On the first day of April, Wai'anae Tigers football coach Kenny Johnson arrived at Mairi Community Park before 5 a.m.
The Sports Stadium Licensing Authority will keep people out for a few more hours. But Johnson knew there would be stiff competition for Waianae's youth teams to get monthly field permits.
“I put a chair by the door” to give myself space, he said. Then he went back to his car and waited.
Johnson performs this ritual most months to free up valuable practice space for his team. In addition, he and the rest of his eight soccer teams attend sports council meetings twice a year to discuss how to allocate practice areas along the Waianae coast.
While the number of sports fields on Oahu has stagnated, demand for permits is high and the number continues to grow. Sports leagues are emerging one after another, and more and more leagues are active throughout the year. Adult leagues also compete for the same turf.
Coaches say it's a good problem to have so many kids playing sports. However, it remains a problem, especially as many parks are poorly maintained.
Increase in number of teams
The problem is not limited to the West Side.
Kawehi Kamalamarama, president of the Kailua Mustangs soccer and cheerleading team, addressed the issue at Mayor Rick Blangiardi's Kailua City Hall in March. And Pearl City members of Congress, Sen. Brandon Elefante and Rep. Greg Takayama, introduced a resolution this year asking the Department of Education to allow the public to use the facility outside of school hours. Both resolutions became invalid.
One reason for the increased demand for athletic fields is that many parents want their children to receive athletic scholarships to offset the high cost of college. A few decades ago, they might have just enrolled their kids in soccer during the fall. However, if you continue to play sports year-round, you will have a chance to become more competitive.
Currently, soccer has a fall season and a spring season, and more teams want to use the field. This is a nationwide trend.
The park side tries to squeeze in as many teams as possible. The city is looking to allow different sports on some of the same fields, such as allowing fielding practice for baseball at the same time as soccer.
“How we allocate these resources to the greatest number of people possible is becoming almost military-planning precision,” said Laura Thielen, director of the Department of Parks and Recreation.
“Everyone always wants the most they can get.”
Johnson said the Wai'anae Tigers are made up of multi-age teams in flag football and tackle football, and have different field permits on different days.
It's sunny and hot at Mairikai Community Park, where Johnson was able to get the tackle team's monthly permit on Monday. Holes in the ground make driving dangerous.
Coach Johnson has his players warm up in an area with few holes, and says he primarily uses Mondays to review their play in preparation for Saturday's game.
“Ideally, it would be a top-notch field called Pililau,” Johnson said.
Pililau Community Park is much more shaded than Mairi Community Park. Unlike Waianae Boat Harbor, Johnson's other Waianae Tigers practice facility, it also has lighting.
Waianae's other large soccer organization, Team Blessed Athletics, was able to secure a four-day per week permit for Pililau Community Park at the December Sports Council meeting to allocate permits for the spring season. .
How fields are assigned varies by region.
For Waianae Coast, priority is given to teams with the most players.
For Team Blessed Athletics, these athletes are divided into four tackle teams, about 15 flag teams and one men's and one women's pylon team, said team president Kuna Kaio. Pylon football is a newer, faster-paced version of soccer with fewer players on the field at once.
All of these players mean Team Blessed Athletics has received priority this season.
Sports council meetings can be stressful as each coach searches for the best field for their child.
At the December football meeting, Waianae's team drew cards to determine their standings. Team Blessed Athletics has so many players that they were able to get two picks per round instead of one, Caio said. He used the pick to apply for permission for Pililau Community Park.
Because the number of good field slots is limited, “everyone always wants the maximum they can get,” Thielen said.
Thielen said the department requires rosters because teams sometimes try to inflate their chances by saying they have more players than them.
Thielen said teams can report other teams who have reserved the field but never use it. Those who cheat must confront their peers at twice-yearly in-person sports council meetings. For that reason, Thielen said, the department wants sports council meetings to continue to be held in-person, even as the scheduling system moves online.
quality of the park
Johnson said it's not just the number of fields that matters, but the quality as well.
“If every field looked like Pililau, there would be no problem,” he said.
But many of Honolulu's parks, especially the West Side, are in dire condition. There is often little shade, and the grass dries to dirt during the summer. Many schools do not have lighting to allow for night practice.
In April, the Honolulu City Council passed a resolution asking the Department of Parks and Recreation to request the use of state Department of Education facilities, “particularly in park districts where the demand for field space exceeds the availability of recreation facilities in Honolulu.” was adopted.
DOE spokeswoman Nanea Kalani said principals are responsible for approving requests to use school facilities, and that the city already has established procedures for making those requests.
But Thielen said she wants the DOE to encourage principals to work together, a request she recently made to Superintendent Keith Hayashi.
