Prep sports stay on schedule

By Fred Guzman
ESPN550.com

The Friday Night lights will remain on for Hawaii's public high school teams this season.

A directive issued yesterday by the state Department of Education, stated that the scheduling of all prep sports events – including football – will continue as originally scheduled.

Concerns were raised about some games after Hawaii public school teachers yesterday overwhelmingly ratified a two-year contract that amounts to a 7.9 percent pay cut and will shut down the school system for 17 Fridays beginning in October.

Athletic events will continue as scheduled. Athletic events may not be rescheduled prior to 3:00 p.m. on furlough days.

Teams may practice and/or play on furlough days after 3:00 p.m. only.

Teacher coaches will be able to supervise/coach practices and games.

However, the status of non-league and statewide tournaments are under review.

Prep football games traditionally are played on Fridays and Saturdays.

Prior to the DOE directive, Oahu's public school league – the OIA – had preliminarily indicated that it would consider rescheduling Friday games on Monday nights.

Furlough days under the current plan are Oct. 23 and 30; Nov. 6 and 20; Dec. 4, 11 and 18; Jan. 15 and 29; Feb. 5 and 12; Mar. 5 and 12; Apr. 23 and 30; May 7 and 14; and June 4.

FUTURE OF PREP SPORTS

It's a topic that I've been talking about for years, and generally haven't gotten much reaction about during my mid-day talk show on ESPN 550.

Namely, the growing possibility of seeing less funding for prep sports in the future as the demands to fund other areas of the academic mission increase over the years.

But the current economic crunch has accelerated that concern even more than I thought.

This summer, Hawaii public high schools were hit by a $1.2 million cut in funding for interscholastic sports programs.

The considerable efforts by corporations and individuals have so far raised nearly $800,000 to offset the shortfall. But will the same companies and persons be willing and capable of doing this on an annual basis? Not likely.

Now, prep sports must deal with another major challenge after the state's public school teachers agreed to a two-year contract that amounts to a 7.9 percent pay cut and will shut down the school system for 17 Fridays beginning in October.

The bottom line here is, well, the bottom line. The primary mission of public schools is education. And in these tough economic times, extra-curricular activities – such as sports – are going to take the most immediate hit.

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