The Executive Board of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association met today, to vote on proposals to reduce the number of participants in state tournaments.
It comes in response to a department of education mandate, for a 50 percent budget cut for athletic supplies, equipment and travel....but these budget cuts could have an even greater impact.
Proposals awaiting executive board approval addressed state tournament participation in individual sports as well as team sports. But the only thing finalized was the number of entrants that needed to be cut from state championships for individual sports.Of the sports affected, cross country will be cut from 200 entrants per gender to 160 an approximately 20 percent reduction.
State swimming will be trimmed from 24 entries to 20 and most other individual sports like golf, wrestling, and tennis will be chopped by at least 20 percent. Another priority of the board, was to assure that despite diminished participation each of the 5 leagues statewide would still be represented in state tournament play.
Still on the agenda and needing quick resolve, participation in state tournaments for team sports.
Currently all division one and division two team sports with the exception of football feature 12 schools.
From now till the next meeting, discussions on how many to cut will take priority.
