Athletic directors gathered outside of the Waiakoloa Suite during the second day at HIADA. Kalani Takase | SL

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WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — The second day of the 54th annual Hawaii Intersholastic Athletic Directors Association Conference Saturday did little to clear up the cloudiness surrounding a proposed double-regional format for select state tournaments.

A committee of athletic directors from all five leagues narrowly passed the measure, which seeks to alter the schedule for the Division I boys and girls soccer and volleyball state tournaments next year. Despite major opposition from the Oahu Interscholastic Association — the largest member league in the Hawaii High School Athletic Association — the proposal passed out of committee by a margin of 23 votes in favor to 22 against. One athletic director abstained his or her vote.

"It was close," said HHSAA Executive Director Chris Chun, who introduced the proposal at this week's conference at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island.

Under Chun's altered tournament schedule, there would be two, six-team regionals on two separate islands for the opening weekend. The champions from the two Oahu leagues — the OIA and the Interscholastic League of Honolulu — would remain on their home island in one regional, while Maui and the Big Island would alternate hosting the other, which would include both neighbor island league champs. Teams advancing out of the regionals would then play on Oahu for the second weekend of the tournament.

Neighbor island athletic directors have voiced their support of the measure throughout the weekend.

"We as the Big Island, we're in favor of it, just in the sense that it's getting our island or Maui, too, involved in the tournament somehow," said Hawaii Preparatory Academy athletic director Steve Perry, a longtime soccer coach. "I do believe that Waipio (Peninsula Soccer Complex) is the great venue for the final four — and that's great — but, I think that if we could get a piece of the regionals, that would be great to help us out with the many, many expenses we have every year."

OIA administrators, however, don't necessarily see eye-to-eye with their counterparts on the issue.

"I think we just want to take a closer look at it," Kalani athletic director Gregory Van Cantfort said. "Not speaking for the (OIA), but the true regional format that they had last year I think could have been tweaked and kept at a true regional, but it seems that the neighbor islands were OK alternating which island is going to host the regional."

Perry countered that the positives would greatly outweigh the negatives.

"One side of it is that the school time missed for the kids would be minimal, so that's great and the other thing is — as far as soccer — because it's a combative-type sport, it's a safety concern to be playing four games in four days," Perry said. "Only two games in a week would be great and you'll get a better quality game in the end, too."

Van Cantfort said there simply was not enough time for the OIA to closely examine the details of the proposed format.

"I think more of it was about the neighbor islands trying to get the opportunity to get more of the games at their sites, but for the OIA, I guess the proposal came to us kind of late, so we really didn't have the time to evaluate it," Van Cantfort said. "Ultimately, we're going to live with whatever it's going to be."

The measure will be voted on by the HIADA general assembly Sunday morning and if passed, would need final approval from the HHSAA Executive Board, which meets Monday morning on Oahu.

Other notable committee votes that passed Saturday included a measure to increase the number of individual participants from 80 to 100 for the air riflery, bowling and cross country state tournaments and a proposal to eliminate classification from cross country. It is currently the only individual sport to have Division I and II.

Also, another committee voted to accept a proposal to add a second tiebreaker for consolation state softball games. If a game is tied after the allotted 90-minute time limit, it will go to the first tiebreaker — which is hits minus errors — however, if it is still tied after that, the total number of base runners who reach first base will determine the winner. If that fails to break the tie, the final tiebreaker will be a coin toss.

Among the measures defeated were proposals to adjust the weight classes for boys and girls judo and another to decrease the number of weight classes in girls' wrestling from 14 to 12.

Other events Saturday included a social media workshop and guest speaker, Thurl Bailey, a 12-year NBA veteran.