WAILUKU — The coach of the Baldwin High School girls softball team was dismayed when he learned just two weeks ago that his players would have to move to a new field for a season that starts in December.

Coach Joe Duran said he feels his team was treated unfairly by Maui County and given a poorer field to make room for Little League play, while boys' teams get better facilities.

But the county parks director and the head of the Maui Interscholastic League said the situation shows how the number of island ball fields falls far short of meeting rapidly growing demand.

"There's only X amount of fields, and Maui's growing," said MIL Executive Director Joe Balangitao. "There's a lot of people, and (we're) short on fields."

County facilities are used by many public schools, which lack their own facilities for athletic programs, and community leagues also ask for field time, said Parks and Recreation Department Director Tamara Horcajo.

"We are running into a dilemma more and more about where to put them," she said. "Fields are being used by three, maybe four leagues at a time, and we also need to find some downtime to maintain them so they can stay safe."

Duran, who said there are about 30 girls in the varsity and junior-varsity Baldwin softball program he has coached for three years, said he was told earlier this month his team would have to move from the War Memorial Little League Field No. 1 because of a scheduling conflict with Little League.

Little League has different specifications for the infield than softball, so the two programs could not use the field at the same time.

Duran was told his team would move to Keopuolani Field No. 3, which he said is inferior to the field his players have been using. Among other factors, the War Memorial field has a warm-up area, secured dugouts and a regulation-distance home-run fence — things the new field lacks, he said. The Keopuolani field storage area is also smaller, he said, and the playing surface is in poorer condition.

Duran said it was unfair that male baseball players had access to Maehara Stadium, while female softball players had to make do with a lesser facility. "The boys seem to get everything," he said. "They've got this gigantic stadium that's covered, it's got a scoreboard, and we're not getting all that at our level."

He said he was hoping to get help with his case from Maui County Council members, national athletic organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union.

But Baldwin High School Athletic Director Kahai Shishido said the school accepted the county decision.

"Field 1 is a county facility, and we cannot dictate who uses the field," he said. "We've been fortunate to have the use of Field 1 for many years. The county has offered us Field 3 at Keopuolani, and also stated that they would be doing some improvements to make it suitable and safe for our girls to use."

SEASON CHANGED

Horcajo said the county was working to upgrade the Keopuolani field with temporary fencing and other improvements to accommodate the Baldwin softball team.

Little League and Baldwin softball shared the War Memorial field for years, but they found themselves in conflict when the MIL changed the softball season, she said. Both the history of the field and the number of youth in each program were taken into account in making the decision, she added.

The War Memorial field has been used by Little League for more than 40 years and in fact was built for the county by Little League in the 1960s, she noted.

Naomi Campbell, Hawaii State Little League District administrator for Maui, Moloka'i, Läna'i and the Big Island, said that when the MIL changed the schedule for softball about four years ago, the two groups' seasons suddenly overlapped.

"One day we went to the field, and there was no mound and no infield grass — they removed it," she said. "We were not able to use it."

The league made do with its remaining fields for the past few years. But with 33 teams ages 5 to 12 playing in Little League's Central Maui league last year and a projected 40 teams this year, a group approached the county this year about getting the field back, she said.

HISTORY CITED

Longtime league volunteer Tommy "Cheena" Lau Hee helped build the facility in the 1960s, and the field was later dedicated to him, she noted. Lau Hee's son was among the league volunteers who led the effort to return the field to Little League use, she said.

"On behalf of the Little League, we're really happy to get this field back," she said.

Volunteers working with donated materials started Saturday restoring the field to Little League specifications, she said.

Duran might not realize the history of the facility, Balangitao said. "I know they're disappointed, but it was always a Little League field," he said.

The change also means the Maui Interscholastic League will have to find a new location for games, he added.

"It affects the MIL also, but we've just got to work with everybody because we're all in the same boat. We're short on fields," he said.

Balangitao said the situation wasn't unique but illustrated a larger problem of overcrowding at playing fields. Long-term, he said, he hoped the state would eventually fund construction of ball fields on the Baldwin High School campus.

"Maui grew, and the number of fields hasn't grown," he said. "It's not just girls softball, it's everybody."

Horcajo agreed.

"That's what it comes down to," she said. "We don't have enough fields to accommodate everyone."