First year of OIA-ILH alliance is in the books … so did it work?

Alliance is a word to behold.

So is the word “behold,” which is also part of “beholden,” as in, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu may be quite beholden to its contemporaries, frenemies and cousins — even sisters and brothers — in the Oahu Interscholastic Association.

For all the differences in philosophy during nearly five decades of separation on the football field, there was enough cordiality to create a cease fire, and this year, private- and public-school teams met on the gridiron during regular-season play for the first time since 1969.

The OIA-ILH Alliance permitted fans, players, coaches and administrators to see what a full banquet of football could be. It wasn’t just the behemoths of the ILH who benefited. In Division II, the OIA’s smaller programs got to play Pac-Five and St. Francis. In D-I, OIA schools faced ‘Iolani and Damien. The benefit for the OIA: 47 out of 50 interleague games were played on OIA home fields, which added to the significant revenue streams of gate, parking and concession stands.

“It is a good experience to go to different places to play, but you can say that for the OIA teams to play at our place, too,” said ‘Iolani coach Wendell Look.

Of the three games hosted by ILH teams, two were at ‘Iolani’s Eddie Hamada Field.

“It’s not that all the games need to be played at the OIA sites. They’re very accommodating when we ask them to play at our sites. Kamehameha hosted Farrington, also. It’s not a steadfast ‘no’ that they won’t play at any ILH site,” Look said.

The ILH got to expand its small circle and face more than two or three teams for a two-month span. With the expansion of the HHSAA format from two tiers to three with the addition of the Open Division in 2016, all the pieces finally felt like a puzzle completed.

“Overall, it was a win-win for everybody,” said Look, whose team won the ILH D-I title before losing in the state semifinal round. “For us, we didn’t have a lot of injuries this year. I attribute that to playing competition that is relatively equal to us.”

Crunching the numbers

Nationally ranked Saint Louis, which was 7-0 against OIA Open teams (11-0 overall), won its crossover games by an average margin of 35.6 points. Against Kahuku and Mililani at the state tournament, the Crusaders’ average margin was 24.5 points.

Punahou, the ILH runner-up, was 5-1 versus OIA Open foes (7-3 overall). The Buffanblu outscored those teams 240-111, an average margin of plus-21.5 points per game. Their only interleague loss was at Kahuku in early August, before injuries derailed the Red Raiders.

Kamehameha was winless in ILH play, but 3-3 against OIA Open opponents. Two of those three losses were by seven or fewer points.

As a league, ILH Open teams were 15-4 against OIA Open squads with a plus-21.2 average margin per game.

In D-I, the ‘Iolani and Damien were a combined 11-4 against the OIA. ‘Iolani’s average margin was plus-22.4 points per game, but the Raiders fell to eventual state champion Waipahu in the semifinals. The league’s average margin against the OIA was plus-15.9 points per game.

In Division II, things get a bit skewed because of St. Francis’ disqualification (for the ILH season) for suiting up an ineligible player in five games. For the purposes of this comparison, St. Francis’ game scores (pre-forfeit) will be used. St. Francis outscored OIA D-II competition 291-60, an average margin of plus-28.9 points per game in what had been an unbeaten 8-0 run.

Pac-Five was 3-5 against OIA D-II teams, and in those losses, the margins were two, four, six, four and 13 points. The Wolfpack still finished the season at plus-0.7 points per game in interleague play.

All in all, not including preseason games, the ILH and OIA met 50 times on the gridiron this fall. The ILH won 37 of those games, outscoring their public school foes by an average of 17.6 points per game.

State tourney tweaks?

Saint Louis coach Cal Lee gives the alliance format two thumbs up, but wouldn’t mind a tweak or two. Earlier in the year, he lobbied for more home- or neutral-field games for ILH teams. His latest suggestion is about the pairings at the state tourney.

“I would think that when you go into the championship, if it’s four teams, I would think the No. 1 would play the No. 4, 2 would play 3, but I know where they’re coming from,” he said.

This season, No. 1 seed Saint Louis played OIA runner-up Kahuku in a semifinal. OIA champion Mililani, the No. 2 seed, played the league’s third-place team and No. 4 state team, Campbell, in the other semi.

“If the rankings are there, that should be 1 against 4 and 2 would play 3,” said Lee, whose teams have won 18 state titles and Oahu Prep Bowls. “Or just have the league champions play each other. Wrap it up.”

Three-time Division II champion Lahainaluna is open to playing in D-I. An idea has been floated, one that allows the MIL a delay in declaring classification for every team, and would allow the league champion to play in the D-I state tourney and the runner-up to enter the D-II bracket.

Currently, leagues are required by the HHSAA to declare specifics for each team well before the regular season.

The influx of neighbor-island champions and contenders in D-I and D-II over the past several years has affected attendance in the finals. Lahainaluna co-head coach Garret Tihada would still prefer to play the championship game in the largest venue.

“It’s a treat for our outer-island kids to play at Aloha Stadium,” Tihada said.