Toyama, a 1971 Kaimuki graduate, has been the top administrator of the 31-school OIA since 1998. He has undergone several surgeries in recent years, including knee replacement last November and a major back operation in 2009.

Raymond Fujino, a Department of Education's Civil Rights Compliance Specialist and former boys basketball coach and athletic director at Kaimuki, will take over for Toyama on an interim basis.

Fujino served as chairman of the OIA ADs Council in the early 2000s; he coached Kaimuki to the 1993 boys basketball state championship.

Toyama began his teaching career at Kahuku in the 1970s and later became head football coach and athletic director of his alma mater. He also served a short stint as executive director of the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association in 1996 and 1997.

Under his tenure as OIA executive director, Toyama helped establish the OIA Foundation -- a fund-raising entity that helps provide financial assistance to member schools in need. Last Thursday's Sixth Annual OIA Foundation Banquet honoring Honolulu businessman Don Takaki raised $100,000 and the foundation's endowment has now reached $1 million.

Toyama also was a leading advocate of having at least one athletic trainer in every public high school athletic department. He guided the league through several crises over the past 13 years, including the 2001 teachers' strike, budget cuts in 2008 and 2009 that chopped athletic department funding by more than 36 percent and a Kahuku football ineligibilty incident last fall that canceled the OIA championship game and brought a highly publicized lawsuit against the league.

Toyama's abrupt retirement -- which actually took effect last Thursday -- came as a surprise to many, although the recent surgeries took an obvious physical toll.

"He just said it was time," Fujino said.