He might have like to say more, but Kenneth Mizuo kept his tongue in check. What ire the Kaua’i High School baseball coach did release was pointed at the revised schedule released by the Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation Friday. Games’ dates
He might have like to say more, but Kenneth Mizuo kept his tongue in check.
What ire the Kaua’i High School baseball coach did release was pointed at the revised schedule released by the Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation Friday. Games’ dates and times were amended because of the 20-day strike between public school teachers and the state of Hawai’i.
“It’s not to our liking, of course,” Mizuo said of the revision. “I don’t know how they come up with these things.”
The chief concerns surrounding the amended schedule fall in baseball and girls’ basketball. In those sports, schools will play a full first round before moving directly to a round-robin tournament to determine a KIF champion.
In essence, a team may win all of its regular-season games, lose its final contest and sit home during the state tournament.
“We tried to suggest other options,” said Mizuo, whose Red Raiders sit atop the KIF standings. “But it’s almost impossible to to change people’s minds.”
Mizuo said he felt sending “the team with the best winning percentage” to state might have been a better solution. Or, crowning a first-series champion, “and then including all three teams in a round robin to determine the second-round champ.”
Of as much concern to Mizuo – and others – is the KIF’s scheduling of the championship baseball game on May 15, while the first-round of the state tournament is slated for May 18.
“Whoever wins the KIF will have had to use their best pitcher to do so,” Mizuo said. “Then state is three days later, and will that guy be ready.”
As for the ruling on whether a pitcher would be eligible to throw on both Tuesday and Friday of that week, Mizuo said he wasn’t certain. The coach said he was under the impression that once at state, a pitcher receives a clean slate.
KIF executive secretary Brent Mizutani could not be reached for confirmation.
As for use of the dates available between now and the state tournament – May 18-19 – Mizutani said Friday that “the best was done with the time we had.”
Interestingly, the Oahu Interscholastic Association – with 12 teams – has opted to complete its baseball and girls’ basketball seasons in their entirety. Teams will begin play on Tuesday, May 1. The Maui Interscholastic League chose to cancel the remainder of the regular season in both sports and skip directly to a double-elimination tournament.
Ideas tossed out for the KIF included beginning league play on May 2 and squeezing the season-ending round-robin tournaments into a single day, according to Kaua’i athletic director Charlene Quinones.
For a variety of reasons, neither option would have been feasible, she said.
Which leaves Kaua’i girls basketball Penny Vess – whose team, at 2-0, leads the KIF – both frustrated and focused.
“Yeah, the schedule means we could go 4-0, lose one game and not represent the island,” she said. “But I told my girls that they control their own destiny. There’s nothing we can do about the scheduling. It’s what we’ve got to work with.
“So, we just go out and play it.”
