While the first day of school in Hawaii is set for Aug. 4, high school athletes of fall sports will have to wait a few weeks longer to begin their season.
On Monday, the Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) executive board by majority vote approved that effective immediately, the high school sport calendar shall move into a “no-contact period” through Tuesday, Aug. 18.
For the HHSAA, which includes the Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF), a “no-contact period” means there shall be no instructional or developmental sport specific activity allowed between high school coaches and student-athletes.
The HHSAA said in a press release that “applicable start date penalties for violations will be enforced according to HHSAA regulations, which include, but are not limited to, the suspension of a coach for part or the entire season.”
The Hawaii State Department of Education announced Friday extracurricular programming could resume at DOE schools beginning Aug. 19. Fall sports (football, cheerleading, cross country, air rifle, girls volleyball, and bowling) are all under that category. Last week, the HHSAA postponed the start of high school football season to Aug. 31 at the earliest. Football season had originally been postponed to Aug. 17.
Each HHSAA member league will determine workout restrictions beginning Wednesday, Aug. 19, at which time, the calendar will move to out-of-season conditioning and weight training.
“This is a significant change to our start date calendar as summer activities have been determined by each individual school,” HHSAA executive director Chris Chun said. “However, during this time, our executive board felt that this change was necessary to protect the health and safety of our student-athletes. This will still allow adequate time for conditioning as our first contests for most fall sports are not slated to begin until at least mid-September.”
Phase 2 of Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim’s Emergency Rule No. 9 said sports programs may resume full regimen practices, scrimmages and competitive play under certain conditions and requirements starting Monday this week on Hawaii Island.
The HHSAA member leagues include the BIIF, Interscholastic League of Honolulu (ILH), Kauai Interscholastic Federation (KIF), Maui Interscholastic League (MIL) and the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA).