Amemiya not interested in AD job

Keith Amemiya, who was widely expected to be a candidate for the athletic director’s job at the University of Hawaii, will instead serve on the search advisory committee to help pick one.

"I’m not interested in being a candidate," Amemiya told the Star-Advertiser.

He is the second prominent local figure to rule out a candidacy, following acting AD Rockne Freitas.

Committee members said they have not yet been told whether they will be charged with recommending a new AD or a slate of finalists.

UH said the committee would decide whether a search firm is also used.

Amemiya, who is executive administrator and secretary of the UH Board of Regents and former executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, will be one of 14 committee members expected to convene "sometime after Sept. 2, given the members’ calendars," Manoa chancellor Tom Apple said through a spokeswoman.

Three current UH coaches — Norm Chow (football), Dave Shoji (Wahine volleyball) and Laura Beeman (Wahine basketball) — are on the committee. The football team will have an open week after its Sept. 1 opener at USC, and the Wahine volleyball team does not play Sept 3-6.

Former UH Board of Regents chairman Howard Karr is the search advisory chairman and Chow is vice chair.

The other members are: Bob Harrison, CEO and president, First Hawaiian Bank; Peter Ho, chairman, president and CEO, Bank of Hawaii; Bonnyjean Manini, chair, UH Manoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee; Mike McCartney, president and CEO, Hawaii Tourism Authority; Diane Nakashima, APT representative, UH Manoa; Peter Nicholson, faculty athletics representative, UH Manoa; Mark Polivka, chairman, ‘Ahahui Koa Ānuenue; Teena Rasmussen, regent emeritus, UH Board of Regents, and a student representative to be named.