Impacts from the recent movement of Hawai'i's high school girls basketball season continue to emerge, as Punahou has been invited to play in a prestigious tournament in Arizona and 'Iolani has announced it will host a new tournament that includes three teams from California.

Also, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association will start its season the week of Dec. 10, about three weeks before the boys begin play.

All of these developments are the result of the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association executive board's vote last month to move the girls basketball season from the spring to winter starting in the 2007-08 school year, placing Hawai'i in alignment with the other 49 states.

One of the major benefits of the move was to provide opportunities for Hawai'i girls to compete against Mainland teams, and Punahou coach Mike Taylor said the Buffanblu will be the first Hawai'i team ever to play in a Mainland tournament in-season.

They will travel to Phoenix the third week of December to play in the Nike Tournament of Champions, which featured 80 teams from 19 states last year.

In last year's championship game, Collins Hill (Suwanee, Ga.) — ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today — defeated No. 2-ranked Long Beach (Calif.) Poly.

"It's the biggest tournament in the country," said Taylor, who has guided Punahou to three state titles in the past five years. "A lot of the Top 20 teams will be there. It will be great competition and a great experience for us, to be able to watch a different style of play. We're really excited, we're fortunate to be a part of it."

The 'Iolani tournament will be held Dec. 13, 14 and 15, and tournament director Glenn Young said two of the California teams coming — Narbonne (Harbor City) and Redondo Union — are considered powerhouses in the Los Angeles area.

"Narbonne won the city championship three of the past five years," Young said. "And Redondo Union has a girl who is supposed to be a preseason All-American."

The third California team, Granada (Livermore), is coached by former St. Mary's College and University of Oregon point guard Corrie Mizusawa, whose family is from Hawai'i. Mizusawa grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was a standout at Acalanes (Lafayette) High School, but spent her summers in Hawai'i training at Dennis Agena's Kalakaua Foundation Clinic.

Young, who has run the nationally renown 'Iolani Prep Classic boys tournament for the past 25 years, said he also plans on having two OIA teams in the eight-team girls field.

The OIA has a rule prohibiting "outside competition" once its regular season begins, but waivers have been granted before and Young said OIA executive director Dwight Toyama told him the league likely would allow teams to compete in the new 'Iolani tournament.

Kailua athletic director Mel Imai, the OIA girls basketball coordinator, said the upcoming season follows the traditional 13-week track used in the past, with five weeks of "preseason," seven weeks of regular season and one week of playoffs.

The girls state tournament will be held one week before the boys tourney.

"That's how we usually figure out the schedule: We look at when the state tournament is, then work backward," Imai said. "We figure out how many games we're going to have each week, and we didn't want to go to three games a week because that's another school night. So we're going with two games per week, and the five-week preseason is not a change. It was based on how we've run things in the past."

The OIA boys regular season probably will start in January as usual, Imai said, because most boys preseason tournament dates (including those with Mainland teams) already have been set.

"(The boys) are going with a seven-week preseason, so their regular season will be crunched," Imai said. "Some teams will probably be playing three games in one week; it'll be condensed."

The first day of practice for girls basketball will be Nov. 5. Allowing for two weeks of intrasquad practice time, that leaves a three-week period between Nov. 19 and Dec. 8 for any OIA-hosted "preseason" tournaments. Kalaheo coach Ryan Hogue said his school plans to continue with its annual tournament, though no dates have been set.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu has not yet announced its basketball schedules, but Taylor said they are not likely to start before Christmas.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.