An 18-year-old all-star who was ruled ineligible to play his senior year is considering whether to try for an exemption to play other sports, file a lawsuit in state court, or take other action, according to a hearing in U.S. District Court Monday.

Zavior Ward, the 2024 Interscholastic League of Honolulu boy’s water polo player of the year will decide by next week whether to apply for another exemption from Interscholastic League of Honolulu eligibility requirements so he may participate in volleyball or swimming, his attorney Jeff Portnoy said in federal court Monday morning.

The ILH has never approved an exemption request to the rule that athletes have four years of eligibility starting in the ninth grade.

ILH’s lawyers maintain that Ward knew he would be limited to four years of eligibility and prevented from playing water polo his senior year after transferring from Kalaheo to Hawaii Baptist Academy.

HBA’s president and athletic director signed Ward’s exemption request that stated in part that a first-time admissions director failed to tell Ward before he transferred that repeating the ninth grade would end his athletic eligibility during his senior year.

Ward maintains he never would have transferred if he and his mother were told that before completing the enrollment process.

Ward played for La Pietra Academy in 2024 and their coach allowed Ward to practice with the team this season. Ward was not allowed to play any games. He attends HBA but played for La Pietra because HBA does not have a water polo program.

Portnoy told U.S. District Judge Micah W.J. Smith and attorneys for HBA and the ILH that Ward and his family are considering “various options ” and would make a decision on next steps by Monday.

“They still haven’t reached a decision on the options that we’ve given them. They include … withdrawing the present motion for a preliminary injunction and refiling another motion (seeking to have his eligibility restored for other sports.) They also include dismissing the federal court case and refiling in state court against (HBA, the ILH, or both ), ” said Portnoy.

Portnoy said there was also an issue of an alleged violation of student privacy law after attorneys for the ILH reached out to a university in California to discuss their potential recruitment of Ward.

“We are reviewing that to see if that is a possible claim, ” said Portnoy, noting they will likely withdraw the filing that Smith ruled on. “There is also the possibility of not pursuing any claim.”

Smith, acknowledging the frustrating finality of his ruling, denied Ward’s temporary restraining order Oct. 8 that would have allowed him to play the last part of the season.

Smith wrote that the current record does not show that Ward has been barred from participation in high school athletics because of the conduct of any state actor but acknowledged that more evidence could change his claim.

Ward alleges that the school’s admissions director suggested he apply as a repeating freshmen, not a sophomore, for “academic reason ” when he transferred from Kalaheo in 2022, according to the 19-page complaint filed Sept. 24.

Ward’s father passed away in 2020 and a broken hip and long COVID-19 forced him to miss at least five months of school in 2021.

Donna A.O. Yoshimoto, attorney for HBA, told Smith’s court Monday that “HBA is living with ILH rules, HHSAA rules.”

“We’re just trying to be participants just like every other private school in the state of Hawaii. And those rules are the rules and we are … subject to them, ” said Yoshimoto, noting that HBA encouraged Ward to submit another exemption request for spring sports as soon as possible.

Portnoy said that any application for an exemption to play spring sports would be made after the “critical sport (water polo ) is over.”

“That’s a decision that he and his mother are going to have to make, ” said Portnoy.