State track meet qualifying process may change




LIHUE, Kauai — The qualification process for next spring's track and field state championships could face some swift changes.

The 59th annual Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association conference rolled into its second day at the Kauai Marriott Resort on Kalapaki Beach Wednesday. Athletic directors from across the state are gathered on the Garden Isle this week to review more than 40 proposals/concerns.

For the second consecutive day, they worked in four different committees to discuss, and if necessary, vote on about a dozen items each. After straw polls were conducted on Tuesday's opening day of the conference, the same groups reconvened Wednesday for committee votes.

One group of ADs voted in favor of a measure seeking to eliminate the use of qualifying marks/times for the state track and field meet. Instead, the proposal seeks to accept the top 24 athletes in each event, plus four alternates. The rationale is to assure a full complement of competitors, and while it states that it will not affect higher-ranked athletes, the advantage for the "lower-ranked athletes" is that all individuals may track their progress and ranking via an online database.

Punahou athletic director Jeff Meister, who also serves as the HHSAA's state track and field coordinator, only sees the change as a positive one.

"I haven't even thought about it quite honestly yet," Meister said, when asked how the new qualification process will potentially affect his duties.

"On face value I think it's going to be better for everybody because they'll be able to know and see where they stand with things, so again, without thinking it all the way through I think it's just going to be better. It's going to be imperative on us to make sure that that list is timely and accurate so that the kids and the coaches and the families know, but I think we can do that."

Meister said the relatively new technology allows for the changes.

"Oh yeah, absolutely. We haven't had, until very recently, the capability to put everybody's meets and performances together, so it's really makes it a lot easier for us," he explained.

The proposed qualification process is actually a return to a format previously used. Meister said the process was changed to qualifying standards about "five or six" years ago.

Meister added that he does not foresee the "new" changes to have much of an effect on the duration of the state meet itself.

"I don't think it'll change that much. You know, we'll reduce a couple of heats because we'll get that hard number of 24 and the entry process won't be quite so roller coaster, so I think that'll help that piece of it, but the actual running of the meet I think will stay about the same," he said.

Several coaches have expressed to Meister that they favored the qualifying standard marks because it serves as motivation for their student-athletes.

"The disadvantage is that we've lost the standard as the motivational tool, (but) the advantage is that everybody will know where they stand at any given time that they want to look and I think that's more than an adequate tradeoff in most coaches mind," Meister said.

The proposal, which was submitted by the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, saw a vote of 14 for, none opposed with 18 abstentions in Tuesday's straw poll, but easily passed out of committee 28-0-3 Wednesday.

The measure was similar to one the Oahu Interscholastic Association submitted, but eventually withdrew. That proposal sought to allow for the top 24 athletes in field events and the top 32 in running events to qualify for the state tournament in place of the qualifying standards.

However, the committee recommendation is still two steps shy of becoming a reality. It must gain the approval of the HIADA general assembly Thursday morning. If it passes there, the now-HIADA recommendation would be forwarded to the HHSAA executive board, which can then approve, deny or amend the item. The board meets later Thursday evening at the Kauai Marriott Resort.

Another proposal that gained committee approval Wednesday was one pertaining to the use of instant replay for state tournament football games that are televised from Aloha Stadium — the only site with the infrastructure in place to do so.

The HHSAA-submitted proposal saw 26 of the 36 ADs in Group 1 — which was tasked with taking up the issue — abstain from Tuesday's straw poll (the other 10 voted against it). The large amount of abstentions was largely due to a lack of specifics in the writing of the measure, according to several ADs in the closed-door meeting. However, after HHSAA executive director Chris Chun provided some parameters prior to Wednesday's committee vote, the measure passed 33-0-4 and will reach the general assembly floor.

"In my proposal I put it for instant replay to be adopted by the football committee — so that's the one representative from every league, along with the football coordinator and the officials coordinator — but I guess they wanted something more concrete or examples, so we actually had an instant replay proposal that we could have put that was detailed so I just gave it to them and they said ‘OK,' so they liked it with the option of being amended by the football committee later, so that's why I guess a lot of the leagues switched their vote," Chun said.

Chun said the specifics — which were put together by HHSAA football officials coordinator Matt Sumstine — are not set in stone and allows for the football committee to make changes as it sees fit.

"That's just the starting point, so that's kind of what was brought up in the meeting that that's what we would work as a starting point and if it's passed then the football committee would look at that and see if they like it or see if there needs to be any changes made to it," Chun added.

However, Chun said that because Sumstine is on the HHSAA's football committee, he does not anticipate the parameters to vary greatly from what he submitted.

"That's what I think because it seems like it's pretty well written and well thought out and kind of like the best of what's adopted between the NFL and college and using his experience as a replay official specifically," Chun said.

Chun is in favor of the use of instant replay, as are the football officials themselves.

"I think anything that can help the officials is a good thing, especially with the shortage of officials," he said. "This is something that the officials want because it's a lot of pressure on them to get the calls right in real time and they're not trying to screw up the calls, they want to make the calls right, so if you give them an extra tool that they can use to make sure that they got the right call, I think it's just beneficial all the way around."

Two other football proposals submitted by the OIA to increase the size of either the D1 or D2 state tournaments (depending on which division the Kauai Interscholastic Federation declares for) both passed. However, Kapaa athletic director Greg Gonsalves said Wednesday afternoon that the KIF's tentative plans are to declare for D2. Consequently, only one proposal — which would seek to increase the D1 tournament field from four to five teams — would play out with the other being negated.

From left to right: Ron Velasco, Keith Amemiya, Frank Degele, Laurie Koustik, Keith Tolentino and Alan Fernandez.

At Wednesday night's HIADA awards dinner nine individuals were honored for their contributions to prep sports. They are Rodney Iwasaki, Agenhart Ellis, Alex Kane, Laurie Koustik, Keith Tolentino, Ron Velasco, Alan Fernandez, Keith Amemiya and Frank Degele.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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