We brought in new officials, but the learning curve was steep and we ended up with lesser experienced officials working some bigger games than normal."

Big Island Interscholastic Federation executive director Ken Yamase said there was significant "wear and tear" on his league's officials.

"A lot of them had to see physical therapists," Yamase said. "They would get shin splints, and school trainers would have to tape them before games."

Yoshida said the average age of officials in his organization is 47.

STATE TOURNEY CRUSH

The season culminated with both the boys and girls state tournaments (Division I and II) being held the same week, resulting in 72 games scheduled over five days at 10 different sites.

HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya said the girls tournament was originally scheduled for the week before (Feb. 13 to 16), but neither Stan Sheriff Center nor Blaisdell Arena was available for that week.

"Obviously, we would have preferred the tournaments to be held on separate weeks, but that wasn't an option," Amemiya said. "Attendance was clearly down, and that is consistent with what was happening in the leagues throughout the season."

Yamase said his league suffered a "definitely noticeable" drop in attendance.

"Several fans said that with games six nights a week, they had to pick and choose which ones they would go to," Yamase said. "In our league, people have to travel long distances to attend games."

GROWING PAINS

Attorney Jill Nunokawa, a University of Hawai'i civil rights counselor and a longtime leading advocate of moving the Hawai'i girls basketball season to the winter, said people need to be patient in the transition process.

"In the first year, there will always be ticks, bugs, fleas," Nunokawa said. "Now, more Mainland teams will know about our preseason tournaments, and our teams will look for Mainland tournaments to play in. Now, we've got one whole year to work on schedules, and I have no doubt we can tweak them to make them better.

"There are hardships in the beginning for any change; we need to give it time, and time will tell."

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.