(Disclaimer: though coaches (and this writer) have discussed a variety of classification concepts over the past two decades, this is still for entertainment purposes only.)
What we know now.
1. Kailua was in rebuild mode after losing what was probably its greatest senior class. The Surfriders embraced the move to Open knowing that there would be hardship for its young roster. If there was ever a time to fight for the right stay up with the big dogs, this is it. I don’t see Coach Joe Wong moving back to Division I.
The grand experiment has morphed into a statistical norm, and that is why longtime, generational spectators across the island are pulling for the Surfriders to find a unique, sustainable way to become competitive in the OIA Open Division.
The cycle that is unavoidable for mid-sized schools like Kailua, enrollment 795 according to the DOE, never ceases.
Year 1: A strong, deep senior class can fuel a team’s championship run. A top-two finish in Division I requires the program to move up to Open Division.
Year 2: The new core is junior-heavy. One year younger, mostly, with less size and speed. A season of struggle in Open.
Year 3: The juniors develop, and the program is more competitive. Not as deep or talented as the elite teams of Open Division.
Is it better for the team to finish in the bottom two of Open and return to D-I?
Kailua and Leilehua have enrollments more suitable with D-I. There will be anomalies. Outliers. A smaller program can get by in D-I and Open if there is a wealth of big linemen. Kailua is one of the few places where that could happen organically, and longtime coach Joe Wong has his fingers crossed.
“We lost 32 kids out of 45 (to graduation). Almost all our starters. One true starter returned, Tayvin Kahele,” Wong said. “I asked to stay down (in D-I). If I had last year’s team, I would play anybody. Our kids were with us for four years.”
Kailua did try in nonconference games, giving Mililani a tough battle in preseason of 2025. This year, the Surfriders’ young squad was a better fit in D-I, but Wong believes they’ll be bigger, faster and better prepared as seniors in 2027. In the Open.
“Being in Open Division taught this team a lot. This team will be ready. We’re going to be good for the next three years,” Wong said.
2. Leilehua is a classic Division I powerhouse. A good example of why depth is a key factor for teams in Open. Without depth, especially in the trenches, it is impossible to combat injuries and be competitive. The reality is D-I is the real heart of grassroots football in Hawaii. Now that players are transferring in larger numbers to the most successful D-I programs, it resembles Open for a team like Waipahu.
Consolidation is part of the process, and whether we consider Open a division or open enrollment, it’s the same difference. Students (and their parents) gravitate to opportunity in academics, athletics, music, science, ROTC, etc. Athletes will consolidate where their offseason workout friends are. Always have. Always will. Or they stay put and water the grass faithfully. But D-I is where a majority of programs belong.
3. The mandatory “promotion” of first-place teams in the regular season from D-II to D-I and D-I to Open is outdated. It has its merits. Coaches who see trouble on the horizon can swap and remain in their current divisions.
Kalaheo has nothing to gain by moving up to a division where some schools have enrollments of 3,000. Kalaheo is a true small school that has benefited from a committed coaching staff and the addition of a few transfers, but year after year, it is not a deep program. That can always change. Or the Mustangs could opt to move up, especially if numbers increase. Coach Jaymason Lee and staff have the blueprint and his players have bought in. Lee’s goal is for the Mustangs to one day play not just in D-I, but in Open Division. Yet, Kalaheo is the outlier.
Bottom line: mandatory promotion makes no sense for a roster of less than 40 players in most circumstances.
4. D-I or D-II should be the largest classification. It’s panning out in this direction in recent years, as it should. Fewer JV programs than ever. If there are only four or five legitimately deep programs in the OIA, there shouldn’t be six teams by some arbitrary rule. This can be cured by returning to interleague play. Those three seasons before COVID were spectacular. Fans loved it. Players loved it.
Since the crossover games of 2017, ’18 and ’19 did not count in the OIA standings, some coaches regularly sat their slightly injured starters against ILH opponents.
Having four or five teams in OIA Open instead of six would open up a week or two that would be used to add one or two more nonconference games with ILH and mainland teams. That trend has been reality in the past two years.
5. If your school has 2,000 or more students, no D-II for you. Your district doesn’t have a feeder program for football or any other sport, that’s on the community. It’s shrinking. Or there’s no youth level commitment — not enough coaches. Then don’t field a team in that sport. That’s not a crime. It’s reality. But dumbing down to simply field a team in a sport the district cannot sustain at the high school level, forcing legitimate D-II small schools to play someone like Campbell — which won a D-II football state title not that long ago — is not palatable or fair. Let the cookies crumble.
It’s a tough task trying to find balance in a state like Hawaii. Geography, transportation costs, one league with nearly half of the state’s total of teams and athletes. Balance is not easy, but for the most part, the leagues find a way.
OPEN DIVISION (9)
Campbell
Kahuku
Kailua*
Kamehameha
Kapolei
Mililani
Punahou
Saint Louis
Waipahu*
> Waipahu, by rule, will move up to Open if it finishes first in the regular season (OIA D-I).
