Quotes about how high school football fans have to miss some UH games

About how he has to leave the UH game after the first quarter to watch his son Abe play, Barry Markowitz said:
"It's trying to make the most out of an unfortunate conflict of interest." (HSB)


About how Abe is related to Brashton and Hercules Satele, Amani Purcell, B.J. Fruean, and Lafu, Barry said:
"It just goes on and on that the blood ties and family ties are so deep for the Warriors, that every time my son gets to watch a game, he's just so focused. This is his family." (HSB)

HSB Note: "Markowitz's dilemma is likely to be shared this weekend by many families who must choose between a relative or family friend, or the UH season tickets they paid for. This week, six high school games coincide with the UH football opener.

A perfect storm of interleague games with the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, lack of field availability and finite referee staffing led to the increase in games shifted from Friday to Saturday this week, Oahu Interscholastic Association executive director Dwight Toyama explained. Whenever possible, his aim is to have no more than three or four Saturday games."


About the schedule conflicts, OIA scheduling coordinator Harold Tanaka said:
"We don't want to water down the officials, spread 'em all over. We did (notice) it was opening day for UH, and we were like, 'Oh, my God.' " (HSB)


About how they try to schedule as many games on Friday as possible, Tanaka said:
"If we had our way, we'd love to have everybody play on Friday night because our coaches would be happy, yeah? They all want to watch UH football, too." (HSB)


UH fan Nalani Choy said:
"We're UH supporters; we want to see the stadium packed every game. It's the season opener, so we're disappointed we're going to miss it, but if we have a conflict, we're going to have to pick our son." (HSB)

HSB Note: "UH associate athletic director John McNamara said he understands scheduling realities. Earlier this week, he estimated about 34,000 tickets would be issued for today's game, although he said it was impossible to guess how many people would miss the game to see a high school contest."


About schedule conflicts, McNamara said:
"Sometimes logistically, it's impossible to avoid (conflicts). We have football, volleyball and soccer, just on our own front. While we might have fans torn, it works both ways." (HSB)


About how he can sympathize with UH's schedule conflicts, Tanaka pointed out that UH played some national TV games on Friday nights:
"Oh, definitely, definitely. Typically, the Friday nights (are) supposed to be high school football -- the unwritten rule kind of thing." (HSB)



About showing high school games on Saturdays, OC 16's manager of sports Dave Vinton said:
"We're just fans of high school football, and we know that the demand is there to see more games. We expanded to Saturday because we knew games would be available, and that was pretty much it." (HSB)


About having to choose between high school and UH games, Markowitz said:
"It's nobody's fault. We don't hold anybody to blame. I'm sure they did whatever they did thinking it was in the best interest of everybody." (HSB)