When the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I football quarterfinals roll around each fall, it’s an exciting time for Hawaii high school football fans.
This year, that quarterfinal round takes on new meaning. In the past, it was lose and you’re done for the year.
Now, just getting to the quarterfinals punches your ticket to either the Open division or the D-I state tournament.
OIA quarterfinal winners then go on to the biggest stage at the state level, the new Open division, which is reserved for elite football programs, so to speak.
Instead of going home, OIA quarterfinal losers join the fray in the eight-team D-I states, the winner of which will capture what some people are pooh-pooing as a less meaningful middle division. But, in actuality, whoever wins that title will take their place on the list next to the D-I championships won by Kahuku, Saint Louis, Punahou, Kamehameha, Mililani and Leilehua since the inaugural state tournament in 1999.
Don’t want to pound the point into the ground, but the new Open division champion will be the first of its kind. Yes, it’s a higher echelon, and the four OIA teams who get to that Open division this year are MOVING UP. The ones who don’t are STAYING at their own designated level, and NOT moving down.
With all of this in mind, Monday night’s Farrington vs. Leilehua football game was sort of a template. Those two teams could conceivably not only make it to the OIA quarterfinals, they could meet each other there.
Leilehua (1-4) is only 1-3 in league play, and all of its losses are to teams in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Top 10 — No. 1 Kahuku (49-15), No. 5 Kapolei (44-13), No. 6 Farrington (19-7), as well as No. 3 Punahou of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. So, even though the schedule gets only a tad bit easier for the Mules — with games against Kailua (formerly in the Top 10), Castle, and No. 8 Mililani remaining — the extra-tough tests each week may prime them for when the OIA playoffs begin.
The Mules are being used as an example here, mainly because they were leading the Governors 7-6 at halftime before getting worn down in the second half of a 19-7 loss. But any OIA D-I team could get hot at the right time and grab one of those eight (four Open, four D-I) state berths available to them.
So, let’s just say that Farrington and Leilehua meet in the quarters and the Mules take a 7-6 halftime lead again.
Imagine what Leilehua head coach Nolan Tokuda is telling his team at the break: “Don’t let them score, boys, and we’re going to the Open division, baby!!!” Or something like that.
And then you could picture what Farrington’s Randall Okimoto is saying at the same time: “We didn’t come this far to lose now. We want to prove where we belong, and we belong with the best in the state.”
As it turns out, the top two teams in the regular-season standings in each OIA D-I division (Red and Blue) get a bye into the quarterfinals and are assured of a state spot (either Open or D-I).
And then the fun starts. Where do you want to go, fellas? Win that quarterfinal game and you have a chance at new glory. If you weren’t considered elite before, you are well on that path now.
Instead of going home, OIA quarterfinal losers join the fray in the eight-team D-I states, the winner of which will capture what some people are pooh-pooing as a less meaningful middle division. But, in actuality, whoever wins that title will take their place on the list next to the D-I championships won by Kahuku, Saint Louis, Punahou, Kamehameha, Mililani and Leilehua since the inaugural state tournament in 1999.
Sorry @NickAbramo….. if your school is not playing against Kahuku, St. Louis, or Punahou for a state title then it’s not the same. In the years prior if you win the D1 championship your school is no.1 in the state. After this season, if your school wins D1 championship then your school is no.7 team in the state…… behind the 6 scools that played in the Open….
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tomayto…tomahto… = same smello…
– Open = old D1, with an extra ILH team with the hopes by ILH powers that it’s an all-ILH final…and I emphasize “hopes.”
– D1 = B.S. to get Iolani back into States by one of it’s alumni who happens to be the head of HHSAA. And please remind me again…how is it a GOOD thing to potentially have teams with losing records playing for a “state championship”? What a joke. Makes Hawaii football look stupid. So…no…it doesn’t equate to the ‘same’ D1 championship as in the past. Stop making idiotic partisan scenarios/comparisons to try and pump up a stupid decision by your friends.
– D2 = …oh yeah… D2.
