A second community virtual forum on Zoom is scheduled for Friday, 5 p.m., on the issue of bringing youth and high school sports leagues back on Oahu.
The forum is hosted again by City Councilmember Andria Tupola, a backer of Safe Sports 808. Former Hawaii football great Chad Owens is another key to the group, which is working on a plan that will be submitted to Mayor Rick Blangiardi by Monday.
Owens announced the formation of Safe Sports 808 earlier in the week, in conjunction with a resolution put forward by Tupola that was supported by the City Council.
Blangiardi, the newly-elected mayor, was part of the forum in the first online discussion last week. So were the mayors from the other three counties, as well as several athletic directors and coaches.
The forum registration is available here.
Community backlash has increased as the state’s public-school dominated leagues, under the leadership of the DOE and DOH, provided little to no updates since canceling the 2020 spring season. The leagues announced mass cancellations of fall and winter sports recently after previously planning to play postponed fall sports — including football and girls volleyball — in the winter and spring. Only the private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu has opened select winter sports, and the league still has football and girls volleyball slate for spring season.
What message are we sending to our Keiki?
They see tourists coming & going in this supposed Pandemic. Pro Golfers flying to Maui & Oahu to play golf, over 200 college football players, coaches, scouts coming to Oahu to play the Hula bowl in a supposedly condemned financially unstable Aloha stadium.
Money, Money, Money, that’s what they see the Hawaii government caring about!
Find a solution to let The kids Who want to play, PLAY..
@??? Well Said.
Without $$$ our economy gets worse. People lose jobs. People become homeless. Comparing tourism to sports is like comparing apples and oranges. They are not the same.
@Really
Who’s comparing tourist to sports? My point is all these people (tourist, golfers, college football players) coming to Hawaii and are able to go to Walmart, catch the city bus, 100 players playing tackle football in this tier but our Keiki can’t play 5 on 5 basketball in a crowd less gym?
Funny you should bring up our economy, (Waste) sending 200 National Guard all the way to DC from Hawaii & renovating State Capitol water features for $30 million is part of the BIGGER problem!
@???
The topic of this strand has to do with bringing back sports safely. You say, “They see tourists coming & going in this supposed Pandemic.”
Then you reference money.
One of the major industries of Hawaii is tourism. Without it, our economy suffers. You reference it to keikis seeing it.
So you are comparing it to sports. If you weren’t, then why bring it up?
Does it suck? Sure. But I am all for tourism so people I know can hopefully start working again and our economy can recover and help many wonderful families. People need to be allowed to do this to generate $ and improve our economy.
As for sports, there are numerous activities that the youth can do to keep mentally and physically healthy.
If not playing a sport is the worst of your issues, then in my opinion, you don’t have huge issues.
Huge issues to me are people dying, people losing their jobs, families becoming homeless, others not eating, and people getting sick.
That is 1000 times worse than a kid not being able to play a sport, even though I do think sports are important.
@Really
Simple question: Do you think it’s fair that UH football & the Hula Bowl can play contact sports but our kids can’t play basketball or volleyball in a empty gym?
You mention people losing jobs, becoming homeless some not eating! Do you live in Hawaii? haven’t you noticed these issues have been going on for years before the pandemic.
Our government caters to tourists & foreigners also giving any immigrant free welfare & housing as soon as they arrive while Hawaiian’s live on the beach & our Keiki receive crappy education. So don’t act like the pandemic started all these problems.
Our Hawaii leaderships Fraud, Waste & Abuse is the Real Problem!
The difference between college and high school football is the bubble , they have the money to test week in week out . That’s the difference , parents are struggling because if this pandemic , you think that the parents who is struggling can afford this ?
If you do the research on this topic, Hawaii is one of only 4 states not to have high school sports, despite having the 2nd lowest case count per capita. Most were able to move forward with complete seasons with little to no cancelled games. Not allowing for any sports to move forward seems like fear of making a decision, especially now as the most vulnerable begin vaccination.