Leave it to Don Botelho to be answering the ILH office phone and going to meetings late on a work day.

Botelho, the ILH executive director who will turn 83 on June 13, is stepping down from the position he’s held since 2003, ILH board member Roland Graham confirmed Wednesday.

Reached via telephone at the ILH office near pau hana time on Wednesday, Botelho said he didn’t have time to talk about his retirement — he had a meeting to get to.

Graham was crystal clear about what Botelho meant to the ILH and interscholastic sports in Hawaii in his 50 years of full-time service in various capacities to thousands of high school athletes, coaches and administrators.

"Unequivocally, there’s a unanimous feeling throughout the league by the heads of schools and athletic directors about the recognition of Don’s ability and great contributions to the ILH and to Hawaii high school athletics," said Graham, who is also the principal of Hawaiian Mission Academy. "He has been just fantastic. Resourceful and personable, he has been able to reach across leagues, to the OIA, to the Big Island, Maui and Kauai, to be a bridge-builder."

Georges Gilbert, a longtime ILH assistant director, has accepted the position of interim executive director.

Graham, who will head the search committee for a replacement, said there is no timetable for hiring Botelho’s successor.

"It’s more important to get the right person than it is to rush," he said, before adding that it’s possible a new executive director could be on board before the fall sports season.

Botelho, a former Roosevelt High and University of Hawaii player who those close to him call "Coach Bo," was an assistant coach at the University of Hawaii from 1960 to ’64. He started the Damien Memorial high school football program in 1965 and coached there until ’73, before he started the Pac-Five athletics program in ’74. Between 1967 and 2002, he was an athletic director at Damien (’67 to ’74), Pac-Five (’74 to ’97) and Mid-Pacific ’74 to ’02), and he was Pac-Five’s football coach from ’74 to ’03, when he became the ILH’s head man.

Botelho has also served as the Hawaii High School Athletic Association’s state football coordinator and the executive director of the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association.

Botelho went 152-279-12 as a football coach, winning Oahu Prep Bowls with Pac-Five in 1982 and 1985.

"Coach Bo is one of the most successful and respected coaches and administrators in Hawaii high school history," said former HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya.

"He was a great mentor and friend to me, especially early on in my HHSAA tenure. Everyone loves and respects him. His retirement is a big loss to not only the ILH, but the HHSAA and the other leagues."