Live streaming to be available for MIL football and volleyball | News, Sports, Jobs

August 01, 2024

The Kamehameha Schools Maui girls volleyball team celebrates a point during a match against King Kekaulike on Oct. 21, 2019. The Warriors will be one of the first MIL teams to play a game this season, taking on Maui High at Shine Matsui Athletic Center on Oct. 9. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER file photo

The Maui Interscholastic League is closing in on having nearly all of its outdoor stadium and gymnasium venues covered by live streaming with the 2021-22 academic sports competition season just 10 days away.

The MIL’s return to sports competition for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut things down on March 13, 2020, will be a pair of girls volleyball matches on Oct. 9 — Kamehameha Schools Maui at Maui High and Baldwin at Lahainaluna.

MIL president Jamie Yap, the Maui High School principal, has been working with MIL Executive Director Joe Balangitao and the school athletic directors to get Pixellot streaming devices installed at all venues and they are closing in on 100 percent, with the exception of War Memorial Stadium.

“All the schools have agreed that we’re going to have live streaming in the gyms and I think this includes our MIL private schools,” Yap said.

“And the fee is pretty nominal. They set it up and there’s nobody really operating it, it’s all remote. It’ll be live streaming. It may not be 100 percent the best quality of live streaming, but at least you get to see the game without having to be in the gym.

“Same with the home football fields at Lahainaluna, Kamehameha (Maui) as well as King Kekaulike.”

Yap said that the efforts are ongoing to get live streaming at War Memorial Stadium, where seven of the league’s 15 football games are scheduled for Saturday afternoons.

“We’ve been trying to work with the county, they’ve been trying to vet Pixellot and their IT people are trying to vet Pixellot, so as far as the county football stadium, Pixellot hasn’t been installed or we haven’t agreed with the county to install it,” Yap said. “We may look at another opportunity to work with AKAKU to televise or live stream the first football game (Oct. 23 at War Memorial Stadium).

“But that’s all in the works, nothing has been decided yet.”

Yap added that otherwise the live-streaming options are well on their way to be ready to roll and he expects War Memorial Stadium to follow soon.

“Joe has been working with Pixellot directly and each school is responsible for its share and agreement with Pixellot,” Yap said. “The MIL is working with the company to get all of the cameras installed, so we can support the community with live streaming.”

The MIL is also working closely with the county on the number of fans that will be allowed into venues.

Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino told The Maui News last week that he would reevaluate his “Safer Outside” initiative today, specifically on the part that prohibits fans at sporting events — the initiative went into effect 15 days ago.

“As we all know, (University of Hawaii) football has been without fans and the MIL continues to have discussions about allowing fans in the stands and we continue to work the county, but there is no decision yet being made regarding fans in the stands,” Yap said. “Obviously if the game was today, there would probably be no fans, but the game is not today.”

Yap added, “We continue to monitor the delta variant which seems to be slowing down, it seems to be working in our favor. We know all the athletes that are going to be on the field are going to be vaccinated, we know all the officials will be vaccinated, we know all the adults working with the students will be vaccinated — or they will have an exemption, but of course they will follow all the protocols.”

Yap was extremely happy with the way the resumption of practices have kicked off this week across the county. The first football game on the MIL slate is Oct. 22 when Maui High visits Lahainaluna.

“We are very confident that the first football game will go on as scheduled — that’s the plan,” Yap said. “The enthusiasm of the kids, the coaches, we are heading in the right direction.”

The high school sports seasons were halted on Aug. 4 when the state Department of Education decreed that all players, coaches and volunteers must be vaccinated or have an approved medical or religious exemption. The DOE allowed seven weeks for all to get fully vaccinated — the resumption of practice was Monday.

“I think Superintendent (Keith) Hayashi may have made the right call with regards to moving athletics forward, which only works in the schools’ favor because it helps the school with outside activities, it helps people understand that if the athletes are doing it then maybe they want to get vaccinated, too,” Yap said. “So, we’ve seen some very positive movement in trying to deal with this delta variant, trying to keep it under control.

“We’ve had a number of cases here at Maui High, but it hasn’t been school spread. And so we work through this every day, we follow all the protocols, which seems to be working in our favor to keep school open.”

Yap added, “That being said, I don’t think any of our schools will close which will impact athletics because if we do close, it shuts down athletics. So, everything seems to be leaning towards athletics happening.”

Yap summed up his take on the return to sports with a smile on his face.

“It’s promising, it’s encouraging to know that we will have live streaming and I think our next hurdle prior to opening play will be to determine how many fans or what fans will be allowed into the stadium,” Yap said. “I think that’s going to come prior to our first game, so everybody’s got to be patient. We are all trying to work through this so we can have fans in the stands. … That will be the goal to support our community.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

Nelson

Kurt Suzuki (right) and Shohei Ohtani celebrate the Angels’ 7-2 win over Texas on Wednesday. AP photo

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