The HHSAA voted Monday to add a third tier to the state football tournament, creating an Open division to go along with both Division I and Division II tournaments.
The Open division will consist of the top four OIA teams and the top two ILH teams. The Division I tournament will consist of four OIA teams, two BIIF teams and one team each from the ILH and MIL. The Division II tournament will consist of two OIA teams and one team each from the ILH, BIIF, KIF and MIL.
Here is the full breaking story from the Star-Advertiser. Reactions from coaches will be available later tonight on Hawaii Prep World.
Weak.. It should be 8 teams: (4 OIA, 2 ILH, BIIF and MIL)
so all the D1 ILH all get in while only 8 OIA teams get in.
looks pretty much like the ILH and all the ones that keep Harping about the ILH is all now Happy.. how Special
It seemed like a good idea to me at first, however, now I see how the ILH gets four of seven teams in the open and DI tournament. Incentive to be the third place ILH team?
Sound like the Prep Bowl reincarnate
St. Louis and Punahou will play in the Open Division, Kam and Iolani will fight for the D1 entry. 3 of the 4 or 75% of the ILH gets in. The HHSAA makes money off stadium seats and advertising, the ILH gets their teams in, the OIA gets nothing they are the big losers.
Somebody got 3 million dollars richer tonight…..
What happened to the 3 mil offer floating around?
Watch how the brackets will feature the ILH open brackets never playing against each other in the semi. Watch…
Nope, that 3 million buyout from the ILH was to create an Open division during the regular season, The OIA has no say in what happens in the post season state tournament format, so basically the ILH got what they wanted without paying 3 million.
Correct me if I’m wrong,don’t the ILH get 2 berths for the Open Division and 1 for D1 leaving them with 3,don’t matter to me as long as the 2 best teams make it to the finals!RR Pride!!!
So, 3 of the 4 ILH makes states… and the 4th team makes d2 states… R u kidding me… Let them (ILH D1) play 4 top OIA teams during season time to prove that they deserve 3 teams in states…Not play each other twice and switch ranking every week… WEAK….JUS WEAK… PUBLIC SCHOOL GOTTA EARN THEIR RIGHTS AND PRIVATE SCHOOL GET ANOTHER SILVER SPOON HANDED TO THEM…WEAK HHSAA…SHAME ON YOU…
Seems like the outer islands teams have a better shot at competing for a championship in D1 without the big dogs
So they gonna be handing out State Tournament Trophies like AYSO participant trophies this year huh….. It’s a good time to be a wood carver
Why are they always posting pics of St. Louis coming down hard on a Kahuku player in a game they lost? Petty but, the pictures posted alone says it all, It shows the bias.
I told you, if St. Louis aint winning something is wrong and changes need to be made. Punahou won 4 straight ILH titles and St. Louis lost its luster, the lack of funding almost shut their school down, so the rich alumni fronted the money only if they removed the President and AD and brought Cal Lee back, what does Cal do? He goes recruiting the neighbor islands to finally win back their 1st ILH title last year. But since Kahuku beat them out for the Championship they want to increase their chances by inserting 2 ILH teams in the tourney to make it harder for an OIA team to win. These sleeze balls will stop at nothing to tolt the odds in their favor to win a championship, and people think Kahuku is a crazy football town, nope St. Louis takes it to the extreme.
About time. Every year the ILH has three teams in the top 10. Ridiculous that only one team makes it.
This change in format is for “One Team”. It is funny how the head of HHSAA, is a grad
from the school that would have lost out this year. Need a hint.???
Here we go BIG RED…the Powers that Be not happy about us embarrassing the Elites. We were not supposed to be able to do this. One of the Elites was supposed to be more than enough but now with a Freshman stud at QB they cant risk a 5 year run. So now we gotta take care of two…BRING IT!
After Kahuku wins it all again this year they will change the format to best of 3 games. On a side note shouldnt the hit on the Kahuku QB be a penalty since the tackler is leading with his helmet.
