For all the reasons to endorse the proposed much-needed after-school athletic program for intermediate and middle school students, here’s another one that has largely escaped attention:

It could help narrow the ages-old competitive gap between public and private high school teams.

The Intermediate/Middle School Challenge Initiative being promoted by Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui would offer after-school programs in athletics as well as arts, cultural and academic areas to an under-served age bracket.

As proposed, it would follow on the heels and expand upon what has proven to be a popular and successful pilot program in the Nanakuli-Waianae and Ka‘u-Keaau-Pahoa areas, where football and girls volleyball were offered in the fall.

“It could level the playing field for the public schools a lot,” said Kapolei High football coach Darren Hernandez.

Private schools have traditionally had a significant edge in several sports in part because many of their students have gained experience coming up through intermediate-level teams. Meanwhile, for a lot of public school athletes, their first organized experience has come in the ninth grade.

“It would definitely help because it provides the public schools two more years of coaching and training for their students that hasn’t been available before,” said Keith Amemiya, a Board of Education member and former Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director who has championed the $1.3 million privately funded pilot project.

“That would make a big difference,” said Ray Fujino, executive director of the public school OIA. “It really would, which is why every (OIA) athletics administrator before me has been pushing middle school sports, I mean, that’s been everybody’s goal,” Fujino said. “It has just come down to money.”

Under Tsutsui’s plan, state funding, federal support, business partners and donations would bankroll the project while also drawing upon community help in providing instruction.

To participate in after-school activities, students would be required to meet academic and citizenship standards. At Waianae and Nanakuli, where approximately 120 students took part in the fall, Fujino said the improvement in academics and discipline has been remarkable. “Some (students) have gone from D’s and F’s to A’s and B’s,” he said. “It wasn’t that they couldn’t do it before; they just didn’t have the motivation. And the opportunity to take part in sports has driven them there.”

Amemiya said, “It is not only the competitive aspect, but just saving kids, that’s where I’m coming from. Middle school is where the biggest void in the local sports landscape is. There are not enough athletic opportunities for middle school students and, by the time they get to high school, you lose too many of them.”

Hernandez said, “I could give you a long list of names of great athletes who never made it past the ninth grade.”

This could go a long way to changing that. And, maybe, make things more competitive on the fields and courts, too.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.