Harris Family Shooting for a Unique Basketball Double Play

Today is a special day for the Harris family.

Jim Harris will send his Ocean View High boys’ basketball team onto the Arrowhead Pond floor at 1 today against Barstow in the Southern Section Division III-AA championship game.

About the same time but 18 miles to the west, Kim Harris will be exhorting her girls’ basketball team in the closing minutes of another title game.

Kim is Jim’s daughter and also the coach at Brethren Christian, which plays Cerritos Valley Christian in today’s Division IV-A title game beginning at 11:15 at Long Beach State’s Pyramid.

What could be better?

Well, father and daughter would have liked to watch each other’s games, but each will have a rooting section made up of at least a couple members of the immediate family--Jim’s wife Sandi and their other four children: Kristi, Kathryn, Kelsey and Jim III.

Kim Harris, 31, began her coaching career while still in high school. As a senior at Ocean View, she was asked to take over the girls’ junior varsity team for the 1982-83 season after its coach abruptly resigned.

She stayed on as the JV coach until 1988, when she joined her father as an assistant on his boys’ varsity staff. Four years later, she was hired to coach at Brethren Christian.

“My desire to coach came from my dad,” Kim said. “He loves what he does and it was contagious. I saw he loved having a positive influence over young people. I fell in love with that more than anything.

“My greatest experience before now was coaching with him at Ocean View. It gave me the opportunity to watch the game and learn how decisions are made. Having no pressure, I could see the game clearly. That’s where I learned the most.”

Jim Harris’ Ocean View team, which is 24-4 and won the Golden West League title, has been one of the county’s big success stories this season.

The Seahawks spent much of the season ranked second in the county behind Santa Margarita. But then the Eagles lost two games and the Seahawks, who have won 14 in a row, finished atop the sportswriters’ poll.

The last time Ocean View reached a section title game was 1985, when it lost to Mater Dei, 68-59, in the Division 5-A final.

Harris has had several fine teams during his 20 years of coaching, but said it was hard to recall a group of players that were as much fun to work with as this season’s.

“Sometimes you can be successful and it’s a grind,” he said. “But this is the kind of team that you don’t want the ride to end.

“They like each other, sacrifice for each other, and play as hard as you can play. We haven’t had too many players who score 30 a game because we don’t feature one guy, but we have the depth from top to bottom. When we substitute, our game gets better instead of having a drop-off. That’s unusual.”

It’s been a tougher climb to the top for Brethren Christian.

The Warriors (18-10) finished third in the Olympic League behind Valley Christian and Calvary Chapel, which meets Playa Del Rey St. Bernard today for the Division IV-AA title.

Brethren Christian has upset top-seeded Santa Monica Crossroads and fourth-seeded Burbank Bellarmine-Jefferson to reach today’s game.

“Our season has been a surprise because of how far the girls have come,” Kim Harris said. “It’s been a continual improvement over a long period of time.

“This team had to undergo a major transition from last year to this year, especially when Cindy Oparah moved to point guard [after three seasons as a power forward]. Cindy has been one of our two best players along with [center] Rachael McDonald. Rachael and Cindy are no surprise, but the rest of the team had to get comfortable in their roles.”

Harris said the Warriors are playing their best basketball of the season right now, but second-seeded Valley Christian has beaten them 11 games in a row.

Regardless of the outcome, Kim said she will enjoy every second of today’s game, even if her father cannot be there to watch.

“I could not have envisioned coaching in a championship game the same year as my dad,” she said. “This is beyond unbelievable.

“Even though he can’t see the game, we have talked quite a bit this week about what to do. His best advice: Don’t get in such a state that you celebrate getting to the finals but aren’t prepared to win it.”