Prep talk: Harvey Kitani is one win away from historic milestone
History is expected to happen this weekend for Rolling Hills Prep boys’ basketball coach Harvey Kitani. The only question is whether it takes place Friday or Saturday.
Kitani has 999 career coaching victories and has two opportunities to reach 1,000 with games against Bishop Gorman on Friday at Mater Dei and Hawthorne Math & Science Magnet on Saturday at Harbor College.
Only two other coaches in California history have reached 1,000 wins — Gary McKnight at Mater Dei and Mike LeDuc at Damien, according to stats compiled by CalHiSports.com.
“You kind of are trying to comprehend that,” Kitani said. “It’s nothing I signed up for. You hear the old coaches say you’ve been coaching a long time. It’s just unbelievable being fortunate to be healthy and my support system at home has allowed me to do that stuff.”
Most of Kitani’s wins came coaching 35 years at Fairfax. He left the City Section after the 2015-16 season to coach at Rolling Hills Prep, where he has won four section titles. It’s 15 minutes from his home and two of his sons attended Rolling Hills Prep.
One tidbit from Kitani is that he spent one season — 1979-80 — coaching at San Fernando. He said he probably would never have left, but he got displaced, leaving him with no teaching job. He spent 1980-81 helping coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills and taking classes to become a special education teacher. Then he ended up at Fairfax and never left again until retiring from teaching.
Former Westchester coach Ed Azzam holds the City Section record for most coaching victories.
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