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High school sports administrators have a blueprint to start football practice across the state as soon as Aug. 17, pending final approval of leagues and clearance from county and state officials.
Under the draft proposal, football games could start Sept. 4. All other fall sports would start practice Aug. 31, opening the way for the three traditional sports seasons (fall, winter and spring) to be played in the 2020-21 academic year, Chris Chun, executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association said Monday.
“At least we’ve got hope now,” Mililani head coach Rod York said. “We’ve got something to shoot for now. I think it’ll be exciting for everybody. I know I was excited when I saw the text (notification). At least it’s something. I was getting worried it wasn’t anything.”
Abu Ma‘afala, head coach of Kamehameha School, said: “It’s good to know when things are going to start, just from a planning standpoint. We can start to put together a plan, and see where it takes us.”
The proposed dates are written in chalk, with government and Department of Education guidelines determining whether the timeline can be initiated. But the news was greeted with hopefulness for football teams that were not allowed to conduct spring practices because of the pandemic. Spring-semester sports were canceled on April 17.
“The No. 1 thing is the health and safety of everyone involved,” Ma‘afala said. “That, to me, is paramount. I want to have football. I want to have sports, period. From a psycho-emotional standpoint, I think people need it. But I want to make sure everyone is healthy and safe. Our islands are unique. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
Under the proposal, each season would have an 11-week run. They traditionally have had a 13-14 week window.
If clearance is not received by Aug. 31, the start of football practice could be pushed back to as far as Oct. 5, with an Oct. 23 start for fall games.
If clearance comes after Oct. 23 it is unlikely there would be three separate seasons and some might have to be combined or canceled though cancellation would be a last resort, Chun said. “Everything would be on the table at that point,” Chun said.
Football practice has usually started in mid to late July with the first games being played in early August.
Hawaii high schools are usually among the earliest starters in the nation.
Ron Lee, who was promoted to Saint Louis School’s head coach in February, said he was enthused to learn of the proposed football dates. But he also wondered if the schedule could be implemented by that time.
“You can schedule, but it doesn’t mean you can have it,” Lee said. “I mean, you can’t go to the beach with more than 10 people. How are you going to have football? We’re already close to June, and we can’t even go into a restaurant. How are you going to have football (practice) in August? I think they ought to have a contingency plan. Do it in December. Move football as far back as you can. And move the other sports that don’t have big crowds — soccer, tennis, things you can control. Football? How are you going to get 4,000 at the games?”
Lee acknowledge Hawaii has done tremendously in flattening the curve of active COVID-19 cases. But he wondered what would happen if a second wave were to occur. “Then what do we do?” Lee said.
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