Harvey Kitani
Fairfax High School
Impact Statement
“I just want to teach basketball and I’m excited to see the kids learning and improving.”
-Harvey Kitani
Biography
Kitani has guided Fairfax, one of southern California’s storied programs, to the state playoffs in each of his 29 seasons as head coach, as well as several appearances in national rankings.
In 30 years on the bench – his first year was at San Fernando High – he owns a career record of 620-209, including a 607-197 mark at Fairfax. His teams have won 16 league championships, three Los Angeles City championships and two Division 1 state titles. Kitani is a two-time winner of the John R. Wooden Award, as California Coach of the Year in 1999 and as National Coach of the Year in 2004, after guiding Fairfax to the state championship.
He also led Fairfax to the 2007 state title. Kitani earned Coach of the Year honors from the California Coaches Association in 2005. In 2006, he was the head coach of the West team in the McDonald’s All-American Game. Kitani has been part of the coaching staff for the Nike All-American Camp for 10 years and more than 100 of his players have gone on to earn college scholarships.
Since being honored in 2010, Kitani continued to coach Fairfax until he stepped down in May of 2016 after 35 years and a 853-284 record. Kitani also retired from his L.A. Unified School District teaching position. Kitani was hired at Rolling Hills Preparatory prior to the 2016-2017 season as the Head Coach for the Boys’ Basketball team and is the assistant Athletic Director.
Kitani led Rolling Hills Prep to their first CIF Division 5 State Championship. This feat was only completed by one other coach in California’s history.
In 2018 Kitani was named as court coach the USA Men’s U17 World Cup Team Training Camp.
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