Anybody who thinks Kamehameha wouldn’t beat the 4th place OIA is delusional. Farrington? Lol
Well at least we know that if you need an educated coach to run your program then continue to hire ILH graduates. There is a pattern here like Miliani then to Kahuku. Thank you Vavae Tata for going to Kahuku to help them win. Making them understand that education is more important than the tomahawk chant. People send their kids to private schools because they want a future for their kids. THey do not need to recruit because the public schools only want to win on the high school level. Look at the last couple teams to win the Championships???? Coached by ILH graduates because they could not get anyone smart enough to coach their teams. Good luck to Rod York and Vavae Tata as they lead communities that don’t have smart people to coach their teams.
Think about it the best four teams from the Oia at the end of the season plays having a better understanding of whos the top teams without actual putting them in a special division that was proposed that takes the guess work out and probably less injurys and also this should be more prestigious to the point in fact of winning probably a giant Koa trophy or such and also if being Champion from the OIA (private schools have the capital already) a small percentage of the moneys given to that respected schools program (Coachs) and there school makes for greater competition and planning and it will not just be a regular night in the playoffs I tell you that much the Elite can share some crumbs yeah.:)
Oh my gosh this is not crazy but it’s just a change for the HHSAA powers in charge saying that they were responsible in making the changes like good bragging rights; what’s funny but sad about for all those wishful thinkers that the OPEN Division will not repeat last year’s Red Raiders as Hawaii State Football Champs; wrong and still number #1 is Kahuku Red Raiders the defending Hawaii State Football Champions unless proven otherwise by the refereeing?
Sol Jay will prove them wrong like make SSS when a freshman QB does his song and dance with the scoreboard numbers like you all watch and see like he’s 2-1/2 game wiser, quicker, and stronger like holy smoke watch Sol Jay bakaloose, like give um Maiava. RR4LE
Yah you right good point ILH Coach grumbling about recruiting but some of the Oia schools have ILH graduateds head coachs and Staff I think more talks to find a middle ground. Anyways whats the pay difference of a ILH Head Coach and staff and a Public school Head Coach and staff anyways just wondering is it different from school to school or by merit I wouldnt know.
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Who cares. Doesn’t matter. Still gotta win on the field and last time I checked they still only allow two teams to play one game at a time. The road still goes through Kahuku, not St LuLu.
Gonna still be Big Red vs Punahou in the final and St LuLu still gonna have their top-rated QB watching from his couch along with his alumni friends who orchestrated all this. We will wave to you on OC16 from da stadium.
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So 6 teams. Top 2 get byes, and only have to play 2 games for an “open” division championship. WEAK… In the mainland state tournaments have kids playing any from 4-5 games to claim their state championship. Yeah bigger pool of players and teams… But 2 games in a state playoff isn’t proving nothing. Hawaii chooses end up playing 11 or 12 games a year, while that is the regular season on the mainland.
Let’s get to merging open with DIV 1 division, top 2 bye, and finish it out like that. So no one can complain about getting left out. Otherwise nothing seems to be earned, just bought with the highest dollar. If the ILH doesn’t win, is there going to be another revision? Somehow the OIA always gets screwed, yet they dominated the state tournament. Did coach Cal Lee look at his 80’s & 90’s trophies and reminisce to long. Kahuku, Waianae will represent accordingly, Mililani Farrington, and the OIA’s media darling Kapolei has to be fighting for the other 2. We’ll have to see with their 7 game regular season…lol
ILH COACH, spoken like a true ILH ,I’m above it All atitude.
Great format, however, the outer islands will never win an Open division title. They might hang for a quarter or two but will get worn down because of a lack of 2nd team talent like the ILH or Big Boys of the OIA. Oh well at least all the Keiki will have fun with more games.
Good Luck…
So the biggest question is how to seed these teams in the open division and put them into brackets. The obvious is OIA champ in one bracket and the ILH champ in the other, with both teams having first round byes. That would mean #2 ILH in the same bracket as the OIA champion and vise versa. #3 OIA would sit on the opposite of the #1 seed and #4 OIA on the other. So that would mean that the OIA would still need a consolation game.
