When the Oahu Prep Bowl football game debuted at Honolulu Stadium in 1973 it was a first, tentative step toward a future statewide playoff.
Never mind that it took 26 long years to finally get to a first statewide playoff — motto: “Why rush when you can plod?” — and four more for a two-tiered format. At least it was a nod to rapprochement for the two warring parties and a step in the right direction.
Which is why returning to the Prep Bowl now, as some athletic officials have talked about, would not only be a mistake but a huge retreat after 18 successful years of statewide playoffs.
Forty-eight of the 50 states operate state football championships, according to the most recent National Federation of State High School Associations survey, and there is no good reason for Hawaii to begin furiously back-pedaling now.
But, then, solid reasoning hasn’t always been in season when the two Honolulu leagues — the public school Oahu Interscholastic Association and the private school Interscholastic League of Honolulu — are involved. Shortsightedness and pettiness, sure, but not enough forward, innovative thinking.
Earlier this month the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association voted overwhelmingly (63-27) to continue the popular three-tier football championship format that was inaugurated last year.
That happens in a democracy. But the OIA, the largest (22 football-playing members) league and only one to vote against the plan, got all habuts when it was outvoted by the other four leagues.
Their solution? The OIA petulantly adopted the bureaucratic version of taking its ball and going home, saying it would refuse to enter any of its teams in the Open Division this fall.
Since then the OIA, with some curious pockets of following in the ILH ranks, has latched onto the idea of dumping the state championships altogether and reverting back to an all-Oahu Prep Bowl.
As outlined in backroom discussions, there would no longer be a state champion in any division. But that was apparently deemed less important to the instigators than being able to cut the neighbor island leagues out of the pie altogether. With just an Oahu playoff, there would be no participation by teams from Maui, Kauai and the Big Island and, hence, no reason to share any moolah with them.
All of which would not only mark a return to the dark ages of a time when the Oahu Prep Bowl winner was known as a mythical state champion, but potentially be self-destructive as well.
The football state championships are the biggest moneymaker for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association and its 96 member schools. The HHSAA realized nearly $350,000 from the 2016 state championships. Of that, each of the 45 football-playing schools received nearly $6,000 and the rest helped underwrite the less lucrative championships.
And being able to offer a statewide competition is more attractive to the sponsors who embraced the championships than a mythical state championship.
Instead of going back in time (a return to Moiliili Field, anyone?), it behooves the leagues to look to the future for several reasons. Chief among them is adopting a season-long, three-tier structure that makes more sense competitively — lessening the number of mismatches and blowouts — and more dollars financially.
For a lot of reasons we’ll all be a little poorer if the leagues take a huge step backward and state championships are done away with.