> If the leagues remain separate for football, there are enough open dates to schedule crossover games (nonconference). At this point, momentum is almost completely with public schools when it comes to economics and athletics. The OIA has never needed the ILH since the day city public schools bolted from the ILH (1969) and merged with the ROIA to start playing without private schools in 1970. That is not pertinent to this: EVERYBODY wants to play each other. This was true in the crossover period (2017, ’18 and ’19). True now. OIA sites would benefit from gate. OIA sites would benefit from concession stands. OIA sites would benefit from parking in at least one case (Farrington). So optional crossover games or official meshing of schedules are both good. One is just better.
> Any official reunion of the two leagues for official meshed scheduling would be celebrated with one caveat. If major donors and sponsors suddenly appear at the door to support the ILH powerhouse teams of decades past, that would probably cause an understandable annulment to the agreement. The world of my public school plays a well-to-do private school, and a few months later our best athletes are suiting up for them ended in 1969 when public schools pulled out of the ILH to combine with country schools and form the OIA as we know it today.
Wong likes the California Interscholastic Federation format, which uses power rating (formula). He also likes a blend of today’s classification in Hawaii with something similar to what the OIA had with its Red, White and Blue conferences in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.
“This was discussed by one of the coaches. Just go six teams in the Open. The bottom two teams drop to D-I for the playoffs. We’re the wild cards (Kailua and Leilehua), not seeded,” Wong said. “The same with Radford and Roosevelt.
They would drop down to D-II (for playoffs).
That concept has been tested, but in another sport: girls volleyball. In 2023, the ILH used a hybrid regular-season schedule that included Hawaii Baptist and Le Jardin playing D-I programs ‘Iolani, Kamehameha, Mid-Pacific and Punahou. Then HBA and Le Jardin played in the D-II playoffs. A win-win for regular-season competition and a tool for playing tougher competition in the post-season. At that time, HBA and Le Jardin were regularly in the Top 10 statewide.
D-I (10)
With enrollment counts
Aiea (865)
Damien (470, grades 6-12)
Farrington (1,846)
‘Iolani (2,300, grades K-12)
Kalaheo* (874)
Leilehua (1,549)
Moanalua (1,957)
Nanakuli (928)
Radford* (1,227)
Waianae (1,551)
> If only there was a way to incorporate Kapaa, Baldwin and Konawaena into the regular-season slate for the Oahu teams. SeaFlite, SuperFerry, Hokulea, we (fans) could really use a lift.
> Same with Open and D-II, the D-I schedule doesn’t have to be a full round-robin. It could be split into geographical divisions. Play teams in the opposite division optionally (nonconference). Is a three- or four-game regular season enough? A lot of leagues in California operate this way. In basketball, nonconference games count in the power rating. Football in the CIF is very flexible. Scheduling and transporting to games is simple just through sheer numbers and a million roadways. A City/Eastern Division of Damien,
Farrington, ‘Iolani, Moanalua and Kalaheo (assuming they are required to move up after finishing first in OIA D-II). A Western Division of Aiea, Leilehua, Nanakuli, Radford and Waianae has an old-school feel, and some or all of them would have plenty of opportunities to tackle Open teams, which are mostly on the west side, for nonconference action.
The BIIF faced a dilemma roughly a decade ago, forcing Konawaena to move up from D-II to D-I, even though Konawaena’s enrollment is on the lighter side. Though initially against the move, Wildcats coach Brad Uemoto believes it worked for the best in the long run.
“I believe there should be an enrollment threshold for schools competing in any division below the Open Division. Allowing schools with enrollments exceeding 2,500 students, for example, to compete in lower divisions ruins the competitive balance of D-I and D-II,” Uemoto said. “If a school wants to move up a division to challenge itself, I have no issue with that. However, there should be reasonable parameters. To my knowledge, the BIIF is the only league in the state that relies heavily on enrollment to determine divisional placement.”
Like Wong, Uemoto endorses a format that incorporates a power-rating formula similar to what the CIF has. He proposed his ideas in writing to the BIIF. At one point, the league used the Bradley-Terry model.
“I believe the entire state should operate under a consistent classification system. A standardized, data driven model,” he said.
D-II (9)
With enrollment counts
Castle (943)
Kaimuki (520)
Kaiser (955)
Kalani (1,480)
McKinley (1,072)
Pac-Five (n/a)
Pearl City (1,457)
Roosevelt (1,288)
Waialua (356)
> Geographical divisions would work. So would a single round-robin of eight games. Would Pearl City be interested in D-I? Maybe. Roosevelt has crushed D-II every time in the past decade, but the graduation cycle and smaller numbers are a painful factor. Kaiser has been very competitive, but I don’t know if the Cougars would prefer D-I. Maybe. But the adoption of Open Division in 2016 made D-II a true haven for smaller schools. The same would happen in girls volleyball, maybe softball, too. But that’s another story.
ILH’s Division III tier in some sports has been a winner since the 1970s. Many volleyball coaches get intrigued by the thought of an Open Division. The population of the state is 1.4 million, nearly 40 percent more than what it was in 1984, when the HHSAA expanded tournament fields from eight teams to 12.
Change and expansion are good. Discuss
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