So the chances of an all ILH finals is possible but there is a higher chance of it being an all OIA final. If you look at it in a football point of view this is the best way to crown an open division state champ for now. With that said, we all know that it’s not a state championship if you don’t have the MIL or BIIF involved. If these teams opt out then fine, but if this system were to be used in ’06 where would you put Baldwin. Let’s just say that this move is a step in the right direction.
@Aku Bird- According to BIIF director Lyle Crozier, Big Island AD’s chose not to be included in the open division, but he did say that should they have a competitive team in the future, they might take a look at it. Fortunately for the outer islands we are realistic and humble, not arrogant and cocky. Stop putting down the outer island schools…some of your so called “Big boys” of the ILH came from the outer Islands. I want to wait and see how the ILH handles this. I predict the Big three all end up playing in either the Open or DI playoffs.
ILH coach, all Rod York did was implement the ILH recruiting tactics and brought kids from Aiea, Waipahu, Kalihi, Kapolei, Wahiawa to come play at Mililani, and Vae Tata was smart enough to apply at a school that already had 7 titles and homegrown talent out the wazoooo. That says alot about these young cats schooling the overrated Cal Lee and Kane Ale in the state title games.
ILH Coach: Are you for real? Sounds like you’re whining and bragging about how smart ILH graduates must be and winning at Kahuku and Mililani because the community doesn’t have smart people to be coaching. LOL, how low must you get to make such an asinine statement. Talking of being smart, you’re not at all educated, especially labeling yourself as an ILH coach. Despite your childish nonsense about not having smart people in the community to coach their team, I find you to be stupid. First of all, have you ever visualized how any qualified coach is selected to be a coach at any high school? !. All coaches including ILH graduates must want to coach at a specific school when there is an opening for that position. 2. All interested coaches, Alumni, ILH graduates and anyone interested, must apply. 3. Who wouldn’t want to be a coach at a powerhouse school that has the athletes and talent for the next 20 years. 4. Kahuku did have smart homegrown graduates (Torres, Livai) that have won state championships. 5. It’s not only about coaches that win championships…it’s also about the homegrown athletes that win championship. The athletes do make a difference whether the team will be a winner because even with the ILH graduates coaching at their alma mater, championship is never an automatic win. Being a smart coach or an ILH graduate and being selected as the head coach required an excellent resume and it doesn’t mean that the community doesn’t have smart people. Kahuku is happy with Tata, and being an ILH graduate is irrelevant because Tata was chosen to be the coach, win or lose.
All these attacks on St. Louis is ridiculous. The ILH will dominated this new format. Hell I’m calling it right now. The Brotherhood vs Puns in States
I agree^^^^^^,especially when you look at Punhous roster,a lot of the Northshore kids on that roster and no one seems to be bashing Kale Ane about it
Maybe States ping pong.. We all know Big Red is taking it again this year. It’s history. We take it back to back and than someone else wins it the 3rd year and than we take it back to back again. C’mon man haven’t you been watching Hawaii high school football
The only team that this new format benefitted was Iolani. They are already in state tournament as ILH said they are
the D-1 representative. St. Louis, Punahou and Kamehameha will play for open division.
I just like see the best vs best. No matter where or which conference they come from. I don’t care for AYSO style… meaning tournaments that have representation from each conference. Just take the top 8 from the sport writer polls…. and play.
In the end, it’s who ever has the most money going get their way. That’s life. If you keep dwelling on things like that, you never going get ahead. Nobody cares for peeps that grumble anyway…. they a waste of good air. Nobody said life has to be fair. So…. be the one with the most money and call it they way you want it!
88 thats why the HHSAA went behind close doors secretly and quickly to get it done while Kahuku is the favorite and Waianae beat Kam. For this reason alone is why they can say “See, the ILH is not the dominant league so it makes sense to create an alliance.”
Just you wait and see because now that Campbell, Kailua, Kapolei and Leilehua have been demoted down to the D1 tourney, the kids in those areas that want to play on the biggest stage (the Open division) will flock to the ILH for that opportunity. This makes the ILH that much more attractive and powerful in the future.
