In a sign of the times, the Hawai'i Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association's 49th Annual Conference has broken with tradition and moved to O'ahu for the first time in recent memory.

Commonly called by its acronym, "HIADA" will officially be called to order at this afternoon's general assembly representing the 94 member schools. The conference — most notable for recommending changes to state tournament rules — will continue through Saturday at the Ala Moana Hotel.

It has been held annually at Neighbor Island resorts, but with 54 of the 94 member schools located on O'ahu and increasing concerns about budget cuts, HIADA officials were convinced to move the conference to Honolulu in order to save on travel costs.

That theme prevails throughout the O'ahu Interscholastic Association's list of proposals, many of which are related to reducing participation in state tournaments.

The league has submitted eight such proposals citing the Department of Education's mandated 50-percent cut to public schools' operating budget for athletics over the next two school years.

OIA executive director Dwight Toyama said last week that he has already told the league's athletic directors to plan for that financial blow.

"We're going to be set back about $1 million (total)," Toyama said. "That's the best-case scenario."

Toyama said the OIA partially subsidizes its 28 schools' state tournament participation. In other leagues, much of the money for public schools' state tournament travel comes from independent sources.

One sport appeared destined to be affected by reduced participation — for various reasons — is golf.

Three of the state's five leagues have submitted at least some form of reduction for the boys and girls golf tournaments.

Last month's tournament fields included 120 boys and 81 girls. The one-round scores went as high as 110 for the boys and 180 for the girls.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu's proposal suggests "a state average to qualify for the state tournament ... to ensure the quality and integrity of the field for all players, teams and coaches."

The ILH cites qualifying times for swimmers and track and field athletes to participate in state championship meets.

The Big Island Interscholastic Federation's proposal recommends that "all qualifying players ... must have a scoring average of (less than) 100."

The BIIF says "the BEST players from across the state should be involved ... Golf allows us a method of determining the 'best' players and this (method) should be utilized."

In a broader proposal, the OIA has suggested reducing the state tournament fields for baseball, softball and boys and girls basketball, soccer and volleyball from 12 teams to eight.

The OIA proposals also call for reduction in state tournament participation for track and field, swimming, wrestling, cross country, paddling and air riflery.

Except for track and field, the OIA proposals call for maintaining a mathematic formula to determine the amount of state berths, based on a proportional relationship between the number of teams in each league and statewide.

Other notable proposals include the BIIF's bid for a statewide classification system based solely on enrollment. Currently, leagues are allowed to classify teams as Division I or II based on their own criteria.

The ILH has submitted a proposal to extend team state tournament seeding from four to 12. Currently, only the league champions receive seeds for Division I tournaments, and the rest of the field is placed in brackets based on pre-set guidelines.

The ILH proposal would "provide a weighted bracket of competition for the top four seeds" and "make all respective league playoff games much more important as it will impact state tournament seedings."

All of the proposals will be up for discussion and voting by committees today and tomorrow, and if approved, will advance to Saturday's general assembly vote.

The recommendations then will go before the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association's executive board for final approval Tuesday.