Proposal could add ILH berth to state football tournaments

A proposal to change the number of Division I and II state high school football tournament qualifiers from six to eight teams is on the agenda at this week’s Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association conference at Waikoloa.

The D-I and D-II state football tournaments have been six-team affairs since 2004. If passed, the new proposal would grant four D-I berths to the Oahu Interscholastic Association, one each to the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, Big Island Interscholastic Federation and Maui Interscholastic League, and one at-large berth to be determined by the state football committee.

Under the current format, the OIA gets three D-I berths and the other three leagues get one each.

The proposal — which was initiated by the MIL — stipulates that if two ILH D-I teams make the tournament, which has never happened before, then they would be placed in the same side of the bracket. ILH D-I is considered the strongest league in the state, but it only has four teams, so this new proposal would deviate from the Hawaii High School Athletic Association’s tournament selection formula, where berths are based proportionately on the number of competing teams in a league.

Under the proposal for D-II, three teams would come from the OIA and one each from the ILH, BIIF, MIL and Kauai Interscholastic Federation to be joined by an at-large team. Currently, two come from the OIA and one each from the ILH, BIIF, MIL and KIF.

The HIADA conference is underway at Waikoloa, but discussions on proposals concerning various high school sports will not begin until today. Final voting is Thursday. All proposals passed at HIADA move on to the HHSAA executive board Friday morning for approval or rejection.

Other proposals for discussion are:

>> Changing the boys and girls state cross country meets’ distance from 3 to 5 miles to align with most of the rest of the U.S.

>> Awarding medals and points to the top eight placers instead of six at the state swimming championships.

>> Holding the state golf championships on Kauai every year, with the condition that the practice rounds and tournament rounds would cost $1 each.

>> Conducting the field events at the state track and field championships as a single day finals event instead of one day for qualifying and one day for finals.

>> Moving track preliminary events to Thursday instead of Friday before the Saturday state track and field meet finals.

>> Having one standard for qualifying for the state track and field championships. Currently there is an automatic qualifying standard and another standard for athletes to be considered for the states.

>> Making a standard size for soccer fields used in the boys and girls state championships.

>> Adding Maui into the girls soccer tournament hosting rotation.

>> Changing the baseball and softball mercy rule. Currently, the mercy rule goes into effect when a team is ahead by 1o runs after five innings. The proposal calls for the mercy rule to be also used when a team is ahead by 20 runs after three innings and 15 runs after four.

>> Changing the D-I and D-II softball state tournaments to a regional format, where some early games are played on the neighbor islands leading to the semifinals and finals on Oahu.