History is expected to happen this weekend for Rolling Hills Prep boys\u2019 basketball coach Harvey Kitani. The only question is whether it takes place Friday or Saturday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Only two other coaches in California history have reached 1,000 wins \u2014 Gary McKnight at Mater Dei and Mike LeDuc at Damien, according to stats compiled by CalHiSports.com.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cYou kind of are trying to comprehend that,\u201d Kitani said. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing I signed up for. You hear the old coaches say you\u2019ve been coaching a long time. It\u2019s just unbelievable being fortunate to be healthy and my support system at home has allowed me to do that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of Kitani\u2019s 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\u2019s 15 minutes from his home and two of his sons attended Rolling Hills Prep.<\/p>\n One tidbit from Kitani is that he spent one season \u2014 1979-80 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n