*This article has been updated with two new pictures and small clarifications throughout*

by Lance Smith, SBLive Sports

After 15 highly successful years coaching high school girls basketball, Granada Hills Charter varsity assistant head coach Nick Kindel is announcing his retirement.

He goes out as a CIF Southern Regional Division III champion, with the Highlanders’ 2023-24 state finals appearance at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento constituting his last game.

Kindel totaled seven years as an assistant varsity coach at Granada Hills Charter, which he helped build into one of the preeminent girls basketball programs in the CIF-L.A. City Section and San Fernando Valley. He’s also known for brief but successful stints as head varsity coach at Santa Clara (Oxnard) and Northridge Academy, where he spent one year each in between tenures at GHC.

All in all, he ends his coaching career with an eye-opening resume that includes 177 wins as a varsity assistant coach and 236 as a head coach across six schools, three levels of high school basketball, and 14 seasons. Kindel’s record of 146-8 as the head junior varsity and head frosh/soph coach at Granada Hills Charter is good for a staggering .948 winning percentage, the highest for lower levels in program history.

Kindel will be remembered for his popularity among players as much as his winning track record and his teams’ extended 2-3 trapping zones. Many of his former players remarked on his easygoing but passionate persona, ability to foster confidence, and knack for contributing to a fun team atmosphere.

“I think his legacy is the fact that I can sit here ten years after playing for him and still remember the way he made me feel before I stepped on the court,” said Kaitlin Eells, who played at GHC from 2013-17 before playing at Whittier College and College of the Canyons.

“Coach Nick knew how to push us and how to have fun at the same time. He made our team hungry for success and… created a program that took women’s basketball seriously. He was a coach you wanted to win for because you could feel how much he cared about his team.”

“When I got into my head, Coach Nick would immediately recognize it and know exactly what to say,” Eells recalled. 

“He always took the time to pull me aside and tell me what I needed to hear to play confidently. He instilled confidence in me that I carried into the rest of my basketball career and life.”

“Coaching gave me purpose and identity, and it allowed me to accomplish my goals and dreams with basketball,” Kindel said.

“I owe a lot to the game and the players that played for me. I was very lucky and grateful to have such a great group of kids throughout my whole career. Everyone was special to me and it was an honor coaching them. They all gave me their very best and I thank them for that.”

Kindel’s coaching career got off to a roaring start in 2009-10 when he led Westlake’s frosh/soph team to an undefeated 21-0 season with three tournament trophies and a Marmonte League championship. In 2011, he went to El Camino Real to spend two seasons as JV head coach and one as varsity assistant under Cara Blumfield. In his sole season with the varsity squad, Kindel helped his alma mater win the 2012 West Valley League varsity championship.

In 2013, he became an assistant coach at GHC, where he helped newly-introduced head coach Jared Honig evolve the program into a renowned stalwart. The Highlanders’ new coaching regime inherited a CIF-LACS Division 2 champion, but hardly any returning players. Either way, they immediately built upon the momentum they were bequeathed from previous coach Lou Cicciari.

The new-look Highlanders didn’t skip a beat, going 21-9 with their first West Valley League title since 1983 and a Division 1 finals appearance. And the ascent continued until they reached the top, culminating in two teams with arguments to make as Granada Hills Charter’s best ever.

In 2014-15, GHC achieved a 10-0 West Valley League sweep and an Open Division playoff berth. In 2015-16 – the one year in his career Kindel was away from coaching – the Highlanders made the Open Division semifinals. When he returned in 2016-17, they achieved a 26-4 record and third place finish in the Open Division. The following season brought a program-record 28 wins, an Open Division finals appearance, and a berth in the CIF Division I state quarterfinals. And in 2018-19, the Highlanders won their first CIF-L.A. City Section Open Division title.

During that run, the varsity team went 159-63 overall and 64-6 in the West Valley League with six league titles. Kindel was Honig’s lead assistant on the varsity bench, and he also compiled a remarkable resume running the lower levels as the junior varsity head coach. In six seasons, Kindel’s JV team went 137-8 with a 58-2 record in WVL play, winning league titles all six years. Two of those squads went undefeated, and Kindel mixed in a 9-0 campaign as head coach of the frosh/soph team for good measure.

