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Seabury Hall’s Pono Birnie (from left) attempts a first-set kill against the block of Hana’s Shayden Hoopai-Waikoloa and Irie Mizner during an MIL boys volleyball match on March 13, 2020. The match was the last MIL competition held before sports around the state were shut down due to COVID-19 concerns. Over a year later, there is renewed hope that prep sports will return to Maui County in the 2021-22 school year after the state Department of Education announced Monday that all HIDOE schools will be fully open for in-person learning, with the return of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, including athletics. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
The news that Maui Interscholastic League student-athletes and their families have been anticipating for 15 months arrived on Monday in a letter sent home to parents with Department of Education students throughout the state.
State school superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s letter said that school will be fully on-campus when the 2021-22 school year begins Aug. 3 and all co-curricular and extra-curricular activities including band, clubs and athletics will be full go.
That was welcome news to MIL executive board president Jamie Yap, who is the principal of Maui High School.
“It is exciting news and this is what we were all hoping for, that we would have the opportunity to return to school face to face,” Yap said on Tuesday. “And if I’m not mistaken, the superintendent describes how she wants to see everything to happen, from athletics and all activities and clubs.”
Yap said the renowned Maui High band is already making plans to practice for the fall. While the sports schedules are expected to be done in June, he anticipates practice for all sports will begin in July.
Runners break from the starting line during a Valley Isle Track Club cross country race on March 6 at Seabury Hall. The VITC is among several organizations that stepped in to help partially fill the void with no MIL sports this school year. The VITC held cross country meets and recently wrapped up a track and field season. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
He said the recent state Department of Health decree that youths 12 years old and above can get the COVID-19 vaccination was a big step to Kishimoto’s decision to fully return to campus for the state’s public schools.
“I know students are getting the shots and that’s so promising,” Yap said. “I don’t know how many, that’s their decision and it’s up to each individual, but it does help us come back to normal.”
Yap noted that about 80 percent of the Maui High faculty has been vaccinated and the state Department of Education as a whole has learned from the pandemic.
“We understand how to deal with COVID now better,” he said. “And we have a better process of dealing with COVID protocol. … The process is in place and we understand the process and we believe that so does the community, they understand that severity of this COVID situation.
“So, everyone worked very hard and played their role in making sure it doesn’t get transmitted to others.”
Lahainaluna football coach Dean Rickard, shown during a game in 2018, said he is “excited to get the season started this year. Bring back some football, bring it back, man,” while noting the emotional toll the pandemic shutdown has taken on student-athletes. GLEN PASCUAL photo
Yap was overjoyed to see the announcement come on Monday.
“I think when we open school truly come next year it will be a breath of fresh air,” he said. “Our sophomores who will be returning really have not been in school recently as a class because they’ve been coming to school as a hybrid and they kind of missed freshman orientation and other things that go with starting a school year. So, they’ve been a little cheated in that sense.”
The MIL shut down all sports in March 2020 and was not able to hold any official competitions since due to DOE rules and guidelines on infection positivity rates and total number of COVID infections in Maui County.
Spring sports missed two full seasons of official MIL activity — in 2020 and 2021 — but club sports have filled some of the void in baseball, softball, cross country and track and field.
Yap anticipates that MIL athletics will be a full go in the fall.
“This is very promising,” Yap said. “I believe the MIL will be able to start and, I’d like to say, we will have a season. I’d like us to start practicing over the summer for all the fall sports.
“So, that’s exciting. I think everybody is ready to get going.”
One team that is ready to do just that is the Lahainaluna football team, which has won the last four Division II state titles before moving up to Division I during the pandemic shutdown.
“You look nationwide, it’s two seasons for some of these kids that they haven’t played organized high school athletic events,” Lahainaluna co-head coach Dean Rickard said Monday. “And that takes a toll, emotionally and, I mean, you can hear it from the kids.
“We hear it all the time. Some kids get depressed and they have emotional problems because they need that type of social interaction, not only through athletics, but also in school.”
Rickard, the acting Maui Police Chief, said a nucleus of his team has been active in the Maui Police Activities League flag football season and lifting weights.
He can’t wait to get his entire team — varsity and junior varsity — back on track.
“I am excited to get the season started this year,” he said. “Bring back some football, bring it back, man. Everybody knows that out in Lahaina that’s all we have. I’m tired, I’m sure everybody’s tired (of being asked) ‘When can you guys get going again? When can we get back on the field? How come nobody is doing anything?’
“So the pressure is on us all, but at the same time, they understand. When you do your story I’m sure we’re going to be getting ‘When can we get back to full practices?’ It’s very, very exciting to see some decision truly being made right now.”
Yap said he feels for the seniors around Maui County who will graduate this month.
“It will be exciting to see the next set of all-stars, the cream will rise to the top and be the exceptional athletes,” Yap said. “I think we all missed all of that. I can’t wait to read some stories about high school athletics. I can’t wait to get started.
“We’d be remiss to not remember the outgoing seniors who endured the COVID (shutdown). We need to recognize and honor them.”
He said the next step is scheduling and securing facilities and permits from the county.
“I’m sure we’re going to learn more as we go through this process, but Kishimoto, with her letter, opened the door for us to get back to some sense of normal,” Yap said. “So, ‘thank you’ for that.”
Yap does not anticipate that vaccinations will be required for DOE students to participate in activities, including sports. Maui High will have a drive-thru vaccination session today from 4 to 8 p.m. in the school parking lot for all people 12 years old and up.
“I don’t think that the Department (of Education) is going to put any type of rule to require any student-athlete to have to have a vaccine,” Yap said. “We’re a public setting, so it will be people’s choice.”
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.
- Lahainaluna football coach Dean Rickard, shown during a game in 2018, said he is “excited to get the season started this year. Bring back some football, bring it back, man,” while noting the emotional toll the pandemic shutdown has taken on student-athletes. GLEN PASCUAL photo
- Seabury Hall’s Pono Birnie (from left) attempts a first-set kill against the block of Hana’s Shayden Hoopai-Waikoloa and Irie Mizner during an MIL boys volleyball match on March 13, 2020. The match was the last MIL competition held before sports around the state were shut down due to COVID-19 concerns. Over a year later, there is renewed hope that prep sports will return to Maui County in the 2021-22 school year after the state Department of Education announced Monday that all HIDOE schools will be fully open for in-person learning, with the return of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, including athletics. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
- Runners break from the starting line during a Valley Isle Track Club cross country race on March 6 at Seabury Hall. The VITC is among several organizations that stepped in to help partially fill the void with no MIL sports this school year. The VITC held cross country meets and recently wrapped up a track and field season. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
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