KAPAA — A Kauai Interscholastic Federation boys volleyball match is on hold after a fire extinguisher was set off inside the gym at Kapaa High School. “I’ve never seen anything like this happen before, in any type of sport event,”
KAPAA — A Kauai Interscholastic Federation boys volleyball match is on hold after a fire extinguisher was set off inside the gym at Kapaa High School.
“I’ve never seen anything like this happen before, in any type of sport event,” said Kapaa varsity head coach Kapule Kaona. “This was a first for me.”
A game ball knocked over the extinguisher Tuesday evening, filling the gym with a chemical cloud. The game officials postponed the match for safety reasons. A date to continue the match is to be determined.
At the time, Kapaa’s varsity boys volleyball team was leading Waimea, 19-17, in the third set. Kapaa had won the first two sets, 25-16 and 25-18.
“I just want a result from the game already, whether it was a win or loss. I think both teams just wanted it to end,” Kaona said. “Particularly when you got a momentum swing and you got momentum on your side and then something like this happens, it’s unfortunate. It’s a little disheartening, but that’s how it goes. You really can’t do anything about it.”
Also, the gym’s scoreboard went out of order during the second set.
Waimea head coach Alton Shimatsu called the whole ordeal “an unfortunate turn of events.”
“I’ve been doing volleyball for 10 years, maybe 12, and I’ve never had this many things go wrong in one game — with the scoreboard going out, all the timeouts we took, and then the grand finale of the fire extinguisher going off,” he said. “I was just worried about getting the boys out of there in time.”
Shimatsu added considering his team was losing at that point, perhaps the incident could be a stroke of serendipity for them.
“If we were ahead, then it would be a buzzkill. But in the position that we’re in, it’s kind of a blessing in disguise,” Shimatsu said. “If the game gets rescheduled, we just got to come back ready to play. Kapaa is a very good team.”
The scoreboard had been problematic for some time. The replacement should be arriving next week, said Kapaa High athletic director Greg Gonsalves.
“We’ve had some issues with this older scoreboard similar to this, but it’s been working,” Gonsalves said. “Unfortunately, it’s the controller that’s giving us issues tonight.”
Prior to the varsity match, Kapaa’s junior varsity team won all three sets versus Waimea, 25-23, 26-24 and 25-21.
In the night’s other KIF contest, Kauai High School’s varsity team defeated Island School in straight sets in Puhi, winning all three sets, 25-15.
Kauai’s JV team also won, 2-1, winning the first and third sets, 25-12 and 25-8. The JV Voyagers won the second set, 25-18.
Kapaa (2-0 KIF) will host Kauai High (1-2 KIF) and Waimea (2-0) will host Island School (0-3 KIF) on Friday. The JV games will begin 5 p.m. and the varsity will follow.
