Punahou School has selected Jeaney Garcia of Brentwood (Los Angeles) School to become its new athletic director, Punahou president James K. Scott told The Advertiser last night.

Scott said an 11-person selection committee composed of administrators, faculty and trustees chose Garcia from an original local and national pool of more than 100 applicants, eight semifinalists and four finalists to lead Punahou's athletic program, which was ranked by Sports Illustrated as No. 1 among 38,000 high schools across the nation.

Scott said the selection was made over the weekend and was announced to the faculty and staff yesterday. An official statement from the school is expected to be released this morning, Scott said.

Current Punahou athletic director Tom Holden announced his retirement in October and his scheduled last day is June 30.

In the internal announcement, Scott said Garcia "enthusiastically accepted the opportunity." He said she participated in the Great Aloha Run on Monday.

According to Scott, Garcia spent part of her childhood in Hawai'i when her father was stationed at Schofield Barracks.

She graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor's degree in exercise science and nutrition and earned a masters degree in athletic administration/kinesiology from Cal Poly-Pomona.

Scott said Garcia has spent 18 years as an educator, including stints as athletic director, PE teacher and department chairperson, and dormitory parent at the Webb Schools in Claremont, Calif. and Lake Forest (Ill.) Academy.

She currently is athletic director at Brentwood, a K-12 private school located in a prestigious area of West Los Angeles.

In a statement on Brentwood's official Web site, Garcia writes: "Today Brentwood is known for the high rate of participation of the student body on its athletic teams, the remarkable achievement of those teams in a wide variety of sports, and often the way our players, coaches and fans conduct themselves ..."

According to the Web site, Brentwood's enrollment is 990. Punahou's enrollment is 3,760.

Punahou won 16 team state championships in the 2007-2008 school year alone, including eight in the spring. The Buffanblu won 13 team state championships in both 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.

Holden said 12 of last year's seniors signed national letters of intent to play for NCAA Division I programs.

Punahou offers 114 teams at three levels — varsity, JV and intermediate — from football to sailing, and 1,075 out of last year's 1,720 high school students, or 62.5 percent, played at least one sport, according to director of communications Laurel Bowers Hussain.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456. Read his blog on high school sports at www.preptalk.honadvblogs.com