In a cost-cutting move that will affect hundreds of athletes this coming school year, the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's executive board voted unanimously yesterday to reduce state tournament participation in most individual sports by 20 percent.

Affected sports include boys and girls air riflery, bowling, cross country, golf, swimming and wrestling. The reduction in boys and girls tennis would be greater — from 44 singles and doubles each to 32 (27 percent), while the reduction in judo is less, from a maximum of 16 entries per weight class to 14 (14 percent).

Paddling also will be affected, with the tournament entries dropping from 24 teams to 16 for the championship regatta.

Track and field entries will be limited to 26 per event, down from a high of 36 for some events.

"I wish more of our kids could play in state tournaments, because that's their big opportunity," said Maui High principal Randy Yamanuha, the Maui Interscholastic League president. "But we had to go with everybody on this."

A proposal to use a formula that would shrink some tournament fields from 12 teams to eight was tabled due to gender equity concerns. A vote has been delayed until June 24.

That proposal would affect baseball, softball and soccer, mostly at the Division II level.

OIA PROPOSALS

The O'ahu Interscholastic Association, made up of 29 public schools, submitted most of the proposals relating to the reductions while citing the Department of Education's mandated 50-percent budget cut in athletic supplies, equipment and transportation. OIA executive director Dwight Toyama addressed a conference of the state's athletic directors on Saturday, informing them of an additional 5 percent cut proposed at Friday's Board of Education meeting.

The ADs then voted to approve the state tournament reductions affecting most of the individual sports. The proposals became official after yesterday's vote at Radford by the HHSAA executive board, made up of principals from each of the state's five high school leagues.

"These cuts were made for reasons beyond my or anyone else's control," said HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya.

At the ADs conference last week, the proposed cuts faced opposition from the MIL and Big Island Interscholastic Federation, whose administrators maintained that their state tournament travel money is privately raised and not tied to DOE budget restrictions.

But yesterday, the MIL and BIIF voted in favor of the cuts, as did the Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation and all-private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu.

"We still felt that some parents would be willing to pay (for state tournament travel)," said BIIF executive director Lyle Crozier. "But then again, with even more budget cuts coming, some parents might change their mind."

Crozier said amendments to shrink the proposed cuts from an original 30 percent to 20 percent "made it easier to swallow."

GENDER EQUITY ISSUE

As for DII softball and girls soccer, those tournaments may remain at 12 teams despite the proposal that probably would have shrunk them to eight each.

That's because of gender equity concerns with regard to leaving the football state tournaments at status quo with six teams each.

Since football involves an unusual amount of players (usually 50 or more per team), leaving it status quo while cutting girls' state tournament participation in softball and soccer would create an imbalance, said DOE gender equity specialist Raymond Fujino.

"You have to be careful when you make across-the-board cuts but don't touch football," said Fujino, who addressed the HHSAA board yesterday morning. "I explained the need to look at gender equity and take it into consideration, because it could be a Title IX (federal equal opportunity) issue."

Fujino said the Florida High School Athletic Association recently made similar cuts of 20 percent "across the board," exempting football and cheerleading. But Fujino said there are 36,000 football players in Florida, and only 4,000 cheerleaders.

He added that a parent group threatened to file a gender equity lawsuit against the FHSAA.

"You have to look at the numbers, and it has to be equitable," Fujino said.