Keith Amemiya, a former attorney who has changed the landscape of local prep sports in the past 11 years, said this morning he plans to step down from his position as Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association executive director within the next seven months.

In an e-mail statement to The Advertiser, Amemiya said:

"After contemplating this decision with my family for the last couple of years, I decided to leave my position as HHSAA Executive Director by the end of the current school year. In order to provide for as seamless a transition as possible, the HHSAA executive board was informed of my decision this past summer and the process to find my replacement is already underway, with a Selection Committee already in place. There are several options that I’m currently contemplating once I leave my position, but for now I’m planning on taking a little bit of a break and spending more time with my family."

Amemiya's announcement to the HHSAA executive board was done confidentially during a closed session.

Since taking over the helm of the HHSAA as a surprise hire in 1998, Amemiya has been a force of change in Hawai‘i high school athletics, most notably:

• Creating a classification system for state tournaments allowing smaller schools a window to compete for state titles;

• Initiating a football state tournament that includes Neighbor Island representation;

• Adding state tournaments in sports in like judo, air riflery, canoe paddling and cheeerleading, to the point where Hawai'i now leads the nation in number of state tournament events;

• Spearheading the HHSAA "SOS" (Save Our Sports) campaign, which has raised over $1.3 million in the past three months to help offset drastic budget cuts to public school athletic programs;

• Setting in motion the installation of a state-of-the-art artificial surface at Roosevelt, the first project of its kind at a Hawai'i public school.