Game Season Changes Start This Year

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A much-publicized “change of seasons” in three of Hawaii’s prep sports will take effect a year earlier than originally planned, the Hawaii High School Athletic Association’s executive board announced last week.

With the changes, which begin in the 2007-08 school year, girls basketball moves from spring to winter, softball from winter to spring, and boys volleyball from fall to spring. The HHSAA had expected to implement the change prior to the 2008-09 school year.

According to an HHSAA announcement last week, “the timetable for the changes was moved up, in part, due to the board’s desire not to wait a year and to thus immediately comply with any new Title IX (gender equity) requirements that may have resulted from the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Communities for Equity vs. Michigan High School Athletic Association.

“Additionally, the board desired to reinforce the HHSAA’s and its member schools’ full commitment to gender equity and to forestall any lawsuits that may arise in light of the recent court decision.”

A Supreme Court ruling April 2 decided against hearing an appeal of a lower court decision that ruled the MHSAA’s scheduling of girls basketball in the fall discriminated against girls. Michigan was prompted to move its girls season to winter, leaving Hawaii as the only state to play girls basketball season in the spring.