Public versus Private High School Sports on Oahu

In 1970 most of the public high schools on Oahu banded together to form an athletic conference called the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA). The formation of the OIA marks the start of a widening chasm between the public and private schools that affects the high school athletic landscape in Honolulu.

The private schools in Honolulu have been recruiting top local athletes for decades. Regardless of whether some public schools recruit or not, the playing field has and will never be level. Private schools dominate the state championships year in and year out.

The OIA is now taking their first step towards a permanent separation from playing private schools in a state championship in the sport of football. One could foresee a future where separate state championships are divided along private and public school lines for all sports. This is not fantasy, just look all across the mainland for many examples of this scenario.

No amount of money is going to level the playing field to the public schools satisfaction. Soon it will be left to the people with gray hair to regale others of the romantic times of an innocent Oahu where public and private schools competed against each other.