Offering to provide at least some relief for the now-crowded winter and spring high school sports schedules, Mayor Mufi Hannemann yesterday announced the city will make more of its facilities available for prep basketball, baseball and softball games.

Speaking at a press conference at Senor Frog's restaurant in Waikiki, Hannemann said Blaisdell Arena and selected District Park gyms will be made available for basketball games and Hans L'Orange Park, Ke'ehi Lagoon Field and other parks will be used for baseball.

Athletic directors have been scrambling for gym and field space since the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's executive board voted in April to move the girls basketball season from the spring to winter (same with the boys) and the softball season from winter to spring (same as baseball) in order to address Title IX gender-equity concerns.

The changes resulted in basically doubling the demand for winter gym space and spring field time for every high school across the state.

"When the announcement was made ... I knew immediately it would be a challenge for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and the O'ahu Interscholastic Association," said Hannemann, a former basketball standout and coach at 'Iolani School. "I asked (Blaisdell Arena director) Sid Quintal and (Parks and Recreation deputy director) Dana Takahara-Dias to take inventory of the existing use of our facilities and see what we could do to help."

As a result, Hannemann said Blaisdell will be made available for select dates and the city will set aside one night per week for high school games at the following district park and recreation center gyms: Manoa, Halawa, Kalakaua, Salt Lake, Kailua and Wai'anae.

Takahara-Dias, a former basketball standout at University High and a former coach and athletic director at Moanalua High School, said she sympathized with her former high school colleagues but also had to minimize the effect on other users of the parks and rec facilities.

"We tried to find a nice balance," Takahara-Dias said. "The public uses these gyms up to seven days a week, for youth and adult leagues and also for free play, so they're vital for the community."

The ILH used Blaisdell Arena for games in the 1960s, '70s and '80s but has used school gyms almost exclusively since 1989. But with the girls and boys now set to play during the same winter season, gym space is at a high premium.

"(The city's help) is extremely important to the ILH," said Don Botelho, the league's executive director. "Between the boys and the girls, we have about 600 games scheduled at four different levels (varsity Division I and II, JV and intermediate). We have 25 schools and only 11 gyms."

The ILH and OIA already had relied on 10 city and county fields for baseball and softball, but Hannemann has added Hans L'Orange and Ke'ehi Lagoon into the mix, and said the new Goeas Baseball Field in Hawai'i Kai also will be available.

Also, the mayor said replacement light standards at Ala Wai Field will enable high school games to be played at night for the first time in two years.

OIA executive director Dwight Toyama said the field access is crucial to his league, in which many schools use the same field for baseball and softball.

"We appreciate the city's help," Toyama said. "Like the ILH, we're scrambling for facilities, especially for baseball and softball. This (access) will really help our programs."

Mid-Pacific Institute athletic director Bill Villa, the ILH's Division I basketball coordinator, said he and other league officials will meet this week to review the city's offer and see how it can work into their schedules. He said the ILH's Division II schools — many of which do not have their own gyms — especially need assistance.

"(The city's offer) certainly is going to help," Villa said.

Mililani athletic director Glenn Nitta, the OIA's baseball coordinator, said the additional sites will help and has already looked into possibly holding the league's championship game at Hans L'Orange.

But he added the league already has had to juggle its baseball and softball schedules, not just to share field space but also to spread out the demand on umpires, many of whom work in both sports.

In the past, both the baseball and softball schedules had teams playing on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Now, Nitta said, the league plans to hold baseball games on Wednesdays and Saturdays and softball on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the first half of the regular season, then switch the days for both sports for the second half.

'Aiea, Farrington, Kalani and Kalaheo are particularly in a bind for softball, since none of those schools have fields on campus. In the spring, they will be competing with youth leagues for time on the city fields, and the youth baseball leagues often have priority, especially on fields that have pitcher's mounds (which won't be removed for softball).

"It's challenging," Nitta said. "We're just going to have to be creative and work out something."

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.