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Winning the D1 championship this year means you are the champion of D1. Alpha, so i have an idea for you. whoever wins the D1 championship this year, go to their locker room and then their post game potluck when everyone is celebrating and reflecting on a great season and tell them
“if your school is not playing against Kahuku, St. Louis, or Punahou for a state title then it’s not the same. In the years prior if you win the D1 championship your school is no.1 in the state. After this season, if your school wins D1 championship then your school is no.7 team in the state…… behind the 6 scools that played in the Open….”
Also, go to texas and tell all the schools that aren’t in 6A division I the same thing. because football is all about you guys right? not about the kids.
Idk why you guys keep thinking that state championships are watered down because there are different divisions. Even the split between DI and DII was made to give the smaller schools more opportunity to play. Being open champ means you’re champion of the open division. Being D1 champ this year means you’re champ of D1, not that “you’re the best team in the state.” being champ of D2 means you are the best in the state D2 division. Just like how NCAA works. Nobody says the champ of D-IAA, D-II, or D-III aren’t true national champs because they didn’t beat alabama last year. They’re national champs in their division.
d1 became a meaningless AYSO trophy
Everyone throwing shade on Iolani, but I guarantee you they are NOT one and done in the D1 tourney. So, it doesn’t matter if they go 0-6 in the ILH reg season, they will NOT be the worst team in that D1 tourney.
@AOK: You’re missing the point. Regardless of how well Iolani, or any other team in the new D1, does… It’ll be a “championship” of mediocrity, not a measure of excellence. Again, reflects poorly on Hawaii football. Who wants to crown an 0-6 “champion”? Absolutely a pointless waste of time. Wake me up when it’s over.
toomeke “It’ll be a “championship” of mediocrity, not a measure of excellence. Again, reflects poorly on Hawaii football”
Reflects poorly to who? to the country? to the football gods? to you? division I college recruits will still recruit hawaii players, regardless if there was only one playoff or multiple playoff divisions (like other states and NCAA).
“Who wants to crown an 0-6 “champion”?”
champion of D-I means that they won the tournament. So yes, if iolani went 0-6 in the ILH but made it into the playoffs, and they beat every team in the D-I tournament, then they are D-I champions. and if they were really a terrible team, i would expect the OIA and neighbor island teams to manhandle them. If they can’t, then they can’t.
“Absolutely a pointless waste of time. Wake me up when it’s over.”
Nobody will. Because while the kids are out on the field playing hard, practicing hard, and celebrating what they accomplished after, you will be here hating on a message board and babbling about “mediocrity” and talking about ILH conspiracy theories. but that’s okay. That’s your right. but understand that these playoffs and these games aren’t a waste of time to the coaching staff and the kids… you know, the people actually playing and supporting them. and bottom line, that’s what’s important.
high school football is played for the kids, not for you.
hey the ILH has to cater to their high paying tuition athletes and their familys so now it adds more meaning that Puns/Stl and Iolani have a lock into the post aeason and can use that as a recruiting sales pitch of why its better to play in the ILH. All about keeping the PRESTIGE in tact.
87: sorry, bruh. the only “prestige” you are talking about in this grand ILH conspiracy you made up exists only in your head.
My issue is why doesn’t the ILH 3rd place team go to DIvision 1?
That way it wouldnt just be an automatic berth to D1 for Iolani. Was that a stipulation for the OIA? It should work that way the exact way its working for the OIA.
Most likely having Kamehameha or Iolani this year fighting for that 3rd place berth. That seems fair
It’s good for 3 tier division. However, the full glory will be on open division. Why not stay on 2 divisions according to school attendance. Of course bigger schools such as Waianae, Kapolei, Kahuku, and Campbell to name a few have better selection and recruits because these schools are big in terms of attendance. Instead, focus on demographic and rules on transferring.
Already have Mainland colleagues chiming in on how absurd this whole “Open division” is. This isnt Pop Warner, it’s high school football. Extend the regular season instead and add in an ILH game rather then this awarding losers 2nd chance opportunities at beating the top schools. You out? Stay out and work on next year already. All about the kids?? Tell them go play flag football city nd county then.
