Bowling kicks off MIL return; tourney introduced
The first official competition in the Maui Interscholastic League in 20 months will be Kihei Charter School vs. King Kekaulike High School in boys and girls bowling matches on Saturday morning at Wailuku Lanes.
MIL bowling competition for 2021 for both boys and girls has taken on a familiar plan for the league, although it is new to the sport.
Due to the calendar time crunch brought on by the sports pause that started Aug. 4 because of the state Department of Education vaccination-to-play decree, the MIL bowling teams for both boys and girls will play a one-round regular season from Saturday to Nov. 6.
The league will then hold a tournament similar to the five-team tournament format used in other team sports in the MIL, like volleyball and basketball.
The No. 5 seed vs. No. 4 seed play-in game matches will take place during the week of Nov. 8-12, and the semifinals for boys and girls will be played on Nov. 13.
Tournament championship matches are set for Nov. 27, and winner-take-all playoff matches between the regular-season winner and tournament winner would follow, if necessary.
Unlike the Division I format for other sports, MIL bowling sends just one team of five players to the state tournaments, while a yet-to-beannounced number of individuals will also qualify for state, which is set for Dec. 9-10 at Leeward Bowl on Oahu.
“Usually we would just do two rounds — so there’s a first-round champion and a second-round (champion), that kind of thing — but we didn’t have enough time,” MIL bowling coordinator Wade Hondo, the Baldwin athletic director, said Wednesday. “So, I think this year we just decided to just try something different.
“The coaches were, like, ‘Let’s try it.’ With the time that we had, it’s a different format, so we’ll try it out, see how it is. Next year we will have more time, but we’ll see how the coaches and the kids like it.”
Hondo likes the format for this simple reason: “Everyone gets a chance. Can you imagine if a 4 or 5 seed beats the 1? … No matter what, you’ve got a chance, when it comes to the tournament, you’ve got a chance.”
All of the Saturday matches and weekday practices for all five teams — Baldwin, Kihei Charter, King Kekaulike, Kamehameha Maui and Maui High — are at Wailuku Lanes, the newly renovated facility on Vineyard Street that was formerly known as Maui Bowling Center.
“They have gone out of their way, we couldn’t have done this season without their support and they’ve been so, so very supportive,” Hondo said. “They have been understanding about all of this the entire way. The entire way, bending over backwards to help us.”
AUSTIN, Texas — Ricardo Pepi got a pair of goals early in the second half, and the United States dominated Jamaica in a 2-0 victory in a World Cup qualifier Thursday.
“We’re just sitting there and we’re on the train,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. “It’s amazing. I mean, an 18-yearold gets an opportunity and takes advantage of it. What you see, and I think what I really like, he has this instinct, and it’s really hard to teach that to players. And he has an instinct to score.”
Pepi, an El Paso native who scored his first international goal to break a second-half tie at Honduras in his international debut on Sept. 8, became the youngest American to score in consecutive qualifiers. He put the U.S. ahead in the 49th minute to cap a quick end-toend movement and added another goal in the 62nd.
“It’s a special feeling being able to just score here in
Texas,” Pepi said.
Playing without injured attackers Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna, the 13th-ranked Americans improved to eight points, moving into first place after four of 14 matches in the final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region. Mexico dropped to second on goal difference after being held to a 11
draw by visiting Canada, which is third with six.
Next up for the U.S. is a Sunday game at Panama.
“We can’t get too carried away,” Berhalter said. “The trap is going to be us thinking, we’re great and us thinking we we’ve qualified for the World Cup, and if we do that we’ll get our (butt) kicked in Panama on Sunday.”