Nothing is ever certain about sporting events during the COVID-19 health crisis.
But the Interscholastic League of Honolulu is working hard to ensure that its private schools will be at least playing some of its planned spring sports.
The league’s heads of schools met online on Friday, when they kept seven sports (tennis, golf, air riflery, track and field, sailing, boys volleyball, girls volleyball) in the spring sports plans and nixed four others (football, judo, kayaking and water polo).
Then, on Monday morning, the ILH athletic directors met online to discuss if they have the resources and facilities in place to implement the rest of the seven sports.
Nothing is set in stone, but according to several ADs, tennis, golf, boys volleyball and girls volleyball are looking like a go. Those sports teams have received the OK to start practice.
Hawaii’s four other leagues (BIIF, KIF, MIL and OIA), so far, have not given the green light to spring sports, but they have not canceled their seasons yet, either.
A Le Jardin tennis player returned a ball in a 2019 match. ILH tennis is moving forward toward a spring season. Players got the go-ahead to start practice today.
Baseball, softball, and track and field seasons are uncertain
According to Hawaii Baptist athletic director Deren Oshiro, the ADs will meet again Friday to continue their implementation process. He said that softball and baseball are “very big question marks” because the ILH is dependent on the county for facilities. Oshiro also mentioned that a track and field season is uncertain because of a lack of ready facilities and COVID-19 safety issues inherent with so many athletes participating in close proximity.
“For baseball and softball, we are beholden to public facilities and permitting,” Oshiro said.
By Friday, if the facilities are not in place for baseball and softball, Oshiro said the ILH will have to make a decision on whether to postpone those sports’ start dates or cancel.
“The main takeaway from our meeting is the ADs will go back to their school upper administrations and confirm their declarations (number of teams participating in the various sports),” Oshiro said. “Some schools may feel like they can’t run events on their campuses or might be considering dropping teams. On Friday, we’ll go over each sport’s operation procedures and will be confirming safety plans. There’s still a lot of unknowns in regards to the various sports’ schedules.”
Some ILH schools have held some sports this school year in watered-down fashion, including cross country, sporter air riflery, swimming, and exhibition boys and girls basketball.
In 2020, COVID-19 wiped out all spring high school sports in Hawaii. The virus also caused the cancellation of the fall of 2020 and winter of 20-21.
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