On the eve of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu kicking off its prep football season, the Oahu Interscholastic Association announced its plans to get the season started.
The league released a schedule for all fall sports on Thursday, including football, which originally was supposed to start regular-season play Aug. 13.
All public leagues were forced to push back the start of the fall sports schedule to early October when the Department of Education announced, “all student-athletes, athletic staff and volunteers will need to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 24 to participate in school-sanctioned athletic activities for the 2021-22 school year. Full vaccination is defined as two weeks after a second dose in a two-dose series or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine.”
This came two days before a few OIA teams were scheduled to play for the first time in nearly 20 months.
The newest OIA football schedule has the regular season beginning on Oct. 15 with five games and four more on Oct. 16.
There are seven teams for a six-game regular season in the Open Division — Kahuku, Mililani, Campbell, Farrington, Kapolei, Leilehua, Waianae.
Six teams will play a five-game schedule in Division I — Roosevelt, Moanalua, Aiea, Castle, Kailua, Waipahu.
Nine teams will play an eight-game regular season in Division II — Kaiser, Pearl City, Kaimuki, McKinley, Waialua, Kalani, Radford, Kalaheo, Nanakuli.
The top four seeds in the Open Division will advance to the playoffs beginning on Dec. 3, with the final played Dec. 10.
The top two seeds in Division I will play a championship game on Dec. 11 and the top two seeds in Division II will play its championship game on Dec. 18.
Kahuku and Aiea are scheduled to play all of their football games at opposing sites. No regular-season games are scheduled for Aloha Stadium.
The schedule also notes the first state tournament semifinal in the Open Division will be the weekend of Dec. 17.
The first OIA girls volleyball regular season games will be played Oct. 12.