With a roster bulging at the corners, Saint Louis has won four top-tier state football championships in a row. Too many players to give everyone playing time.
It’s nothing new. It’s been happening on the school’s campus for most of the Crusaders’ dynasty that includes seven state titles and 14 Oahu Prep Bowl (the precursor to the state Division I tournament) championships since 1983.
Head coach Ron Lee thought he might have an answer to getting all of the Crusaders athletes more playing time this season, but his recent proposal was turned down.
Lee wanted to start another Saint Louis varsity team and place it into the ILH as a Division II team.
But it’s a no go, even though the ILH does not have a rule against a second team from a school playing a varsity sport. It’s the OIA-ILH football regular-season alliance, which has been in place since 2018, that has no provision to allow a second varsity team from a school to participate.
Roster help is not something Saint Louis football ever needs. Making a second varsity team was an idea that got shot down recently.
(Image credit: HawaiiNewsNow).
One OIA source, who wanted to remain anonymous, thinks it’s a problem that there are just too many players who attend Saint Louis with tuition help in hand but who also get left off the field.
Sure, the source said, Lee’s plan would help those players get on the field. But, he said, those players could also attend OIA schools and beef up those programs. For that reason, pretty much, the OIA does not want the Crusaders to have a Division II team.
There is also the possibility, which went unsaid, of Saint Louis’ Division II team dominating the field of play like the D-I team does. Two state champions from the same school was not what the creators of the alliance had in mind when they forged ahead with it three years ago.
If Saint Louis had been allowed to field a D-II team, it would have increased the number of ILH D-II teams to two, thereby helping PAC-5’s future case for admittance into the state tournament. In 2019, the Wolfpack went 6-3, good enough record-wise to qualify for the states, but could not get in because a league with only one competing team in a division is ineligible for states.
“I just wanted to give our kids who are lower on the depth chart a chance to play,” Lee said via cellphone Thursday. “They would at least be able to compete and not just practice.”
According to Lee, there are close to 300 Saint Louis football players. Instead of having four teams (two varsity, one JV, and one intermediate), the school will have just three.
Lee Is Not Opposed To Saint Louis’ Virtual Independence
Lee made it clear that he is not trying to make waves when he mentioned that Saint Louis has been thinking of going the virtual independent route as far as scheduling goes.
The author of this story added the word “virtual” because going independent would most likely require the cooperation (and, let’s call it blessing) of the Hawaii leagues and some other schools.
One possibility, according to Lee, is for Saint Louis — with the cooperation (or not) of the rest of Hawaii — to play preseason games against OIA schools, league games against other ILH Open Division schools, a home game against a mainland team, an away game against a mainland team, league championship playoff games and a possible national-style bowl game.
A mock schedule of that idea is below:
>> vs. Mililani (OIA)
>> vs. Kahuku (OIA)
>> vs. Kamehameha (ILH)
>> vs. Punahou (ILH)
>> vs. mainland team
>> vs. Kamehameha (ILH)
>> vs. Punahou (ILH)
>> at mainland team
>> ILH playoff: 2 vs. 3
>> ILH championship: Winner 2/3 vs. 1
>> National bowl game
This idea would only work, according to Lee, if Punahou and Kamehameha were also on board with this type of scheduling.
“And I think it’s possible that they might want to,” he added.
The downside of any of this if it ever came to fruition would be that the ILH’s best teams would no longer be competing for a state title.
And that may or may not be in the best interests of the Hawaii high school football as a whole.
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