Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot Initiative Kicks-Off with Volleyball

Phase 2 of the State’s REACH initiative, a Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot program, kicked-off on Saturday with boys and girls volleyball at the Baldwin High School gym.

The Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health or REACH initiative expanded to include middle schools and is using the sports of Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, and Cross Country running throughout the 2016-17 school year.  This pilot initiative seeks to study the viability and effects of a formal interscholastic middle school athletics program.

The program aims to provide a structured environment that instills self-discipline, builds self-confidence, fosters quality relationships and boosts school pride and improves student attendance, behavior, coursework and grades, including promoting active lifestyles.  The program also seeks to address childhood obesity which has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

Following the High School athletics model, participating student-athletes are required to: (1) maintain a 2.0 GPA with no F grades and submit to regular grade checks, (2) submit a Department of Education (DOE) Student Participation and Parent/Guardian Consent, Release and Assumption of Risk Form, and (3) submit a DOE Physical Examination for Athletes Form.

All eight DOE Maui District middle/intermediate schools are participating: Maui Waena Intermediate School, Kalama Intermediate School, Lahaina Intermediate School, Molokaʻi Middle School, Lānaʻi High and Elementary School, Lokelani Intermediate School, Hāna High and Elementary School, and ʻĪao Intermediate School.

Spearheaded by Lieutenant Governor Shan Tsutsui, the REACH Initiative is a statewide public middle school initiative which seeks to ensure all public school students in grades 6 to 8 receive the academic and community-based support they need to stay on track toward high school graduation.  The program engages students in a broad-base of programs and activities, outside of regular instructional hours, in the areas of academic enrichment, arts and culture, and athletics.

For the 2016-2017 school year, nearly 5,000 public middle and intermediate school students at 28 schools across the state are a part of the program.

The Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot is being delivered in collaboration with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, state Office of Youth Services, the County of Maui Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Maui Interscholastic League.

The remaining games for the volleyball phase will be played tournament style on four Saturdays including: Nov. 12 at the King Kekaulike High School gym; Dec. 3 at the Lahaina Civic Center; and Dec. 10 at the Maui High School gym.

Phase 2 of the State of Hawaii’s Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health(R.E.A.C.H.) Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot Initiative kicked-off Saturday with boys and girls volleyball at the Baldwin High School gym.

Phase 2 of the State of Hawaii’s Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health(R.E.A.C.H.) Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot Initiative kicked-off Saturday with boys and girls volleyball at the Baldwin High School gym.

Phase 2 of the State of Hawaii’s Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health(R.E.A.C.H.) Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot Initiative kicked-off Saturday with boys and girls volleyball at the Baldwin High School gym.

Phase 2 of the State of Hawaii’s Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health(R.E.A.C.H.) Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot Initiative kicked-off Saturday with boys and girls volleyball at the Baldwin High School gym.

Phase 2 of the State of Hawaii’s Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health(R.E.A.C.H.) Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot Initiative kicked-off Saturday with boys and girls volleyball at the Baldwin High School gym.

Phase 2 of the State of Hawaii’s Resources for Enrichment, Athletics, Culture and Health(R.E.A.C.H.) Maui Middle School Athletics Pilot Initiative kicked-off Saturday with boys and girls volleyball at the Baldwin High School gym.