I think the OIA should lift any transfer rules and allow free reign to combat the monopoly that the ILH is trying to have over Hawaii football.
^^^Actually makes a lot of sense. All oia school athletes not in open div will even more likely go ilh route now.
@anywaaays!!
But if you don’t know… now you know… ILH has always had that transfer type rules. OIA just competing with the ILH in regard to rules. I don’t blame the ILH schools for doing what they do… I only mad at my community school for not taking the bulls by the horn and fix what I perceive is the problem. When my kid get older… I no like have to send him to expensive ILH school. My community school needs: one, to improve and compete academically to the ILH schools, and secondly, instill pride in the school community. With at least these two, we can minimize the numbers of kids transferring to ILH. And maybe just the second one is enough…. Kahuku is sure doing it… and maybe, I don’t know the statistics, but maybe their academics is just as good too. And that’s why they can retain a lot of their kids. Not ILH schools fault for our problems.
Mr. Chun the executive director of HHSAA is a 92′ Iolani grad. Iolani spent 12 years in D2 racking up 11 titles then they were forced to move up to D1 last year having to play against St.Louis/Pun/Kam which they have no chance of winning…now only one year later they get their own guaranteed ticket into the 2nd tier tourney aka D1 tourney.
Hows about if this scenario plays out:
OPEN DIV – ST.LOUIS CHAMP PUNAHOU 2ND
D1 – IOLANI CHAMP
D2 – ST.FRANCIS CHAMPS…DAMIEN SECOND.
CONGRATS ILH
How can you come online and talk smack when you have some of the dumbest students in Hawaii?
Your school name should be Al Bundy High School. Great and football, win the title, and work in a shoe store (but in your guys’ case replace shoe store with P.C.C.).
BTW I miss you 88!
@88 we were not playing ping pong last year were we. You got a few gift from our long snapper but I don’t make any excuses for our lost. I bet deep down you wish you were on the 88 ST Louis squad, but you weren’t good enough. Now all you do is hate and that’s right a couple of St Lulu grads had to show you the ropes when are you had to do was look at Reggie Torres old play book and used his old scheme. LMAO
OIA recruits much harder than ILH anyway. Lots of “benefits” being tossed around either officially or unofficially with coaches and administration turning a blind eye. Even Kahuku famously has the tonga/samoa pipeline where 23 year old men masquerade as teenagers playing football for the high school.
back in 2010, Kahuku was nailed for using an ineligible player (too old/fifth year senior) and forfeited their playoff chances. Believe me, that was only the tip of the iceberg, but sources tell me that the player was offered as a sacrificial lamb, having the coach at the time “self report” the infraction. He reported it to show the OIA that Kahuku is self policing when it obviously is not.
So relax with the recruiting angst. Everyone else is doing it anyway.
Jeezy33 we dont eat lamb we eat horse so stop making up stories.
2010 was a gift to St.Louis from Kahuku because earlier in the year Kahuku beat you guys 43-14 and was about to whooop you again in the title game. But yeah our bench warmer that unknowingly repeated 8th grade and walked on to the football team his SR year so he didnt get into gang trouble is what cost us to forfeit, no one except his auntie knew he repeated half the eight grade and yes his auntie outed him because she lives in town and was jealous that Kahuku was stomping all over your guys private schools. So yes we are ENEMY OF THE STATE
@LeeBoy 39 points is not a gift from your punter. Its called getting owned in all 3 phases of the game. You sound very bitter. I don’t know why, its not like you were playing in the game.. Ohh thats right, you were the main one running your mouth about how Kahuku was going to get destroyed and that they didn’t belong. Yeah I’d probably be bitter too..
89 How can you come online and talk smack when you have some of the dumbest posts in Hawaii?
Try turn on the grammar check….
Anywaaaays!!
