What the Oahu Interscholastic Association did Friday was the bureaucratic version of picking up its football and going home in a pout because it didn’t get its way.
What the Oahu Interscholastic Association did Friday was the bureaucratic version of picking up its football and going home in a pout because it didn’t get its way.
Resoundingly (63-27) outvoted Thursday by the other four leagues (Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Maui Interscholastic League, Kauai Interscholastic Federation and the Interscholastic League of Honolulu) on the issue of a three-tiered state football championship, the OIA chose to sulk.
It said it would boycott the open division this fall by refusing to enter any of its 22 teams, the height of petulance.
OIA executive director Ray Fujino told Hawaii Prep World his league will opt for either Division I or II in the state tournament — refusing to take part in the open division.
So much for setting a good example for its students or showing how to work things out collaboratively.
If the MIL, KIF, BIIF or ILH had lost an important vote you doubt they would have acted with such insolence. But, then, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by the OIA, which last year held out the threat of dropping out of the state tournament entirely before begrudgingly coming to its senses.
That the inaugural three-tier format was largely successful apparently has done very little to temper the peevishness. In fact, it may have just reinforced it among some of the more head-in-the-sand types.
This year the OIA still has until Sept. 1 to affirm where — open, Division I or Division II — it will classify its teams, but seems intent on holding its breath until it turns blue — or gets others to give in.
What this means is that we could have the highest level, the open division, devoid of representation by a Kahuku, Waianae, Mililani or Kapolei. That would be disappointing all the way around, for the sport, the fans, the teams they do elect to compete and the ones that miss out.
If the OIA maintains its intransigence you wonder how that will play out among players, who strive to be the best by proving themselves against top drawer opposition, and many of their more fervent fans.
In Kahuku, for example, former coach Reggie Torres says, “there is so much pride in the community here the program wants to be the best, so they want to go play wherever the best competition is. The programs at other schools are the same way.”
To consign Kahuku to Division I, where the Red Raiders would be punching far below their weight, would be a travesty not only for them, but for the genuine lower level teams that have to play them.
I mean, how is Kahuku going to feel if it goes unbeaten but petty politics kept it from an opportunity to play an unbeaten Saint Louis. Punahou or Kamehameha? Likewise for an ILH representative deprived of a shot at Kahuku, Waianae, Mililani or Kapolei.
The three-tier system was designed precisely to deliver more competitive matchups and reduce the blowouts that cramming vastly disparate programs into an antiquated two-tiered format can’t help but produce.
The three-tier format also gives the Hawaii High School Athletic Association more to sell, no small consideration when schools are scrambling for every nickel they can scrape up.
As Torres also suggests, “the OIA has some things (about the three-tier format) they don’t like and they are looking out for their league.”
But the OIA has done a poor job of making its case to its peers and this is but the latest example.
In this, the state’s biggest league, has chosen to come up small.