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Roosevelt will get a new gymnasium if the state House and Senate pass a funding bill this week.
House Bill 1259 SD1 sets aside $19.5 million for design and construction of a new gymnasium for the Rough Riders, with locker rooms, classrooms and other related facilities.
If the bill is passed, lots of other schools across the state will get funding for athletic improvements, including many new girls locker rooms and softball fields to address Title IX concerns that became more pressing when the ACLU filed a gender-based lawsuit against the DOE in December.
Aside from the Roosevelt gym and the girls softball fields and locker rooms, there is funding for many other big and smaller high school athletic projects around the state.
Those projects include:
>> Campbell track and field, $6.3 million (will be a rubberized track, according to a source).
>> Kahuku athletic fields drainage improvements, $3.1 million.
>> Kalani rubberized track and field with FieldTurf installation, $2.5 million.
>> Kihei High gymnasium, (part of a $25 million line item for phase three of the soon-to-be built school).
>> Leilehua football field and stadium improvements, $5.3 million.
>> Pearl City baseball complex, $2.5 million.
Ikei takes gold in major national tournament
Hawaii’s Tiare Ikei won the 53-kilogram (116-pound) gold medal at the U.S. Open Senior Women’s Championship in Las Vegas on Friday.
It was Ikei’s first senior-level national tournament. She went undefeated with two tech falls and a pin en route to not only the gold, but also the honor of outstanding women’s wrestler of the tournament.
She is a former Hawaii Technology Academy student and the 2018 112-pound state wrestling champion for the Kaiser Cougars.
Ikei’s gold-medal performance secured her a spot in the Women’s Senior World Team trials challenge finals in Raleigh, N.C., on May 18-19. Ikei will also be competing for a spot on the U.S. Junior World Team and U-23 World Team at the 2019 Women’s National Championships UWW Cadet/Junior/U23 World Team Trials in Irving, Texas, on May 10-12.
Campbell, St. Francis are top seeds in state softball
The Campbell Sabers, the two-time defending OIA champions and winners of three of the past four state championships, are the No. 1 seed in Division I in the Datahouse/HHSAA Softball State Championships that begin Wednesday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
Ranked No. 1 in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Softball Top 10 for nine consecutive weeks, the Sabers extend the longest active streak of consecutive state-tournament appearances to 14.
Mililani failed to qualify for the state tournament for the first time since 1992, ending its run of 26 consecutive appearances in states.
All winner’s bracket games in Division I will be played at RWSS.
In Division II, defending champion St. Francis earned a first-round bye despite not qualifying for a seeded berth as a non-league champion due to the ILH having only two teams in Division II. The MIL was in the same predicament, however, so the Saints will open defense of their title in Thursday’s quarterfinals on Maui against the winner between Molokai and Radford.
All 18 games in D-II will be played at Maui High’s Patsy Mink Field.
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