Everyone blaming the ILH for conspiring to get two teams in the open are clueless. The OIA out voted everyone and made the format what they wanted. They know that an Open regular season division may be on the horizon and are using this bs to put it off as long as possible. OIA is ruining football in Hawaii, by putting teams in tournaments that don’t belong. State tournaments should be for league champions from each division ONLY. This year the 8th place them from the OIA goes to states!
NI teams should go back to their own tournament and Oahu should go back to the Prep Bowl format and watch the ILH and Kahuku pass the trophy back and forth. The rest OIA will beg for a PROPER statewide one league champion per division tournament.
the ILH wanted 2 in the open division and offered 4 OiA to get tjose 2 in. it didnt matter bcause those OIA teams are not a threat, only kahuku, why didnt they propose a 3 Oia and 1 ILH, instead of a 4OIA 2 ILH? ha!
what 1 elite team couldnt do they are now sending 2. did u see the rosters on puns and stlouis? its like a college team
We all know a graduate of an ILH school stole your girl, 87. Don’t blame the ILH for everything that’s crap in your life!
who does everyone predict the final 6 will be? open division should be awesome!!!
@thinkofthekids…. thanks for clearing things up for me…. but I think you took my comment(opinion) the wrong way. Lemme try to make it a lil more simple to understand, so there’s no confusion.
The value of the title “D1 Champion” has decreased from just last year. When the article says ”
But, in actuality, whoever wins that title will take their place on the list next to the D-I championships won by Kahuku, Saint Louis, Punahou, Kamehameha, Mililani and Leilehua since the inaugural state tournament in 1999.”……… NO it will not, the D1 title has a totally different meaning Now then it did the last how many seasons. So when you say “the D1 championship is the champs of D1” Where does that statment put the six schools that participates in the Open at? They too are part of the D1…….. here’s a perspective, 1999-2015 D1 Champs= State Champion, 2016 D1 Champs= D1 Champs …… . No disrespect to the future D1 champion but who ever it is shouldn’t take its place among past D1/States Champs…. and how does my comment make football about me nd not the kids? This website gives us a chance to leave our comments, opinions and perspective. Here’s another question I have to ask…. next year’s “D1” top 10 preseason poll, where does the D1 champ rank? And the comparison to Texas ball and ncaa is apples and oranges when it comes to Hawaii’s situation.
@Thinkofthekids…. I have a twist on your idea, go to the D1 Champs potluck and bring the six D1schools that participated in the Open Div and celebrate the Division 1 champions…..
What some of us is trying to say is the labeling of these divisions doesn’t make sense. The HHSAA is going to crown a D1 champion to the 7th or 8th best D1 school in the state?
Lemme ask again…. @NickAbramo maybe you can clear this up for me…… Next year’s preseason Div. 1Top 10, where would the 2016 D1 champ be ranked? Since they should be in the likes of previous D1 champs. Do they bypass the 5 schools that didn’t win the open and get ranked #2?
Some of us commenting might not have ilh education or have the sources to report on high school ball, but some of this stuff just takes alil common sense. And IMO the oversight is with the labeling of the Divisions and who is in….. who cares what league your in, top 8 in the state and your in… the rest try again nxt year… same with Div2…. top 8 and ur in….
The only division that matters is the “Open Division”. All these other “Divisions” was made because all these other teams would never be in a playoff or have an opportunity to win a championship. They gave the excuse of “enrollment”, smaller schools will be placed in the D2 due to availability. But that was never a valid argument when there was a D1 school that enrolled less than a thousand kids in their entire school. Today its turning into a “who wants to sandbag the D2 to win a meaningless tournament”.
I dont think any OIA team will get through Punahou AND St. Louis in the Open tourney to win the title. Kahuku might BARELY do it this year but the amount of blue chip talent that will start being recruited in to the ILH will tip the table in the ILH’s favor in the future, similar to the advantages St. Louis had with their 5th year seniors and 14 straight prep bowl titles back in the 90’s.
