Historical past is anticipated to occur this weekend for Rolling Hills Prep boys’ basketball coach Harvey Kitani. The one query is whether or not it takes place Friday or Saturday.
Kitani has 999 profession teaching victories and has two alternatives to achieve 1,000 with video games towards Bishop Gorman on Friday at Mater Dei and Hawthorne Math & Science Magnet on Saturday at Harbor Faculty.
Solely two different coaches in California historical past have reached 1,000 wins — Gary McKnight at Mater Dei and Mike LeDuc at Damien, in line with stats compiled by CalHiSports.com.
“You form of try to grasp that,” Kitani mentioned. “It’s nothing I signed up for. You hear the previous coaches say you’ve been teaching a very long time. It’s simply unbelievable being lucky to be wholesome and my help system at residence has allowed me to try this stuff.”
Most of Kitani’s wins got here teaching 35 years at Fairfax. He left the Metropolis Part after the 2015-16 season to teach at Rolling Hills Prep, the place he has gained 4 part titles. It’s quarter-hour from his residence and two of his sons attended Rolling Hills Prep.
One tidbit from Kitani is that he spent one season — 1979-80 — teaching at San Fernando. He mentioned he most likely would by no means have left, however he obtained displaced, leaving him with no educating job. He spent 1980-81 serving to coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills and taking courses to change into a particular training trainer. Then he ended up at Fairfax and by no means left once more till retiring from educating.
Former Westchester coach Ed Azzam holds the Metropolis Part report for many teaching victories.
This can be a every day have a look at the optimistic happenings in highschool sports activities. To submit any information, please e-mail eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
