It’s the holiday season, and apparently, even schools get some pretty cool gifts in their stockings. 

The state has began installing new scoreboards and shot clocks in all 42 of the public high school gymnasiums. Workers installed the Moanalua board during exam week. Athletic Director Joel Kawachi said the new board also includes shot panels on the sides that will identify a player’s uniform numbers, fouls, and points scored. 

“All schools received the new scoreboards and shot clocks, but only five [high schools] got shot panels,” Kawachi said. “These went to the schools that hold state tournaments.”

The other four schools are McKinley, Kalani, Kaimuki and Radford high schools.

Kawachi said Moanalua has been the only public high school to have a shot clock for the past ten years. Now, all schools will have one.

The new clock will, like the previous one, also sit above the basketball backboard, but this one is larger and brighter. It will also have lights that flash to indicate when the time has expired.

“It’s sometimes hard for the referees to see the time count down to zero from where they are standing,” Kawachi said.

In addition to the new state-sponsored scoreboards, the school is installing a new sound system. 

Kawachi said there were “dead” spaces in parts of the gym that made it difficult to hear. Other parts of the gym received audio but lacked clarity. It will almost be concert-like for both players and spectators because the speakers will be facing key areas of the gym. There are also more speakers than before, even in the wrestling area, Kawachi said, guaranteeing a more robust listening experience in the future.