Hawaii high school administrators still are trying to figure out how to conduct the fall sports season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and a variety of new norms are expected.
It doesn’t appear the loss of St. Joseph athletics will be among those changes after all. The 151-year-old school announced on its website that it’s nearing the $500,000 in donations and pledges that the Big Island’s only Catholic school said it needed to remain open.
“It gives me great joy to announce to you that our pastor, Father Poli Ty, has given permission for St. Joseph School to move forward,” principal Michael K. Pa’ekukui said on the school website.
St. Joe has a rich athletic history. The Cardinals are most known for their boys basketball team, which last won a BIIF Division II crown in 2016. The Cardinals haven’t been as competitive in recent years as the school faced dwindling enrollment, and in 2019 St. Joseph was unable to field a team in another of its most prominent sports, girls volleyball.
Regardless, athletic director Michael Costales said Sunday he’s ready once again to reach out to get students to participate in BIIF sports.
“We are looking forward to get our student-athletes back into sports once it opens back up and our numbers allow us to have teams,” he said. “It’s always important to have balance with academics and sports.”
In the May 21 edition of the Tribune-Herald, Pa’ekukui and Ty said in a letter that the institution, which serves students from preschool through grade 12, “will be looking at every possible scenario to keep the school open” and that almost $500,000 “would need to be raised immediately.”
“Shows the Catholic tradition and values that (St. Joseph) has instilled in its alumni, students, faculty, friends and community,” Costales said. “Many rose to the challenge to keep our school open now and beyond. We are forever thankful and blessed.”
An advertisement that ran in Sunday’s Tribune-Herald sponsored by the Cardinal Legacy Foundation stated that more than $432,000 in pledges and donations had been raised as of Thursday.