“He was an outstanding head JV coach and assistant varsity coach for the program,” said Honig. 

“Not only did he help his JV players compete at their highest level, but he also prepared them to be successful varsity players. On the varsity bench, he always helped scout opponents, look at in-game matchups, and make suggestions for substitutions in the game. He always helped implement the ideals of the program and helped develop our young ladies into champions on and off the court.”

Honig, who played for Granada Hills Charter and Menlo College, originally met Kindel when they played against each other in high school. He quickly became one of many lifelong friends Kindel made in his coaching journey.

“Coaching with Nick was a lot of fun,” said Honig. 

“Through coaching, we became best friends. We would get in our cars after practice to drive home and then talk for 30-45 minutes about the teams and who did well that particular day. Even when we did not coach within the same program, we always talked hoops and discussed the programs and how we could help the teams improve. He always did a great job with his teams, but also was interested in seeing how he could improve.”

Kindel said, “It was me coaching with my best friend every day, and I owe a lot to him for helping me turn into the coach I am today.”

After another top-three finish in the City in 2020, Kindel left Granada Hills Charter to take over a program of his own. And he only needed two seasons to show his meddle as a varsity head coach.

When the COVID-19 shutdown began to lighten in early 2021, Kindel was planning a move to Ventura County, and took over as head coach at Santa Clara of Oxnard just weeks before the Saints’ first game. 

Kindel only got two to three hours of practice time a week with his new players – most of whom were simultaneously playing softball due to the pandemic-altered schedules. But Kindel and Santa Clara’s athletic department found a way to make it work. And the Saints turned heads by sweeping the Tri-Valley League for a league championship.

“Coach Nick contributed to the bond our team built in the [pandemic-shortened season],” said Sofia Maldonado, who emerged as the 2021 Tri-Valley League MVP as a senior. 

“We knew when to have fun and when to focus… so we valued the team’s goals and locked in. After practice, Coach Nick always allowed us to have fun in the gym, which included him joining the team’s TikTok videos.”

“He was one of the few coaches I had that believed in me, showed me what it was to be a great,” said varsity captain Maddy White.

“Coming in after COVID, he took us in [and] drove over an hour each way every day for practice from Granada Hills to Oxnard, and was there for us. He put aside everything and sacrificed a lot to be there for us for that whole season.”

“Playing for Coach Nick… gave me more of a positive look on the game,” White said.

“Growing up playing basketball, I always was very hard on myself, and he was one of the first coaches to point this out in a way where I could use it in a constructive manner.”

Never more than on White’s her senior night, when a calming pep talk from Kindel helped her overcome a rough first half. With a league title on the line, White took over and dropped 14 points in fourth quarter alone for the win.

“He may have not spent a lot of time at Santa Clara, but he has a Tri-Valley League Champs banner with all of us to remember always… that we won as a team and could not have done without his support,” White remarked.

When his move across the county line fell through for reasons unrelated to coaching and teaching, Kindel had no choice but to resign at Santa Clara, and would take a job near home to restart Northridge Academy’s program. The Pumas had no basketball program the year before, and most of their players came in without multiple years of experience with organized basketball. 

But that didn’t deter them from recording the strongest season in program history. Northridge Academy would go 14-2 in 2021-22 and break nearly every program record, including sweeping the Valley League for the league championship and earning a top-20 ranking in the CIF-LA City Section for the first time ever.

Rai Mahawan, who was a junior that season, recalled the countless hours spent across months at the park with Kindel the summer beforehand, as many Pumas learned the fundamentals of basketball for the first time.

“[That] was part of the reason I was motivated to get better even though I had obstacles in my personal life. I knew I was in good hands when he dedicated part of the summer to practice with me individually to sharpen my mechanics and contribute to my mental fortitude,” Mahawan said.

She would break out that season as the Valley League Player of the Year and one of the top three-point shooters around.

“Him believing in me as a player elevated my game to a new level and I am forever grateful for that. He made the season that I played for him memorable because of the records we broke and because of how he was able to foster team chemistry [quickly].”

