Happy New Year, Honolulu?
BIIF football teams will try to avoid being home for the holidays under a modified Hawaii High School Athletic Association season that pushes the state championships into the new year.
The league’s athletic directors will meet Tuesday to hash out fall schedules after the HHSAA announced its five leagues voted unanimously to maintain a three-season calendar that preserves league and state championships for each sport. The six fall sports are set to resume Sept. 27 – three days after the Department of Education’s pause on extra-curricular activities expires for athletes and staff who have received a COVID-19 vaccination, or an exemption – and finish six weeks later than originally planned.
“Everybody agreed this was the way to go,” said BIIF executive secretary Lyle Crozier, who represented the league at Friday’s executive board meeting along with BIIF president Dean Cevallos.
The football season started July 19 but no games had been held when the DOE announced its mandate Aug. 5. Seasons for girls volleyball, cross-country, bowling, air riflery and cheerleading started Aug. 3. Under the revised format, those five sports all will wrap up in December. They, along with the winter and spring sports, will have two weeks trimmed off their seasons – which is marked from the beginning of practice to the end of the state tournament.
“It is a testament to our members to be able to agree to a calendar on such short notice,” Chris Chun, HHSAA executive director, said in a release.
Football teams will have 15 weeks to complete their seasons – including an acclimatization period – and Crozier said he wasn’t sure if the BIIF would be able to maintain what had been 10-week regular season (eight each games for Division I teams and 10 apiece for D-II schools) ahead of championship weekend.
“With the acclimatization period, it looks like we won’t start (games) until mid-October,” Crozier said.
According to a spreadsheet sent to the media, the football state tournaments will begin the week of Dec. 27 to Jan. 2 with the championship games the following week. However, HHSAA executive director Chris Chun told KHON on Friday that the Open and Division I tourneys could potentially be moved up if the leagues agree to it.
All five winter sports usually get going by the second week of November, but they’ll begin four to five weeks later than normal. The eight spring sports will begin Feb. 21, two weeks later than originally planned, and wrap up as planned, May 8 or May 15.
To maintain the calendar, the overlap between the three seasons has increased in many sports by as much as a week or two. By the time a girls volleyball team that goes to the state tournament during the week of Dec. 5-11 finishes play, girls basketball teams would be concluding their second week. Football players on teams that reach the state championship game could miss the first four weeks of seasons for paddling, soccer, basketball, wrestling or swimming and diving. Girls basketball is the only sport that would end before the spring sports begin, and most sports would see a two-week overlap.
But at least the plan is for everyone to play.
“The coaches I’ve talked to are very happy that all the state tournaments are happening,” Crozier said. “They can’t wait to get back on the field.”
HHSAA calendar
Start dates; dates for state tournaments/championships
Fall
Girls volleyball: Sept. 27; D1, Dec. 6, 9-11; D2, Dec. 8-11
Cross country: Sept. 27; Dec. 11 at HPA
Air riflery: Sept. 27; Dec. 7
Bowling: Sept. 27; Dec. 9-10
Cheerleading: Sept. 27; end Dec. 19
Football: Sept. 27; end Jan. 9
Winter
Girls basketball: Nov. 29; D1, Feb. 14, 17-19; D2, Feb. 16-19
Girls soccer: Dec. 6; D1, Feb. 21, 24-26; D2, Feb. 23-26
Canoe paddling: Dec. 13; March 5
Swimming and diving: Dec. 13; March 4-5 at Kamehameha
Boys basketball: Dec. 13; D1, Feb. 28, March 3-5; D2, March 3-5
Boys soccer: Dec. 13; D1, Feb. 28, March 3-5; D2, March 3-5
Wrestling: Dec. 13; March 11-12
Spring
Water polo: Feb. 21; May 2, 5-7
Tennis: Feb. 21; May 5-7
Judo: Feb. 21; May 7
Boys volleyball: Feb. 21; D1, May 2, 5-7; D2, May 5-7
Girls golf: Feb. 21; May 3-4
Boys golf: Feb. 21; May 5-6
Track and field: Feb. 21; May 6-7
Softball: Feb. 21; May 11-14
Baseball: Feb. 21; D1, May 11-14; D2, May 12-14 at BIIF site