The Maui Interscholastic League teamed with three of the other four leagues in the state to vote for a proposal that will reduce four boys state tournaments from 12 teams to eight for the 2009-10 academic year.

The fields for Division II boys tournaments in basketball, soccer, baseball and volleyball will all be reduced 33 percent after a vote by the Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive board on Thursday at Radford High School.

The MIL's Randy Yamanuha --- principal at Maui High School --- voted with representatives from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, Kauai Interscholastic Federation and Big Island Interscholastic Federation to reduce the numbers in those four state tournaments, while the Oahu Interscholastic Association voted against the plan.

The MIL gets one berth in eight-team tournaments, and two in 12-team events.

The executive board --- made up of one principal per league --- reached a compromise, according to HHSAA executive director

Keith Amemiya, who declined further comment.

''They decided, we decided that we are going to go with that HHSAA recommendation,'' MIL executive director Joe Balangitao said. ''We didn't touch the girls sports (tournaments) because of gender-equity issues.''

Balangitao said that getting the decision made Thursday was important. Class started Aug. 3 for the vast majority of the state's high schools. The decision was tabled three times over the summer after a proposal came out of the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association convention in June from the OIA to cut almost all state team tournaments from 12 to eight.

One of the last delays to the decision came because Amemiya was about to unveil the ''Save Our Sports'' campaign last month. Donations of more than $600,000 have been announced to help offset the $1.2 million sports budget cut faced by public schools.

''I think it was a fair compromise,'' Balangitao said. ''Keith's main concern was not to cut down tournaments that sponsors were giving money to. Another factor was if that tournament was making money, we want to keep it going the way it is. It was a tough decision because money is obviously tight right now.''

The proposal that passed was one of two on the table --- the other being the OIA's that would have kept boys basketball at 12 teams for both divisions and reduced boys soccer in D-I and D-II to eight each, girls D-II soccer to eight, baseball and softball to eight each in D-II and boys volleyball to eight in both D-I and D-II.

Balangitao added that because of the reductions in state tournaments and cost-cutting that MIL tournaments will be eliminated in girls volleyball for both D-I and D-II, girls basketball in D-II and boys basketball in D-II, and softball in D-II.

''We have kind of been preparing for those cuts over the summer,'' Balangitao said.

Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com