HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii announced on Wednesday that Athletic Director David Matlin will step down from his position effective June 2.

UH termed it a “retirement” to close what will be an eight-year tenure.

The school touted his accomplishments in a news release, including his hires of coaches in several flagship UH sports and his stewardship of renovating the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex for football games to be played on campus as a response to the shutdown of Aloha Stadium.

Matlin was not made available for comment on Wednesday, but he issued a statement.

"It's been an honor to serve as the University of Hawai'i Athletics Director for the past seven and a half years," Matlin said. "This has been more than a job for me, it's been the opportunity of a lifetime to work with some incredible people – our student-athletes, coaches, staff, university leadership, and of course our fans – and I thank you all for the passion and dedication that each and every one of you give to our program every day. It's with deep appreciation that I can say that I'm ready to retire as Athletics Director and pass the torch on to the next UH AD when I complete my 8-year term on June 2, 2023."

He is scheduled to speak to the media Thursday afternoon.

Matlin, who was hired on a five-year contract in April 2015, received a three-year extension that would take him through this April at a salary of about $300,000, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported in March 2019.

Attorney Jeff Portnoy, a former member of the UH Board of Regents, told Spectrum News that it will be interesting to see who the school can get as his successor, given what Portnoy sees as a number of challenges facing the university: the Legislature's propensity to intervene in UH affairs; a lack of funding for a competitive Division I program; the ongoing stadium saga; and lack of NIL (name, image and likeness) and Cost-of-Attendance stipend competitiveness for student-athletes compared to peer institutions.

"It's a thankless task," Portnoy said. "You are butting heads constantly with internal and external problems."

UH President David Lassner, Matlin's boss, backed him consistently over his tenure, including through the COVID pandemic and criticism about the last two UH football coaching hires.

Lassner issued a statement: "David Matlin has been a fantastic UH Manoa Athletics Director and is truly going out on top. He is a highly respected senior AD and leader in the Big West Conference, the Mountain West Conference and nationally. David has navigated UH through multiple crises, including COVID-19 and the unexpected loss of Aloha Stadium. He has strengthened our program financially by reducing costs where possible and creating new revenue streams.

"David has led us with integrity and responsibility through the initial upheavals in intercollegiate athletics that are now shaking the foundations of amateurism, including the introduction of the transfer portal and Name/Image/Likeness (NIL). He has given UH our exceptionally strong current cadre of head coaches who are at UH Manoa by choice because they care deeply about Hawaii and our university. And most of all, David has never wavered from putting the health and safety and academic success of our student athletes first. I can't wait to see what successes and joys David's next chapter brings to the Matlins."

UH coaches who spoke with the media Wednesday – Bob Coolen, Timmy Chang, Michele Nagamine, Robyn Ah Mow and Laura Beeman – were supportive of their supervisor.

Softball coach Coolen said Matlin gathered the coaches for a meeting, wished them Happy New Year, and surprised the room at the end of the meeting when he told them he was stepping down. Ah Mow said she teared up.

"We didn’t get an email until we got back to the office. I was totally shocked. I had no idea he was contemplating the retirement," Coolen said.

Chang and Ah Mow thanked Matlin for giving them their first Division I head coaching opportunities.

"One thing I’m happy about is he let me be me. I’m not like everybody else, including the little pidgin I’m talking," said Ah Mow, the women's volleyball coach. "It helps me be a better coach."

Said Chang, who just completed a 3-10 rookie season as football coach, "There’s a lot of things that have gone on within the past year, whether it’s stadium, whether it’s football program. But he worked really hard and this whole athletic department worked hard."

The coaches all thanked Matlin for shepherding the UH athletics program through the pandemic with a positive attitude through downsizing of expenses. Some of them brought up Matlin's mantra of "getting 1% better every day" and how they applied it to their programs.

Beeman, UH's women's basketball coach who was not hired by Matlin, said he created a supportive environment for coaches while still holding them to account. She recalled Matlin's emotional introductory press conference in 2015 and how he poked fun at himself for being crazy for taking the job.

"It meant the world to him to take this job and represent Hawaii and do it the right way," Beeman said. "And he knew he was going to make mistakes. Sitting down and talking to him, the message never changed. David Matlin is who he is. You talk to him, he’s going to tell you the truth."

Nagamine, the women's soccer coach, said she didn't know how Matlin managed through the various stresses of the job in recent years.

Matlin came under fire in January 2022 when the UH football program endured a chaotic end to Todd Graham’s two-year tenure as coach. Graham, a Matlin hire, was accused by multiple players of fostering a toxic team culture. Some of the team’s most talented players entered the NCAA transfer portal and UH leadership was summoned to appear at a State Senate hearing. Matlin appeared on a virtual call and defended Graham, while allowing that UH would assist him with immersion in local culture.

Graham resigned a week later. UH’s hiring process for the next head coach was just as messy; it got embroiled in a back-and-forth with former coach June Jones during the hiring search and ultimately chose former standout quarterback Chang. Among Jones' criticisms was that Matlin and UH demanded control over his staff hiring decisions.

In the wake of the hiring process, Matlin acknowledged he’d considered resigning amid considerable public criticism. However, he remained at his post and stood by the decision to hire Graham, who was not actively coaching at the time of his pickup by UH in January of 2020. Graham was fired from Arizona State after the 2017 season and was to receive a $12.8 million buyout. He left UH without a buyout.

Matlin was believed to have made some hiring decisions on Chang's football staff going into the 2022 season.

Portnoy worked with Matlin for several years as the regents' head of its athletic advisory committee. Aside from the Graham hire, he felt Matlin generally made good moves with personnel.

"We agreed on many things, we disagreed on some," Portnoy said. "But I told him, I wouldn’t take the job and don’t know anybody who would who has a brain. He wanted the job, and he, I think, did as good as he possibly could. And I think he’s burned out, frankly. I don’t know that for a fact but I can count to '2 and 2 equals 4.' He probably just said, ‘you know what, I’ve given eight years’ and let someone else deal with all these issues."

UH, in Wednesday's news release, cited all-time highs in grade-point averages and graduation rates for its student-athletes under Matlin's watch. The athletic department registered $80 million in facilities upgrades and $45 million in fundraising during his tenure, UH said.

Another Matlin hightlight was UH men's volleyball national championships in 2021 and 2022. Fourteen UH teams won conference titles and 19 won conference tournament titles during his stead.

Prior to taking the UH AD job, he was executive director of the Hawaii Bowl and Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. By June, he will be the fifth-longest-serving athletic director in Manoa history. Matlin has a master's degree from UH's Shidler College of Business.

"There is much to do between now and the end of this academic year, so my focus will be on ensuring a smooth transition to the next AD and continuing the positive momentum we have built in all of our programs," Matlin said in the release.

There was no immediate word on UH's process for finding its next athletic director.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.