Sports Hawaii

Anyone follow high school cross country?

Looking forward to the season.

Any predictions for the season? OIA and ILH? Who to look out for in boys and girls?

In my opinion I think the individual favorites for the State are the defending champs from last year. Dakota Grossman of Seabury on the girls side to me should repeat, though Teri Brady (Pun) could make it interesting with another Brady pushing Dakota on Kauai. Davis "Ku" Kaahanui of Kamehameha is the front runner so to speak, but again another Pun in Jacques Hebert could make it interesting. For teams it seems like the perennial powerhouses are in for another fight. Girls side you have HPA and Punahou, but Mililani has a good group of young girls returning. On the boys side, Kamehameha and Punahou to me, seem like the early favorites. I don't see a lot of depth on the OIA side except for Pearl City. Also I haven't heard much from the neighbor islands.

The Coaches and ADs voted to split the D1 and D2 scoring, but it was voted down in the end. So States will still be one scoring race each on the boys and girls side respectively, with the top D2 team winning the D2 championship. Why don't they listen to the coaches? It's like having all D1 and D2 football teams play in one playoff and the D2 team that makes it the furthest is the D2 Champion. That's a pretty close approximation of what they are doing in the XC State Championship.

Again these are just my opinions and I hope no one takes them the wrong way. Good luck to all you student-athletes. Racing starts this Saturday...so go out and have fun.

Following up on a thread from two years ago, can anyone involved with high school cross country in Hawaii tell me if public high schools are still required to do their training on campus only? I saw that this took effect in 2011 and I am curious if it was ever overturned.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

reporter wrote:Following up on a thread from two years ago, can anyone involved with high school cross country in Hawaii tell me if public high schools are still required to do their training on campus only? I saw that this took effect in 2011 and I am curious if it was ever overturned.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

This mandate from the Superintendent of the Department of Education is still in place and probably will never go away. only a handful of schools actually follow this though. Many still run off campus at their own choice and risk.

Attention Coaches, Parents and Fans

I am attempting to fill in some gaps in coverage at MileSplit Hawaii ...

Results of all meets have been posted, with the exception of those not managed with the usual meet management software, and those that have not been promoted to sites which benefit the athletes, families and fans like ours ...

If you have results of OIA meets, ILH meets and KIF meets, I need your help to help the student-athletes!!!

Mahalo, and best of luck to all this season

Bob Martin
Hawaii MileSplit
http://hi.milesplit.com

This mandate from the Superintendent of the Department of Education is still in place and probably will never go away. only a handful of schools actually follow this though. Many still run off campus at their own choice and risk.

And for those who are willing to take train on their own are heads above everyone else. Public schools are in a bind and private schools can do whatever they want to get an advantage. You can only run around the campus so many times and if you have to get in some specific training (i.e., hills, off road running) then you're out of luck. It's hard to tell your runners "run on your own, get some hills in or trail runs" but don't tell me where for fear of repercussion from the state should anything go wrong. Private schools and public schools are not on even ground when it comes to cross country training.
By the way, as public school coaches, we're held accountable for our training practices up to 10 years from the student/athletes graduation. So, what's more negligent, telling your athletes to train on their own but not know exactly how or where they're training or holding secure practices of campus with supervision. Hmmmm.

Funny, I posted that initial thread two years ago and this is more discussion than the original discussion got at the time. This rule goes to highlight two things:

1. The Hawaii DOE's typical knee-jerk reaction to a situation and their willingness to do whatever they think is best to avoid litigation- even if it's at the expense of 100s of student athletes.

2. The grotesque unfair advantage private schools hold over public schools in sports in Hawaii. For cross country and track, this rule in particular gives an unfair competitive advantage to private schools, and really just adds to the continuing joke that is the HHSAA. I'm sure there are other inequalities in other sports (facilities, practice times, etc.), and it shows in the state championship results. This is why I have long felt that, despite my competitive drive to beat the best, Hawaii should have public and private school divisions. Whether you agree with that idea or not, the sad thing is that the inequalities are so great between public and private school sports there can be a legitimate argument for dividing public and private school championships.

Have other public schools begun to take their training back to the roads? If the majority of public school coaches began to slowly incorporate off-campus runs into their practices who would stop them from doing so? Is there going to be replacements for all of the coaches that might be fired?

I think this issue needs to be disregarded in order for a discussion about it's ridiculousness to be brought out. I have not met a single parent that doesn't think this rule is stupid. Any person that knows anything about distance running knows this rule is stupid. Should we call our sport Cross Campus now in Hawaii?

todaresq points out the stupidest part of the rule. Now that coaches and runners can't leave campus to go run, if kids are excused to run on their own they will be doing so without supervision! This is a choice the DOE has left coaches to consider, because when you make a stupid rule like this one, the only thing you can expect is people are going to try to get around it.

Whoewa70 wrote on 8/27: Girls side you have HPA and Punahou, but Mililani has a good group of young girls returning.

Seems true. Also Kaiser varsity girls looked good at the Honolulu Marathon Invitational this past Saturday.

its also worthwhile to note that the public schools not only have to practice only on their campuses, but most of their meets have had to be altered so that they are contained completely on campus. some of the campus courses end up being multiple loops on sidewalk and pavement with limited terrain and elevation and don't prepare the athletes for competition on the longer, steeper and grassier courses later in the season.

Aloha Kakou

Results are in ... 14+ exciting meets this season statewide, plus more results on the way

If you have results of meets not yet published, please let me know!!! The student-athletes deserve it!!!

http://hi.milesplit.com/meets/results/2013/cc

Bob Martin
Hawaii MileSplit
http://hi.milesplit.us

Does no one at Iolani own a measuring wheel?!

It was a great meet.