The Maui Interscholastic League displayed goodwill by making an exception to give one of its teams an extra preseason game to accommodate an O'ahu team that lost an opponent at the last minute.

Though unrelated, the league was rewarded by local businesses with donations totaling $30,000 so that its Saturday football games can be played at night.

Kalaheo High was scheduled to play Kohala Saturday at Kailua High. But two weeks ago, the Mustangs were notified that the Cowboys would be unable to make the trip. That left Kalaheo scrambling to find an opponent this weekend, the only opening for O'ahu Interscholastic Association White teams to play nonleague games. Kalaheo coach Chris Mellor called MIL executive director Joe Balangitao to see if any MIL teams were available. The league already told its members that they were limited to one nonleague game to save on costs.

"It wasn't a planned thing," said Balangitao, who coached Baldwin from 1990 to 1999. "I felt for him. It's tough (to start the regular season) without playing at least one game. We just felt we could help out."

Balangitao asked the MIL athletic directors if it was OK to make an exception for King Kekaulike, and they agreed. So the Mustangs will play Na Ali'i, 7 p.m. Friday at King Kekaulike. Na Ali'i will still play their other nonleague game Aug. 22 at Kealakehe on the Big Island.

Mellor said his players' parents approved of the last-minute trip, which is costing each player about $100 for the round-trip tickets.

"(King Kekaulike) will pick us up from the airport, they will feed us a meal that evening," Mellor said. "With the airline flights $43 each way, we basically took a vote (and asked) if we could come up with $100 each. Everybody raised their hand and the parents were supportive. It was total parental funding."

Meanwhile, Balangitao announced that the league received $30,000 in donations from various Maui businesses so that Saturday games can be restored to night. The MIL's original schedule had day games for Saturdays at school campuses. It would have cost about $200 per hour to have the lights turned on at school sites.

"It would be better for us at the gate and for the families to watch the games," Balangitao said.

Meanwhile, schools are looking for ways to raise money or reduce costs.

Campbell is following Castle this season in charging a fee for parking at the school. Last year, Castle began using a professional parking service and charged $3 per car. The Kane'ohe school's campus can accommodate at least 260 cars, interim athletic director Laynie Sueyasu said. Castle's intent to charge for parking since last year wasn't to raise money, but for security purposes. The school's ROTC personnel used to take care of parking procedures.

Beginning with Friday's nonleague game against Farrington, Campbell will be charging $5 for parking for its five home games this season, athletic director Sam Delos Reyes said. The 'Ewa Beach school has about 80 parking stalls. The estimated $2,000 raised will help offset the football team's transportation expenses, Delos Reyes said.

To help reduce costs, the Sabers will limit their JV and varsity rosters to 50 players each, or enough so that each uses just one bus for away games. Each bus holds about 60 passengers.

Moanalua is limited to one bus for varsity football, too. But instead of cutting players, remaining ones will have to catch rides with their parents to away games, Na Menehune coach Arnold Martinez said.

Some of the bigger football programs like Farrington, Wai'anae, Leilehua and 'Aiea will continue to use as many buses needed to accom-modate their players.