In between the sharp sound of fire from air rifles is the silence of concentration and focus, coupled with the quiet hush of breath emitted from shooters aiming at targets 33 feet away.

Silence prevails at any given air rifle competition.

But in O'ahu Interscholastic Association competitions this year, there will be greater silence on the range.

In slim financial times when sports are asked to cut back in spending, air riflery is making one of the biggest and quietest changes.

To cut back in transportation costs, teams will compete against each other — without seeing the opposing team, hearing their cheers or socializing with a foe.

Instead, when matches are scheduled between two teams, each will compete at its home range, firing in the standing, kneeling and prone positions. Targets will then be scored and scores between opposing teams will then be compared.

A winner will be declared in this format that starts next Wednesday with eight matches that mark the start of the OIA season.

"It's kind of a downer because it doesn't give us the competition setting, like when you go to another school, you get that competition feel," said Chelsie Hata, a Moanalua senior and defending OIA girls champion. "We don't have that any more because it's almost like practice."

Bus rentals range from $150 to $280. There are eight matches scheduled to be held on nine days during the season that runs through Sept. 30. Savings are expected in the thousands, and other sports have also had to cut back on travel and coaching positions.

Moanalua coach Francis Achiu said the new scheduling format "is not unique" to Hawai'i. Mainland programs have followed the same approach when distances between two schools were great.

"The players have been telling me it won't be as exciting," Achiu said. "There's no handshake, no cheering, you can't build any kind of camaraderie with the other team, no talking stories. To me, it's going to be less of an experience."

Competitors won't see other teams until the OIA championships on Oct. 3. In the meantime, Pearl City coach Les Aranaydo, whose boys and girls teams are the defending league champions, welcomes any opposing team at his practices, just to change the mentality of shooters and create a different feel.

"It's going to be a little weird," said Pearl City senior Jasmyne Tanabe. "This is my fourth year, it's going to be a little strange, but I'll get used to it."

Added Aranaydo: "Hopefully the economy improves and the funding, and maybe we'll have one away match."

WHAT TO WEAR?

As far as match days, Pearl City and Moanalua plan on wearing their team uniforms like before. Following each match, teams will score their own targets and results will be sent to Radford athletic director Kelly Sur, the sport's coordinator who will compare the scores.

In previous shoulder-to-shoulder matches, representatives from both teams scored targets and those were available for review by shooters. If a discrepancy was found, the score could be challenged.

"It's a lot of integrity (for) the sport," Aranaydo said. "When we do the scoring, we cannot check their score and they cannot check our score. A lot of times when we do check, we find discrepancies in terms of recognizing a higher value score or a lower value score, or they added wrong."

DOUBLE THE SHOTS

Shooters will not only have to get used to not seeing opposing teams, but also acclimate to a lengthier period of shooting.

Each shooter will now have 60 shots, from 30 in years past, and will have 100 minutes to shoot.

Interscholastic League of Honolulu competitions and state championships have utilized the 60-shot format.

"It's double for states so we weren't really used to it," Hata said. "Now, we're going to be more used to it."

So far, nobody has complained about being tired at Moanalua's practices. And at Pearl City, its new shooters have picked up quickly.

"It favors more experienced shooters because they're going to be able to handle the period of time and understand the concept of shooting and utilizing the time given," Aranaydo said.