I say do away with the open division and just do the prep bowl OIA#1 vs. ILH#1
At least on the OIA side with the even playing field and Kahuku being the top dog, the other schools see that its all homegrown talent at Kahuku and for them to step up their game to possibly beat Kahuku is a reality. When these other OIA schools get beat down by the ILH and see how big and strong their roster is because of athletes from all over the state it becomes an impossible task to think they could beat them.
Kahuku is not an invincible force, heck, they have many weaknesses in their offense they couldnt even throw the ball lastyear, Waianae almost beat them, that tells you that the OIA is an even playing field and up for grabs every year, they dont need the ILH…..THE ILH NEEDS THE OIA.
Its crazy to see the transformation of Punahou. Having grad from Kam I went to the punahou and Kam game last thursday.
We used to smash punahou every year back in the days but it seems the punahou teams as of late are stacked with polynesians. It almost seemed by the names alone that there were more hawaiians on the punahou team than on the kamehameha team lol
I would love to see 3 mainland teams come down to aloha stadium at maybe the end of the year and play kahuku, punahou and st. louis!
We need a iolani classic for football here in the islands where the top teams come down and play!
yup punahous roster looks like a college team. 6’5″ players on both sides of the ball that look like they belong in the nfl and mostly polynesians, how do these polys afford the tuition? or are they recruited in the 8th grade?
Nick,
the addition of the D1 State Tournament is a good thing. It is set up the right way w/8 schools who have qualified and earned their way there. I’ve always said Hawaii must be the only place in the world where there is only a 6 team tournament and where #1 & #2 seeds get a bye, are you s____ting me? a bye in a state tournament? a little unfair advantage there based on the subjectivity of the seeding committee on who should be #1 and #2. No listen to these numbnuts, D1 is a good thing!
There’s always going to be a group of people putting down smaller schools or schools without the talent base to compete with large schools. That thought process makes no sense and its sort of like being a bully. Who cares if the DI or DII champion is ranked or not ranked? The schools will compete in their respective divisions and the winner will be crowned the champion, end of story. If your team competed in the open playoffs and lost the first round game, you lost in the open playoffs. Why would you now say “oh we better than the DI champ!” That’s just silly logic. Do you know what they call the NIT champion? Yes, the NIT champion…you wont hear North Carolina saying the NIT champ is the 65th best team.
@Therim @bumbuchas….. you guys make a good point. So where would you rank the D1 champ next year?
Truth be told, in the Open division, only Oahu reps so not truly a “State” championship.
@Alpha Who cares where they’re ranked? The DI champ is the DI champ, DII is the DII champ. If it makes you feel better, at the end of the year, rank them by the division they played in. Either way, I don’t really care about subjective rankings anyway. I read the different sports rankings all the time and as an example, your girls volleyball rankings had Konawaena pretty high. We all knew they weren’t going to be that good this year but like many of those subjective rankings, I just SMH. In the end its who is crowned champions in their respective divisions. All I remember from last season was Kahuku beat St. Louis for DI crown and Radford beat Kapaa for DII crown, I have no idea who was ranked after that, nor do I care.
@therim…. good point, but the three divisions is only for HHSAA state tourney… next year during the regular season it’s back to DIV I & I I there is no Open division. Until it changes this will be the question, two champs in one division… but are they #1 & #2?
“Until it changes this will be the question, two champs in one division… but are they #1 & #2?”
Alpha, why does this matter? state rankings have nothing to do with anything. they were made up by the star advertiser like in 2008 or sometime relatively recently and have no bearing on who qualifies for states or OIA/ILH playoffs. Prior to then, there were no rankings, and the old OIA divisions (Red and white, then before that, red, white and blue) worked fine. The rankings were made up just so that columnists have something to write about and fans can be more engaged with the sport.