So…you’re saying the kid didn’t know he repeated 8th grade?! Ho brah…how did he grad highschool?? Lol at 19 years old (or whatever age he was) he should’ve known better. Most kids that’s group up in this state know the rule about age restrictions. And PLEASE don’t play dumb and insinuate that he has been the only player that was overaged. He was the only one THAT GOT CAUGHT! It happened before 2010 out there. I know for a fact. And don’t explainnnn his life story!!!! Lol tryna make excuses for the kid about staying outta gang trouble! GTHO with that weak sauce excuse. North shore no more gangs. Just a bunch dumb wannabes who watch too much tv. You must not be that old to be talking that smack about stomping the ILH. Need we remind you of the millennium decades??? Where Kahuku goose egged in prep bowl wins??? And let’s be honest folks, I dislike Kahuku. But y’all aren’t no “ENEMY OF THE STATE.” That was cute sign slogans from 2010. Just look at the comments and you can see the only team getting consistently bashed is the men of kalaepohaku. And I hate them too but I’m man enough to admit that with 17 or 18 banners hanging from the rafters, every team in the state is little brother until you get to that level! CUTE YOUR 8 TITLES! Lol stop playing the recruiting card when everyone that knows anything about hawaii football knows that Kahuku not only get talent from across this state (there are ways around district exemption and you know it), but you guys get kids from Samoa, Tonga, Utah, had one kicker from freakin Florida not too long ago!!! So nuff with that already!
Now the real stuff:
As an ILH grad, I am against this new format as well. Especially the the d1 tourney (the d1 champ has potential to be a near or under .500 team!!!). Every other state in the country and every other sport pits THE BEST V. THE BEST! PERIOD. This is on-par with our state basketball having no shot clock!!! Lol still unreal to me…but anyway.
I feel a simple fix is this:
Dissolve the the current OIA and ILH. Mix the leagues so that public plays private. We don’t have enough private schools down here that can field a team (let alone compete.) Something similar to an old ILH and old OIA divisions (from way back in the day) would not only give teams more variety of opponents, but it would keep the crybaby doodoo diapers in the OIA happy. I don’t think you would see kids flocking from your community to the ILH if this were the way things were. And the games would be more competitive rather than having a Kahuku play an…idk, Aiea for example?! Or a STL playing Damien (how it was when I played.)There are 30 d1 teams or so on this island total. Make two leagues of 15, and have um duke it out. THEN go back to the original state tourney format! Although I do think a 6 team playoff is small, so maybe add a few teams but none of this third division BULL! That is as fair as it gets. Sure, the ILH is appealing, but OIA has more state title than ILH at this point since we switched to the state tourney from prep bowl. So clearly you you guys can hold your own.
At the end of the day, if this scenario played out, the best teams would be playing in November. You all know that’s the truth! And don’t you want to see the best teams play the best teams??? Or do you want it to be convenient for the OIA elite? In a perfect world this year the final four teams in the tourney would be Kahuku, STL, Waianae, and Punahou. Let’s just be honest, these four teams are on a different level than everyone else this year. I hope the HHSAA does right by the thousands of kids who play hard every year to get a chance to play under those Halawa lights. Just let the best teams play each other and the rest will take care of itself.
Peace out, ladies.
I know that kid because he is my brother dumbo! and I was coaching the JV squad at the time so yes you are getting it straight from the source. You sound very uninformed, you troll around on social media and forums too much.
So you just changed your story!!! Lol Brah you said that ONLY his aunty knew! DUMBO. And if you really were a coach then clearly there’s something wrong with the way you guys handle things out there…your an idiot you admitted you knew. LMAO this is my second comment in these forums . I get one life. I just couldn’t handle your low IQ answer. THANK YOU, COME AGAIN! (:
Special Treatment for less fortunate teams. They go from “Prep Bowl” to “State Tournament” Why?? Because they are tired of seeing the same 3 teams compete in the Prep Bowl. Than they create a D1 & D2 league. Why?? Sometimes the sad story teams need to be considered. I think it was more for “sportsmanship” rather than being a garbage team where top tier teams played their 3rd string & still ran up the score. Now there’s an “Open Division”? Who would care about the rest of the divisions if you’re not in the top division? Outer island should be placed in the D2. Fatten up that tournament & add some Pop Warner teams. Let them get some work in too.
BRING BACK THE INTERLEAGUE PLAY!