Kanani Souza, who led Kamehameha to a state football title in 2004 and was the school’s athletic director for the past five years, announced his retirement as AD,  effective July 31.

A former University of Hawaii football coach, Souza came to the Kapalama campus as head coach and assistant athletic director in 1996.

As head football coach at Kamehameha, he amassed a record of 87-28-2, and led the Warriors to the 2004 state and Interscholastic League of Honolulu titles, their first of each since the 1970s. 

“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with all the student-athletes, faculty and staff of Kamehameha, especially the coaches and athletic department staff. It has been a great experience and I feel very blessed, but for me, it has never been about the victories and championships, but rather all the relationships that I’ve been able to foster over the years that I will truly remember,” Souza, a 1963 alum, said in a press statement.

Prior to his return to Kamehameha, Souza spent 12 years as an assistant football coach at UH. He also coached at the University of Colorado for one season and at his college alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado, for five years. He took a sabbatical as Kamehameha’s coach in 2005 to serve as a graduate assistant coach at Oregon State.