The Hawaii High School Athletic Association announced on Monday that the fall sports season will have an Aug. 31 start date.
HHSAA Executive Director Christopher Chun told KITV that that football would begin on Aug. 17. The fall schedule remains in question due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The leagues all agreed that they want to keep the three seasons as is. They want 11-week seasons. They all agreed to Aug. 31 start dates for the fall. Football would start two weeks earlier," Chun said. "Normally, we start mid-July for football and early August for other fall sports. They wanted to make sure we make time for the state to reopen, for schools to reopen hopefully by July 31. That takes us past the start date of the DOE calender to give us time on the back end," Chun said. "Doing that, we would end by mid-April and that would give us a month to continue or postpone as necessary, but still run three full seasons."
Cutting into the early portion of football, the state's biggest revenue-generator in prep athletics, is unavoidable, according to the HHSAA.
"I think what's going to be sacrificed are the preseason and interleague games at the beginning of the season," Chun said.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser also reports that if the state and DOE do not clear resumption of school by Aug. 31, the start of football season would be postponed to Oct. 5. The opening games would then begin Oct. 23. Any postponement beyond that date would possibly lead to combined seasons or cancellation.
Several football coaches, including Ron Lee of Saint Louis and Rod York of Mililani, supported postponing football until winter season due to the lack of preparation time and the health risks for football crowds. The current stay-at-home mandate was extended to June 30 by Gov. David Ige last week.
In the spring, the HHSAA held off on cancelling the season until the absolute last option was exhausted.
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