Mahawan continued, “I will always remember when he dedicated one practice to allow us to vent about our problems because he sensed that the team as a whole felt dejected and had low energy.” 

“He cared for us outside of being players and saw us as people, and he did so while contributing to our development as players.”

In those two years, Kindel managed to win three Coach of the Year awards – from the Tri-County Athletic Association and Tri-Valley League for his time at Santa Clara, and from the Valley League for his achievements at Northridge Academy in 2022. Alongside his 2010 frosh/soph Marmonte League coach of the year award at Westlake, those made four, to go along with his back to back undefeated league championships at two different schools.

However, in the summer of 2022, Kindel would make a difficult decision to leave for the second year in a row.

When he wasn’t coaching Northridge Academy that year, Kindel was at Campbell Hall getting his first opportunity to try teaching. It came from his former high school teammate and friend Rai Colston, who taught gym and had another spot open up. It didn’t take long for Kindel to realize that he’d found his calling and wanted to pursue getting credentialed.

With his budding teaching career emerging as a priority, a perfect opportunity to both coach and teach arose elsewhere in the Valley. It was back with Honig at Granada Hills Charter, where Kindel had a handful of teaching positions to choose from if he returned to his post as varsity associate head coach.

Kindel accepted what he described as an offer he couldn’t refuse, and joined a Highlanders team widely hyped up as a championship contender. 2022-23 saw them again reel off one of their best seasons ever, including a sweep of the West Valley League, and come a few buckets short of their second CIF-LACS Open Division title.

When Honig left for the Valencia job over the summer, GHC replaced him with another renowned young coach who also happened to be a friend of Kindel’s – none other than Colston, formerly head coach at El Camino Real. The year they taught together at Campbell Hall, Colston guided the Royals to a CIF-LACS Division 1 championship after leading them to several years of Open Division contention. 

Kindel had expected to step down after Honig resigned, but staying put was suddenly a no-brainer. After a rocky start to the season due largely to injuries, the Highlanders reached peak form at the start of league play. They went from 7-8 to a 21-12 finish, and ended up winning the first regional title in program history, and just the second by a City Section team since 2009.

However, Kindel still decided on the route he would’ve taken a year earlier had Colston not been Honig’s successor. He wants to put his all into becoming a credentialed special education teacher, and doesn’t want to make the transition while splitting his time and focus with helping run an elite basketball program.

That doesn’t rule out a future return to coaching once he’s reached a more situated chapter of life. But that’s not where his mind is, nor is he sure what he’ll want his life to look like outside of the classroom a few years down the road.

“Nick made a significant impact this past season by helping facilitate a smooth transition for me as the head coach,” Colston said. 

“His assistance with game planning and in-game adjustments were instrumental… I will personally miss him next season, but I am grateful for the time we had him on our team.”

Knowing that the GHC’s future is in good hands with Colston made Kindel’s tough decision easier.

“Rai works very hard at what he does and I have no doubt the program will continue to be successful until his guidance,” Kindel said.

“He was a great player, played college basketball at CSUN, coached under great coaches like Andre Chevalier and Nick Halic, has a great passion and love for the game that shows in the way he coaches. He is big on preparing his teams for upcoming games by watching film and showing players on how to improve through film as well.”

So, after taking part in 413 victories, 16 league titles, 18 tournament championships, a regional title, and four coach of the year awards, Kindel will still be findable in the basketball community – Granada Hills Charter games and elsewhere – chopping it up with coaches, former players, and potentially anyone.

He just won’t be coaching on the sidelines.

Like their head coach, the players at Granada Hills Charter will miss him.

“He allowed me to push myself [and] he pushed me continuously, since he knew what I was capable of,” said Clare Lee, a senior on the regional championship team who describes Kindel as her mentor. 

“We were always excited to be around him and get to talk to him outside the court. On the court, he was able to leave his impact as a great coach. I still remember when he first helped me with my form, helping me as a shooter from day one. I will never forget how big of an impact he had on my high school basketball career.

“All the players wanted to show him how much we were capable of, we wanted to make him proud. I wouldn’t want to have played for any other coach.”