I think The Rim’s analogy of the NCAA tournament vs NIT is a really good one. a few teams go to open division by virtue of how far they went in the OIA playoffs, the quarterfinalists end up in D-I. the D-I champ (if from the OIA) is the D-1 tournament champ. the open champ is the open tournament champ. it doesn’t matter where they rank in a star advertiser poll.
thats an idiotic example in the article about leilehua, you really think a .500 team would rather go to the open division and get embarrased by punahou/stlouis OR go into the D1 tourney with a very good chance to win a trophy? no one from the OIA other than kahuku is feeling confident about their chances in the Open division
after all, going by the NCAA/NIT analogy, is the NCAA tournament winner and the NIT winner ranked #1 and #2 respectively in the nation? idk. who cares? There’s a NCAA champ and an NIT champ. Is NIT as prestigious as the NCAA tournament? no. nobody really agonizes over this at all. but there’s no argument about “watering down basketball” and “this reflects poorly on american college basketball.”
so i don’t see why we need to be like “but those teams all played in the same division. so who is the REAL champ? who is #1???” If you need to, just chalk it up to the open division winner being the “real” state champ and be done with it. who cares?
87: “no one from the OIA other than kahuku is feeling confident about their chances in the Open division”
you know this for a fact or are you making this up?
(i bet you’re making it up)
fact! i have heard from family friends coworkers all that live in areas like kapolei, waianae, kalihi, kailua, kaneohe, they all say the ILH will dominate the open division and kahuku is the OIAs only hope.
until another cinderella team like 2004 leilehua or 2014 mililani comes around (once every 10 years) its all ILH or Kahuku.
87: “fact! i have heard from family friends coworkers all that live in areas like kapolei, waianae, kalihi, kailua, kaneohe, they all say the ILH will dominate the open division and kahuku is the OIAs only hope.”
I noticed that out of the people you mentioned, none of them are current football players or coaches. Especially if you’re gonna assert that leilehua would rather play D-I then try to go on a run in the OIA tournament and make the open division playoff. I know nolan tokuda personally and i guarantee you he wants his boys competing hard in the OIA tourney and if they make it into the open division and get smoked in the first round, so be it. They’re playing to compete.
@thinkofthekids….. ok ok sheesh…. I was just giving a perspective and opinion, followed by a question. Can’t have any of that around here without some backlash…. I get it…. 1div, 2champs, nobody cares about rankings, everybody happy…..
do you think the kids and coaches created this new format? no ILH adults forced it, secretively behind closed doors and all my adult friends from all around the island say it is ILH bias. the OIA kids and coaches have no say about how the ILH adults are using them to format this ILH bias tourney, u are right about the kids n coaches just want to play…but if someone is screwing you over royally i think its fair to say something and notjustcomply because they have more money.
87: “do you think the kids and coaches created this new format? no ILH adults forced it, secretively behind closed doors and all my adult friends from all around the island say it is ILH bias. ”
you have proof of this? sorry, your “adult friends” don’t count, although i’m sure they’re really cool people. also note: “ILH bias” does not mean “ILH officials/adults forced a loaded state tourney behind closed doors and forced it on the hapless OIA in a dastardly plan to ensure football dominance for generations to come.”
Hawaii Prep World writers, have you guys uncovered this ILH Conspiracy? You guys would know best, right?
there is no conspiracy only fact.
– head of the hhsaa is an iolani alum.
– ILH has offered $3million to the OIA to create an alliance, when it didnt happen the ILH forced it in the state tourney.
no conspiracies just facts
87: “– head of the hhsaa is an iolani alum.”
Yes. that is a fact. it’s also a fact that the HHSAA football committee consists of a wide range of people as well. some of them ILH, some of them OIA. some of them outer island. Each of them discuss and have a say in any proposals. They also vote on those proposals.
“– ILH has offered $3million to the OIA to create an alliance, when it didnt happen the ILH forced it in the state tourney.”
your first part is a skewed interpretation of a fact. ILH didnt’ offer the OIA $3M. the $3M was offered as support from the business community. Some of them may be ILH grads. Some may not.
the second part of your statement is not a fact at all. it’s a wild assumption without actually knowing at all how the state tournament process worked or what the processes in HHSAA actually are. in other words, you are making things up.
