ESPN RISE

Six-hundred wins is a major coaching milestone in California prep basketball. For veteran Fairfax (Los Angeles) coach Harvey Kitani, the crowning achievement was supposed to happen sometime this December.

Scott Kurtz for ESPNRISE

Harvey Kitani coached the West team to victory at the 2006 McDonald's All-American game in San Diego.

But win No. 600 is history, courtesy of last season's 83-61 Fairfax victory over Washington (Los Angeles) in the CIF L.A. City Section quarterfinals.

What gives?

The CalHiSports.com coaching logs for Kitani show him with a 590-186 mark (including defaults and forfeits) since he began coaching varsity basketball at Fairfax in 1981. The thing is, the Gardena and Long Beach State graduate coached San Fernando in the 1979-80 season, and Kitani's Tigers went 13-12.

Because of his humble nature and dedication to teaching the game, Kitani doesn't seem bothered by the oversight.

"Those things are nice," he said of milestones, "but I think it's great what you guys do [compiling high school records]."

Kitani's Fairfax teams have been staples in the ESPN RISE FAB 50 the past 10 years. Adding to his league, city or state titles this season will be a challenge, as league rival Westchester returns most of the top players from its CIF Division I state title team. Fairfax has Jordan Weathers, a 6-2 senior guard, and Kitani is eager to mold 6-1 sophomore Amir McCormick and 6-6 freshmen Amari Mundy and Reggie Theus Jr., son of the former Inglewood, UNLV and NBA standout.

"I try to tell the kids I've been in this position before," said Kitani, who has 16 outright or shared league titles, three L.A. City Section championships, two CIF Division I state titles and 28 consecutive playoff appearances at Fairfax. "This team will start under the radar. It could be a bumpy road, but we'll do all right if we properly prepare to make a run. You got to have the right attitude to create that separation [from other teams]."

This season's team is similar to Kitani's San Fernando squad. With the Tigers, Kitani started five sophomores and played a junior. San Fernando took its lumps, but Kitani was excited about the team's prospects for the next two seasons … until LAUSD budget cuts eliminated more than 100 physical education positions, including his. Kitani says it broke his heart not to coach those players through their high school careers, but he's proud to say some of his San Fernando players still pop up at Fairfax games.

Not surprisingly, Kitani's fondest memory at Fairfax involves another team similar to his group at San Fernando.

During the 1988-89 season, future NBA players Adonis Jordan (who played at Kansas) and Lucious Harris (Long Beach State) and six other eventual Division I recruits led Cleveland of Reseda to the title in the prestigious Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic and entered the L.A. City Section playoffs ranked No. 2 in the state.

"We played them in December and lost by 30 points or so," Kitani said.

In the quarterfinals, Fairfax outscored perhaps the most talented team in San Fernando Valley history 6-0 in the final 20 seconds to pull off a stunning 53-51 win.

"I still remember the excitement when we got back to school," Kitani said. "Just trying to get those kids to go home from the parking lot … "

The Lions' run ended in the semifinals against eventual state champion Crenshaw. Fairfax's record that season?

Yup, you guessed it: 13-12.

Ronnie Flores covers high school sports for ESPNRISE.com