9 days and counting
Column: Looking good for MIL’s return
So many questions still exist, but the big one seems to be emerging clearly. The Maui Interscholastic League is going full speed ahead with the return of high school sports here. In less than a month — unless things change drastically and quickly — Maui County will see prep sports for the first time since March 13, 2020. Wow, does that feel good to say. MIL athletic directors, coaches, student-athletes, referees — everybody I can think of — have been preparing for the return of sports for some time, only to have been paused by the state Department of Education’s decree on Aug. 4 that all must be vaccinated for COVID19 or have a medical or religious exemption to participate.
The deadline to show proof of full vaccination is Sept. 24, meaning that practices can being on Sept. 27.
That’s nine days from today by my count.
While the Maui Jim Maui Invitational powers-that-be are seriously discussing whether to hold the annual premier college basketball tournament at the Lahaina Civic Center or on the Mainland for the second straight year, the MIL appears to be right on course.
The Interscholastic League of Honolulu has shown that prep sports can be played in the 50th state, with some hiccups. Three ILH football games — one in each of the first three weeks — have been postponed due to COVID-19 issues, but all three on the docket for this week were a go as of Friday afternoon.
Certainly, we can anticipate that some MIL games will be postponed. With the current COVID-19 numbers, including those in schools, it’s hard for me to think otherwise, although the vaccine requirement will clearly help defray those circumstances.
Some answers to key questions will come soon, No. 1 being updated MIL schedules. The MIL ADs have a meeting slated for Tuesday, and I’m told we could have a football schedule to see out of that meeting.
There’s a dire need for MIL football referees — the Maui Football Officials Association has 10 active members and 11 are needed to fully staff a varsity game. To ask that size of crew to staff up to four games per weekend, including junior varsity, could become a huge issue.
Speaking of JV football, will we have it clearly appears to be another big question to answer. It will depend on pure roster numbers of players who have been vaccinated or have acquired legitimate exemptions to determine how many MIL schools will be able to field JV teams.
One MIL school decided to forgo a JV football team before the current pause, and I believe there may be no such games this season, simply because no one can anticipate actual roster numbers once we resume practices.
The one given is they will be smaller than they were on on Aug. 3.
Another — and perhaps the biggest — question is how many fans will be allowed in to see games?
None at first, it appears, due to the county’s “Safer Outdoors” program that began Wednesday which states that no fans will be allowed at sporting events. That policy is due to be reevaluated on Oct. 15, the day the first MIL football game is likely to be played.
Mayor Michael Victorino is hopefully optimistic that numbers will be good enough then to open the stadiums to fans. Gyms will take longer to see fans, I would think.
Live streaming options to view all games have been under discussion by MIL officials for months.
Certainly War Memorial Stadium — with a capacity of about 15,000, currently the largest usable venue in the state — has plenty of room to safety social distance, even for the largest of MIL football crowds.
King Kekaulike, Sue Cooley and Kanaiaupuni stadiums all have capacities of less than 3,000, so the questions will include how many folks will be able to get in and how will that be determined?
Do parents top the list of who gets in first, if capacities are limited? What about aunties, uncles, cousins, friends, schoolmates? That is going to be a tough one to answer.
The football stadiums are all outdoors, which will help to allow fans.
State tournaments have all been pushed back — the state football championship games are set to be played the week of Jan. 3-9, 2022. Cross country, girls volleyball, air riflery, bowling and cheerleading have all been pushed into December.
While the all-private ILH has shown that prep sports can be played here, the league also has a six-week head start on the state’s other four leagues.
How will that play in when the state tournaments roll around?
The ILH football schedule is slated to finish Oct. 15, with any necessary playoff games — that’s a heck of a layoff going into the state tournaments in December.
The all-public Oahu Interscholastic Association starts its football slate on Oct. 16. The regular season runs through Nov. 13, with three weeks of playoffs to follow.
The MIL has time to play its 10-week football season and hold Division I and Division II championship games, if either are necessary. Postponements could throw a wrench into that scenario — and Week 11 for championship games falls on Dec. 24-25. That could be an issue to figure out as well.
The last 19 months without prep sports to cover have been some of the toughest of my career at The Maui News, which dates back to August 1990.
While I’m proud of the work that we’ve been able to produce, thinking of stories to keep the sports section filled has worn me out at times.
The lingering thought that weighs heavily on my mind is what stories have we missed over the last year and a half plus, simply because there were no high school sports played here?
While there are several questions that I can’t even think of yet that will certainly pop up as we get to back to the prep sports we love, I can’t wait to try my best to answer all of them.