The benefits of BIIF soccer’s three-tiered system were on display Saturday in Hilo Bayfront.
As foes in the Red Division, the tier’s unbalanced schedule allowed Hilo and Waiakea to play for a second time in the regular season, as opposed to only once under a round-robin format.
Vikings girls soccer coach Skee Saplan sees a clear drawback of the system, however, after Hilo beat the Warriors 2-0 to clinch the best record (9-1-1, 28 points) in Division I while playing against a top-tier schedule only to come away with the No. 2 seed in the Division I playoffs.
Konawaena (9-2-1, 28 points), which played one more match in the middle-tiered White Division, earned the top seed by virtue of a coin flip after the first tiebreaker – head-to-head – was nullified by the teams’ 1-1 draw at Hilo Bayfront on Dec. 20.
“For your playoff tiebreaker to go directly from head-to-head to a coin flip, that’s kind of ridiculous,” Saplan said.
“I just think that it’s unfair and unfortunate,” he said. “The only reason I’m speaking up about it is I feel it’s unfair to my girls, who worked so hard to maintain that No. 1 seed for that third year.”
The difference between the No. 1 or No. 2 seed is stark this season.
On Tuesday in the semifinals, Hilo and Waiakea (6-5) match up again at Hilo Bayfront, while the Wildcats will welcome either Keaau (3-5-2) or Kealakehe (4-6-1), who both play in the lowest tier (Blue).
BIIF volleyball also uses a Red/White/Blue tie format, but a head-to-head tiebreaker for teams with similar records is more foolproof since there are no draws in the sport.
“I like the tier system, I just think they need to handle the playoff berths better,” Saplan said. “We really need to sit down and figure this out.”
Since Hilo and Konawaena didn’t share common opponents, BIIF executive director Lyle Crozier said a scoring differential tiebreaker used in sports with a balanced schedule wasn’t applicable.
Saplan said Hilo would have won a scoring differential tiebreaker against Konawaena — and against a tougher schedule. Red teams Hawaii Prep, Hilo and Waiakea played each other twice and once against against White teams Konawaena, Kamehameha, Honokaa and Makua Lani. Those four also played single games against teams in the Blue division, Kealakehe, Keaau and Ka’u.
Crozier pointed out the tier system and the use of the coin flip tiebreaker were voted on by the athletic directors and “there were no surprises.”
Coaches, he said, had a chance to offer their input before the season.
“It was all spelled out in black and white,” Crozier said.
He said the BIIF likely would review the system at the next AD meeting and didn’t rule out changes, adding, “When you use tiers, this can happen.”
Saplan said he heard Konawaena offered to have a tiebreaker game to determine the top seed, but details couldn’t be hashed out.
“I wish we’d beat Kona (during the regular season),” Saplan said. “Kona is a great team. I don’t take anything away from them.”
