Brian Bautista | SL

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Brian Bautista | SL

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KEAUHOU, Hawaii — A year after it made its debut, girls flag football will be expanding next school year. 

On the final day of the 64th annual Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association conference at the Outrigger Kona Resort and Spa, ADs from across the state voted in favor of a proposal to add a second division to next spring's state tournament. 

The Hawaii Dental Service/HHSAA Girls Flag Football State Championships will go from a single division — which was claimed by Campbell in the inaugural season that concluded last month — to a Division I and Division II format, each with a 12-team field. 

"I think it's going to only grow bigger and bigger and I think this benefits the smaller schools that they can have more opportunities so I'm glad to see the sport growing and increasing," said Kalei Namohala, who serves as the sport coordinator for the HHSAA. 

Namohala, who is the athletic director at Waiakea High, noted the success of the inaugural flag football season across all five of the state's leagues, but especially on the Big Island. 

"We had 72 kids sign up and we were able to keep 32 players, but we made a (junior varsity) and a varsity. In our league we had 14 schools — we actually had 16 but two had to drop out last minute because they didn't have enough (players) to sustain their program, but overall we feel like it went well. It's such a growing sport nationally that it's great to have Hawaii be a part of it," Namohala said. 

A total of 57 schools statewide fielded a flag football team this year. A single 16-team bracket was used for the very first state tournament. The addition of a second division for the 2026 edition will allow for eight more teams to participate in states. 

"The girls will have the opportunity to showcase themselves on a bigger stage and it will just increase their pride in their school by participating in another sport that is fun and up and coming. I believe it'll continue to be successful because this first year was such an awesome year and the players just love it," Namohala said. 

Prior to the vote, the proposal was amended on the general assembly floor to utilize the regional format for the first round of the D1 tournament, which aligns with other D1 team sport tourneys, including volleyball, basketball, soccer and girls water polo. 

The vote on the amendment passed by a count of 81 schools in favor, while 15 schools — all from the Maui Interscholastic League — opposed it. The vote on the proposal itself, as amended, passed by the same ledger. 

Kamehameha-Maui athletic director Jon Viela, who also serves as the MIL's flag football sport coordinator, clarified the league's stance after the vote. 

"We were for it, yeah, definitely for it. The amendment is the one that we were concerned about," Viela explained. 

The amendment came about after HHSAA executive director Chris Chun asked for clarification from the HIADA voting body on whether the D1 tournament would follow the regional format utilized in many other state tournaments. 

Under the regional format the first round is comprised of four play-in games, hosted by the runners-up of the Oahu Interscholastic Association, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation and the MIL. Winners of the play-in game advance to the eight-team modified double-elimination tournament, while the losers' season is done. 

"Our whole thing is that it provided opportunity for our kids to travel and then like Chris said, it was guarantee two games, but with the regional format, I mean, we would host, they play one game, (if) they don't win they would only get one game in the state tournament versus getting two and getting the experience to travel and play, so that was our stance," Viela detailed. 

Namohala said that it will be upon each league to determine which schools will declare for which division. She noted that the BIIF uses enrollment to determine classification. 

"Division II schools that really excel have the choice of going up to D1, but D1 schools do not have the option to go down, so at least for our league we have flexibility in that way," Namohala said. 

In addition to the expansion of flag football, the sport of canoe paddling will also add a second division for the 2025-'26 school year. ADs voted unanimously in favor of the proposal.

According to HHSAA sport coordinator Clinton "Laupule" Schultz, it is the first time that the state championship regatta has been expanded since its inception in 2002. 

"This is actually the first time we've gotten to this point. We've gotten more schools that have entered — if that's called expansion one way or the other — but now we're expanding to different formats and to different divisions and that's something that's never been done before," said Schultz, the AD at Anuenue School. 

The top-tier division will continue with 12 qualifying teams for the boys, girls and mixed races, while the D2 regatta will include a dozen teams for the girls race and eight teams apiece for the boys and mixed races. 

"I think Division II for paddling will open the door for many other schools to have opportunities. In previous years it was just one big tournament and over and over we'd see very little different teams winning, but with D2 it opens the door for other schools to have opportunities to win, but it's not only about winning, it's about the expansion of the sport, it's about the sharing of the culture with everybody, it's about sharing what paddling has to offer the world and that's most important," Schultz expressed. 

As Namohala stated in the case of flag football, Schultz said much the same with regard to declarations for canoe paddling. 

"We are going to leave that up to the leagues right now. We don't want to dictate to anybody to say how one league can do it or whether they can do it another way. As long as they have a plan for themself and they can declare their teams, we'll have a good D1, D2 tournament," Schultz said. 

The proposal was submitted by the MIL. Over the course of the three-day conference it was amended to serve as a two-year pilot program. The state championship regatta is scheduled to take place on Oahu next year before it goes to the Valley Isle for the 2026-'27 school year. 

"It's just very, very exciting because it'll open up opportunities in paddling for kids from smaller school to experience this sport in different ways, to meet different people, to make relationships while competing but also learning about the discipline, the respect, the culture and the history of it," Schultz said. 

The athletic directors began the week by splitting up into four groups with each group handling a number of proposals. They conducted straw polls Tuesday afternoon, followed by another round of voting on the same proposals a day later. 

A total of 22 proposals passed out of committee Wednesday, which were then forwarded to the HIADA voting body. Those proposals, along with four minority reports, reached the floor of Thursday morning's final general assembly. 

In all, ADs passed 23 proposals Thursday, including one that requires a student-athlete be enrolled in an HHSAA member school for 21 days in order to be eligible for state tournament participation. 

Two minority reports — both brought to the final general assembly by the ILH — gained HIADA recommendation. The first pertained to seeding with regard to the D2 boys basketball state tournament and the other sought to require that all boys and girls soccer scores, including league and non-league contests, be submitted to ScoringLive. Subsequently, the Bradley-Terry Model would then be used to rank the schools as a means to provide the state tournament seeding committees with more information. 

However, both HIADA recommendations were defeated when presented to the HHSAA Executive Board, which met later Thursday. All 21 other HIADA recommendations were passed by the executive board, which is made up of the five league presidents.