Scott Wagner agonized.
The Mid-Pacific Institute athletic director is at the core of a decision, announced on Monday, that has the Owls withdrawing from participation in football, cheerleading and wrestling.
“All we’ve announced to our community is that there’s going to be changes, and one of them is because of the pandemic we’re not able to participate in high-risk, high-contact sports,” Wagner said on Tuesday.
In May, the National Federation of High Schools listed football, competitive cheer and wrestling as “higher risk” sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Football, cheerleading and wrestling are sports that are multi-school sports for MPI in Pac-Five.
“Different athletes from different schools with varying levels of definition of health,” he said. “It’s the toughest of the decisions for the high-risk sports."
If this seems like an early decision, Wagner acknowledges that the school would be flexible enough to change course.
"Who knows what happens? Maybe we have a vaccine next week. It’s all unknown. We can all guess, hope and pray. We will react with everyone else based on the data at that time. Our priority is to keep our community safe," he said.
So far, no other member of Pac-Five has announced a similar policy.
If MPI stays with its new policy while fall sports proceed — the HHSAA’s expected start date for football practice is Aug. 17 — there might be a flow of student-athletes going to other schools. The ILH allows players to move from one Pac-Five school to another without losing a year of eligibility. MPI provided a sizable chunk of football players to Pac-Five last fall.
“I don’t think that that would be a good thing for kids to do, to transfer for one season. In terms of numbers, we probably had 15 to 18 varsity (football) kids (last year). Some graduated, so maybe 25 total intermediate and varsity,” Wagner said. “That’s why it was such a difficult decision. Everybody’s got their own value system.”
Aug. 17 is also the scheduled, on-campus first day of classes for MPI.
The Wolfpack football team went 6-3 in the combined OIA-ILH regular season last fall. Due to the lack of Division II football members in the ILH, the ‘Pack did not have an opportunity to qualify for a state-tournament berth.
MPI’s decision coincides with a recent uptick in reported cases of COVID-19 on the mainland, where many states have reopened businesses and public spaces. The announcement also came during a week when athletic administrators in the private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu were supposed to be part of the league’s annual workshop, which also acts as a conference. Voting on new measures happens at the workshop, which was postponed.
“We have to prepare our community for what to expect this year. We were supposed to have our declarations and our workshop this week, and it got pushed to next week. All of our schools are busy putting things into place,” Wagner said.
Though spring sports were cancelled early on, the coronavirus and its trickle-down effects have put administrators in a gatekeeper type of role.
“In the summer usually we can catch our breath a little bit. (Now) we need to prepare multiple plans for what might come when all the sports actually start. It all depends on COVID date. Ultimately, we’re a school first. Everyone needs to figure out what’s the best scenario for their school,” he said.
The demographics and geography of the MPI student base is another factor.
“We have people coming from all over the island, and we have international students. They live with host families. We’re all in constant contact with what if this, what if that,” Wagner said.
Comments