Ocean View’s first year head boys basketball coach Jimmy Harris feeling right at home leading the Seahawks

Jimmy Harris is enjoying his first year as head coach of the Seahawks.

Ocean View’s first year varsity head boys basketball coach Jimmy Harris seems to be feeling right at home leading the Seahawks.

“It’s an honor, number one, and it’s comfortable, that’s the best way I can say it,” Harris said this week. “It’s exciting, it’s frustrating, it’s stressful, it’s all of those things but number one, it’s a lot of fun. It definitely feels right.”

Harris. a former all-county basketball player at Ocean View, is the son of legendary coach Jim Harris, who was head coach at Ocean View for 33 years. He died in 2011.

Jimmy Harris has his Seahawks atop the Golden West League standings with a 7-0 record. Friday night, Ocean View hopes to clinch at least a share of the league title when it hosts second place Garden Grove (6-1).

Harris, who graduated from Ocean View in 1993, seems to be enjoying leading the Seahawks. He began coaching at the school in 1998.

“This is my first head coaching year without my father,” said Harris, who was a co-head coach with his father for a stint. “I’ve been coaching for Ocean View since 1998, I was in the gym when I was 2-years-old, I stepped away when I was in college for four years.

“Of my 45 years on this earth, I’ve been at Ocean View for 40 years.”

Harris believes his father would have his opinions on his son’s coaching effort, including a review of Wednesday’s game in which the Seahawks defeated Segerstrom 67-64 in overtime. (Please click here to see the story).

“In this one, I think he would probably wonder why I wasn’t pressing a little bit more,” Harris said. “He would wonder why I wasn’t get the ball inside the key a little more and why we were taking so many 3-point shots to start the game. But I think he would be extremely proud of this group, of what people’s expectations were and where they are right now.”

Ocean View lost many key players from last year’s team which was 24-5 overall and won the Golden West League title with a 10-0 record under co-coaches Tim Walsh and Roger Holmes.

“We have over 90 percent of our offense graduated last year,” Harris said. “The only two guys who got real varsity experience are Vincent (Caiazzo) and Carson Nguyen. Slater (Miller) got some here and there but this is really his first varsity season. So this is an entirely new team.

“To see where they have come together has been pretty impressive.”

Nguyen and Caiazzo led the way in Wednesday’s Golden West League victory over a fired up Segerstrom team on the road.

“Carson has been stellar for about two weeks now,” Harris said. “He played on knee injuries all of last season and he essentially took five months off after the season was over to try and recuperate them. And I told him when he got back, we probably weren’t going to see the real Carson until about mid-way through the season.

“Now, I was off a little bit about that. We’re starting to see it now. This is the real Carson and he’s starting to play with a lot of confidence and we’ve needed every little bit of it.

“The other guy who has been steady as a rock has been Vincent Caiazzo. He’s just done all the little things that help keep the team together. He will score when it’s needed. He will rebound, thank God he rebounds. He and Slater Miller go after it and rebound and Devon Vu, for his part, stepped up.”

After the game, Harris told his players they were “one day closer,” to a league title but there was still work to do.

“Enjoy this for a few hours, then tomorrow, we start prepping for Garden Grove,” Harris told his players.

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com