Ann Myers Drysdale, vice president of the Phoenix Mercury and Phoenix Suns, speaks to attendees at the 56th annual Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association conference held at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. Brien Ing | SL

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WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — Changes may be coming to the way several state tournaments are run next season.

On the second day of the 56th Annual Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association Conference at the Hilton Waikoloa Village Wednesday, a proposal that would see the formats of Division I state tournaments in volleyball, soccer, basketball and girls water polo altered was passed out of a committee vote.

The measure — which was introduced by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association — passed by a unanimous vote of 36-0 with no abstentions. The original proposal, which was defeated in Tuesday's straw poll (8-16-12) by the same committee of ADs, sought to use the new format for only the D1 state softball tournament, but was amended to pertain to all D1 tournaments except for baseball and softball.

Under the proposed format, two first-round games would be hosted by the runners-up of the Maui Interscholastic League and Big Island Interscholastic Federation on Monday. The runners-up of the Oahu Interscholastic Association as well as the Interscholastic League of Honolulu would also host first-round games Monday. The losers of those games would be eliminated, while the winners advance to Oahu for the quarterfinals Thursday. The semifinals and finals would take place Friday and Saturday, also on Oahu.

"Most of the time it will be OIA third- and fourth-place teams traveling for those Monday play-in games," HHSAA executive director Chris Chun said.

Chun applauded the OIA as well as the MIL and BIIF for buying into the concept.

"The OIA is sacrificing because they're essentially saying that they know those two teams will travel, but the neighbor islands gave up stuff as well because the neighbor islands have hosted volleyball in the past and they're giving that up, so it was a good give-and-take for all of them," Chun said.

The proposal, which according to Chun, would take effect immediately and continue for the foreseeable future, still has a few more hurdles to clear before becoming a reality. It must be approved by the HIADA general assembly by a majority vote Thursday, which then forwards its recommendation to the HHSAA executive board for approval, denial or amendment when it meets Friday morning.

Chun, who is not a voting member of either HIADA of the HHSAA executive board, is hopeful that the proposal will carry through this week's proceedings.

"I think it's a good idea and I think this format is a really good format because now if a second-place neighbor island team makes it to Oahu, they would have already beat an Oahu team so they know they're going to play two out of three days on Oahu, they know they're going to be deserving, they know they're going to be competitive, so to me it creates a competitive tournament," Chun said.

Chun added that further benefits of the new format would include less missed class time for neighbor island student-athletes and the potential for more revenue generated for the HHSAA via gate monies collected at first-round sites.

"Financially, I think because these first-round games don't traditionally draw as well as the later games, now we're going to have every (MIL and BIIF) second-place team hosting a game, so I think financially it'll be better," Chun said. "I know people on Maui and the Big Island will come out to support their second-place teams."

Another proposal heard by the same group of ADs seeking to expand the D1 and D2 state football tournaments from six to eight teams — which was submitted by the MIL — was withdrawn in committee Wednesday.

"Rather than doing the eight-team proposal, they thought it would be better that we reconvene the football committee and we talk about their eight-team proposal, a three-team division and what would work for all the leagues," Chun said.

The MIL also sought to be included in both the D1 and D2 girls soccer state tournaments, but neither will make it to Thursday's general assembly vote. The D1 proposal was defeated 3-30-3, while the MIL withdrew the D2 proposal Wednesday.

The BIIF submitted a pair of track and field proposals, neither of which gained committee approval. The first recommended that all field events by conducted as single-day finals, but was voted down 14-19-2. However, it will be heard by the general assembly via a minority report from the BIIF. The other measure, seeking to return the format of the state meet to hold the trials on Thursday and the finals on Saturday, was defeated by a wide margin, according to a BIIF AD. Currently, the trials and finals are held on consecutive days.

Ann Meyers Drysdale, a trailblazer in women's basketball, spoke about women in sports in a speaker session Wednesday afternoon. Drysdale was a standout player at UCLA and was a member of the U.S. Women's Basketball team that claimed a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. She became the first woman to sign an NBA contract in 1980 with the Indiana Pacers and was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999. Meyers Drysdale is currently the vice president of the Phoenix Mercury, of the WNBA, and the Phoenix Suns, of the NBA.