KIF comes to halt as teachers, state search for settlement. Length of strike will determine how seasons handled. There were many of them out there Thursday, combing the campuses of their schools, standing up for what they believe in. They
KIF comes to halt as teachers, state search for settlement.
Length of strike will determine how seasons handled.
There were many of them out there Thursday, combing the campuses of their schools, standing up for what they believe in.
They are teachers. They are also Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation coaches. One might imagine the existence of an internal struggle for those with teams competing in spring sports.
“Sure, I’d like to be playing,” Kaua’i High School girls basketball coach Penny Vess said. “We won our first two games and have a good season going.
“But I do what I have to do,” she said just after leaving the picket line, “because I don’t think teachers get paid what they’re worth.”
Hawai’i public-school teachers officially went on strike Thursday at midnight. Until a resolution is agreed upon between the HSTA and the state, all KIF sports are suspended. No games. No practices. No nothing.
“Things are really in limbo,” KIF commissioner Brent Mizutani said. “We haven’t come up with a whole lot based on varying lengths of the strike yet. We’ve got ideas in mind, but nothing definitive.”
How long the strike could continue without having to completely scrap spring sports seasons was also unknown.
Keith Amemiya, executive director of the Hawai’i High School Athletic Association, said that, as yet, “there is no set deadline by which the strike must end . . . before we decide to postpone state tournaments.”
Even so, should the strike last beyond two weeks, expect the state tournaments to be harried at best. The state golf tourney is less than one month away, and the rest of the spring sports fall within 15 days thereafter.
Kapa’a baseball coach Shannon Masada, who is not a teacher, said he wishes kids and coaches were allowed to congregate for practice.
“I wish they would let us do that,” said Masada, whose Warriors are 2-2 in the KIF. “If we could practice, then when this thing comes together, we could get right back into games.”
As it is now, an unspecified length of time will be devoted to getting kids back in shape.
“For health and safety reasons, there’s going to have to be a time just for practicing after this is resolved,” Kaua’i Athletic Director Charlene Quinones said. “That will add more time before we can begin games.”
Officials are not wholly unprepared for varying strike lengths.
Mizutani said that if the strike ends by Monday, then Friday’s and Saturday’s KIF contests could be made up as would a rain-delayed game. Should the strike linger, then any number of scenarios may unfold, from cancelling rounds to just moving into a round-robin tournament.
“We are going to do our best to make everything fair for all the teams,” Mizutani said. “That’s very important to us.”
Until the strike is resolved, officials, coaches and athletes will wait with anticipation.
“I told my girls to go ahead and pick up a ball and do some shooting,” Vess said. “I told them they could run on their own. But I didn’t want them doing anything full contact. I don’t want them getting hurt.
“But I also don’t want them to lose everything. It’s hard, but my girls are supportive. Five of them have parents who are teachers.”
Sports editor Jason Gallic at 245-3681 or mailto:kauaisports@pulitzer.net