@think of the kids: Your name says it all. You and your ilk are the reason we have elementary school graduations and participation trophies for everybody, because “nobody’s a loser.”
And then this generation of self-entitlement graduates, and no can leave home cuz this thing called Reality b****-slaps them in the face saying, “Win or go home a loser.” Cuz that’s Life!
FACT: One prominent ILH Athletic Director said in private (because he’s too smart to say it publicly): “After the OIA turned down the $3 million dollar deal, the ILH went straight to the HHSAA and voila! We have this new State format.” When asked how: “Because the HHSAA is it’s own entity and can do whatever it wants.” Bonus points: “And the ILH was guaranteed by the HHSAA that the two ILH Open teams will be in opposite brackets. GUARANTEED!”
FACT: Technically only good for this year because the OIA is not contractually bound to the HHSAA beyond this year. Again, separate entities. So it could be an entirely different format next year.
That’s no conspiracy Dick Tracy. That’s straight up how it went down.
And stop talking bubbles about other states, like Texas’ non-6A champions. Guess what? Those smaller leagues? Have champions with WINNING records…most of them undefeated. “How can that be?” you ask… Because they have S.E.P.A.R.A.T.E. LEAGUES for each tier. Duh. They don’t take loser teams out of the same league and then throw them into a separate tier just for playoffs. You see how stupid that is? How utterly MORONIC? Did I spell it out enough for you? Stop comparing pineapples to mangos you coconut head.
Next time, ‘think about…” eh… just TINK!
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You can rename the division but no matter how you look at it, it will always be D1,2 and 3. This format didn’t add a higher division it added a lower 3rd division.
Now, to add the name of the new formatted D1 champion on the same Koa head as the previous D1 champions is absurd and even laughable, and if done it will be with an asterisk next to their teams names. Coaches and players will know that in the new D1 format they will not be the best in the state as did the previous D1 champs were. So why not call it as it really is D1,2 and 3.
@guest only. If we did it that way Kahuku would be in D2. Kahuku has one of the smallest enrollment in the state, but I guess it could have an exception.
Very interesting like I been keeping score like 87=8, Alpha=6 and think of the kids =9 and so what does that tell you?
You all forget so quickly that Kahuku Red Raiders are still the State of Hawaii High School Football defending champions until proven otherwise; so that’s boss for 2016 at the moment and so no matter what we proud of our grandfather score board and puka puka football field.
Executive Director of HHSAA, Chris Chun needs to go. I listened to his interview on 1420 today. And his reasoning why the created the different divisions was because various schools & representatives of his committee wanted to create equity & saftey amongst the schools. They were tired of the same schools competing at the top each year. He also added that they wanted to develop the disvisons because the mainland also does it.
Smh
toomeke: “And then this generation of self-entitlement graduates, and no can leave home cuz this thing called Reality b****-slaps them in the face saying, “Win or go home a loser.” Cuz that’s Life!”
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“One prominent ILH Athletic Director said in private (because he’s too smart to say it publicly): “After the OIA turned down the $3 million dollar deal, the ILH went straight to the HHSAA and voila! We have this new State format.””
stop making things up. you either have evidence or you don’t.
“Bonus points: “And the ILH was guaranteed by the HHSAA that the two ILH Open teams will be in opposite brackets. GUARANTEED!””
this is pretty much standard practice. OIA would have the same deal too, but the draw can’t accommodate that.
” Duh. They don’t take loser teams out of the same league and then throw them into a separate tier just for playoffs.”
this is the only thing you said in your whole post that makes sense. and yes, that’s true. so it would make more sense for this to be a precursor to an OIA/ILH merger (but even then, you guys would whine about it because kahuku this and kahuku that). but the analogy being used here now is NCAA vs NIT. it’s not the perfect system but it’s not armageddon like you uncles think it is. the only people here offended by all this is YOU.
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What’s really funny about the people here that are violently against the new state tournament format (and usually it’s kahuku fans for whatever reason) is that they keep citing some massive ILH conspiracy. like “the ILH FORCED this state tournament on the poor OIA because they are rich and they have crazy amounts of power and they’re doing this to screw every other team by allowing two ILH teams in the competition!”
