Oh, the March of the Athletic Directors from across the state to pristine Waikoloa is part-vacation and part work. HIADA is a working vacation, as they say. It's not really akin to a gathering of bean counters, pencil pushers and thumb twiddlers, but ADs absolutely do have to balance budgets.

It's not quite a convention of teachers and principals, though every AD applies lessons and discipline to his/her coaches and student-athletes. There are golf bags aplenty when Hawaiian and Go transport ADs to the Big Island, but it's not all play, either.

There are issues, and people will have to convene in rooms to discuss. Whether the solutions are available and applied, that's something that won't be determined officially until Saturday morning. Until then, it's a lot of debate, followed by down time. Lord knows these folks need it. After 10 months of 6-day-a-week work, they can finally breathe in, breathe out and not worry about whether the gym or field has been prepared properly for a game.

One of the issues that is likely to pop up, maybe even as a proposal, is the size of state-tournament fields. Travel costs are at a premium now, and though ADs are former players and coaches for the most part, they have, as I mentioned, budgets to balance. Money just don't grown trees, right?

We shall see how this dilemma is resolved. Wish I had a beeellion bucks to help them out. For the moment, it's time for me to load up my stuff and fly over. This will be the first I actually stay overnight in Waikoloa instead of Kailua-Kona, my old hometown in the 1990s. Aside from a few HIADAs, Waikoloa is a mystery to me. Sort of a packaged series of lush resorts, expensive housing and oasis golf courses sprawled over miles of relatively fresh lava flows. Waikoloa is also the recipient of howling winds that blast through Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, tilting tourists' and local s' cars alike as they pass Saddle Road.

A kite-flying contest at Waikoloa would make perfect sense to me. Waikoloa and its nearby regions like Anaehoomalu have history. I just don't know enough about it. Yet.

Hilo is a true old town. So is Kealakekua. Holualoa. Waimea. You see the layers of development, rustic and modern. Honokaa. Kapaau. But Waikoloa? Not exactly my cup of tea. It's less of a town and more of mecca mostly for folks who can afford to vacation in a place that lacks traffic, congestion, cold weather and concrete (not counting resorts). The beaches are within almost point-blank range.

For me, though, it's about work. Anything more is gravy.

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