Navy head coach Kenneth Niumatalolo addressed attendees during the opening session of the second day of the HIADA conference. Brien Ing | SL

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WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — The three-tier state football tournament is a step closer to returning this fall.

The second day of the 57th annual Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association Conference Wednesday saw a proposal to continue the format narrowly pass a committee vote.

Concern No. 4.6 — one of approximately 30 that ADs are addressing during the three-day conference at the Hilton Waikoloa Village this week — seeks to continue the format that was instituted last football season. That is, an Open, Division I and Division II state tournament.

Originally the measure had planned to reduce the number of teams in the D1 tournament from eight to six. However, it was amended by the same committee Tuesday to expand the D2 tournament to eight teams. The proposal, as amended, saw 24 of the 35 committee members abstain from a straw poll vote — the other 11 voted in favor of it.

Many of those abstentions came from the Oahu Interscholastic Association — the largest of the state's five leagues — but many of those same ADs voted in favor of the proposal in Wednesday's committee vote. That was only after they opted to revert back to the original proposal with all three state tournaments featuring six-team fields.

The twice-amended measure passed out of committee Wednesday, with 19 ADs in favor, 15 opposed and one abstention.

Although the committees meet in closed-door proceedings not open to the media, some ADs in the group said a plea from Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Chris Chun was the reason for the second amendment back to the six-team format for the D2 tournament. The proposal was submitted to HIADA by the HHSAA.

Chun declined comment Wednesday afternoon.

The proposal will now head to the HIADA general assembly for a final round of voting Thursday morning. If it gains approval from the general assembly, it will be sent to the HHSAA Executive Board, which can then approve, deny or amend the measure when it meets Friday morning at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.

Another hot ticket item this week is concern No. 4.3, which was submitted by the Big Island Interscholastic Federation. It seeks to implement a declaration date for teams in all sports with classification no later than one week after the official start date.

That measure was defeated (8-10-17) in a straw poll Tuesday and saw similar results in Wednesday's committee vote, where it was defeated 8-26-1.

The HHSAA also submitted a proposal to adjust the pitch-count rules for baseball to fall in line with National Federation of High Schools guidelines. However, that was defeated in both straw poll and committee votes, but is expected to be brought to the general assembly floor for a vote Thursday via minority report by the BIIF.

An Interscholastic League of Honolulu-sponsored proposal to separate the boys and girls state bowling tournaments was amended in committee Wednesday to span four days. That would allow one day of practice and one day of competition for both tournaments. Currently, the tournaments are held concurrently at the same site over two days. The proposal, as amended, passed by a vote of 19-13-0 out of committee Wednesday.

Another proposal seeking to include Maui as hosts of the boys and girls D2 state soccer tournaments on a rotational basis was defeated Wednesday, 3-22-2.

Earlier in the day, former Radford and University of Hawaii quarterback Ken Niumatalolo served as a guest speaker in an hour-long session with athletic administrators.

Niumatalolo, who is the winningest football coach at the United States Naval Academy with a record of 77-42 in his nine seasons at the helm, was inducted as part of the inaugural class of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame in 2014. He also served as a guest speaker at HIADA in 2010.