When asked for evidence of this, they say “becuase the head of HHSAA is an iolani grad.” or “here’s a quote I just made up from an unnamed but prominent ILH AD.” “Because ILH teams are guaranteed to be on the opposite side of the bracket” ignoring the fact that this is standard practice and had their been 4 ILH teams in open and 2 OIA teams, those two OIA teams would be slotted in opposite sides of the bracket too.
The ILH Conspiracy!!!! OMG!!!
ILH must’ve FORCED its way on the committee and FORCED it to screw over the OIA (and that’s assuming that this format actually DOES screw over the OIA) even though the football committee that discusses and votes on any proposal has representatives from each league throughout the state. You don’t give specific details as to HOW ILH somehow managed to force this, why this is bad for the OIA, and why every rep from other leagues (who outnumber the ILH) decided to vote against their own interest mainly because you people are ignorant of the processes and toss out weird “facts” and say they justify your conspiracy theories.
Give it a rest, uncles. high school football will be okay. eventually an OIA/ILH merger will happen which will make this state tournament format make more sense.
@think…just think…
Who said anything about “armageddon”? Don’t put words in my mouth. Like you said, “stop making things up.” Just keep talking bubbles…
FYI: From the horse’s mouth to my ears…directly. Just because you weren’t “in the room when it happened” doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. (Hamilton – look it up and get you some culture). Circumstantial evidence has been the downfall of many criminals. And what the ILH and HHSAA did behind closed doors is downright criminal. And a detriment to Hawaii football in general, not just the OIA. Extremely short-sighted decision made by a tiny number of individuals that negatively impacts hundreds of kids. Not cool at all. Oh wait…I thought you “think of the kids”…? Yeah… me too.
“it’s pretty much standard practice” – where? In the NFL? Nope. Teams from same division can play each other in the first round of playoffs…because it’s not RIGGED. Strictly based on records. How about the NCAA? Nope. Two teams from the same conference can possibly make the CFP, and play each other in the first round. No/none/nada rules against that. Completely based on rankings/records. So no…it’s NOT “pretty much standard practice.” Not even in mainland HS football. DOH!
The only thing you said that remotely makes sense is that it hopefully results in an OIA/ILH merger. OIA should’ve taken the deal this past off season. Hope they’ve learned their lesson and use their considerable leverage to get a better deal for future years. Because that would be an excellent outcome of this entire debacle.
BTW: When Kahuku wins, they win. When they lose, they lose. And it happens on the field. No excuses. No whining. Win or lose, I never complain because it happened on the field. I don’t even complain about “bogus calls” or “bad refs” etc. If we don’t play well enough to overcome those detriments, so be it. End of story.
To be honest, I’m excited at the prospects of playing both St LuLu and Puns in States. Just don’t like being forced to do so. Drawing names out of a hat to determine seeding would be best. Maybe next year.
Now go cheer on your mediocre team this weekend…Iolani maybe? The future 0-6 “Champion”? Who cares. Downright LAUGHABLE…and pathetic. Kind of like your poorly researched responses. Back to the drawing board. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
And I’m out. Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood night! Gonna go watch tonight’s game. Should be a good one! Go Puns!
All of you are too much. Entertaining to say the least. What’s wrong with having more than one division? Why are some folks so against it? They do it for other sports. For example, wrestling…. they don’t have just 2 divisions called “Lightweight” and “Heavyweight”… don’t they? It’s multiple divisions and there is a champion for each division right? I believe they call their divisions weight class. Another funny thing to ponder… when I grew up, Pop Warner only had like 3 division: pee wee, midgets, and I forget the next one. But hey…. guess what…. there’s more than that today! I heard of jr pee wee and mighty mites, etc… Has anyone complained? Seems like most are okay with increasing the amount of division there.
I understand… people don’t like change… do you know what happens to businesses that don’t or can’t adapt to change? I’ll let you figure that one out 🙂