The coaching news continues to flow out of St. Anthony High School, where Athletic Director Chris Morrison has just named Alan Mitchell as the new head coach of the boys’ basketball program.
Just last week, the Saints hired Raul Lara to take over the football program, and now Mitchell will be taking over another top post at the school. Mitchell has been an assistant coach at St. Anthony for the past two seasons under previous head coach Allen Caveness, who was recently hired as an assistant coach at Long Beach State University.
“It’s surreal. It’s definitely a blessing to have this opportunity,” said Mitchell. “I’m definitely accepting it with open arms and I’m tremendously appreciative of it. It’s exciting.”
Morrison said there were a number of qualified candidates, but that Mitchell was the best fit to continue the program’s upward trajectory, which included a berth into the CIF-SS Open Division playoffs in 2019.
“We are excited to have Coach Mitchell continue at St. Anthony High School in the new role as Head Boys’ Basketball Coach,” said Morrison in a statement. “We believe he will do a great job continuing the tradition and the success we have had in recent years.”
Following Caveness’ departure, the players actually encouraged Mitchell to pursue the head job, he said. That helped make St. Anthony the perfect spot to take over as a high school head coach and continue to work with a familiar, veteran group of players.
“We have a great group of kids and they made the transition easy for me in wanting to pursue it,” Mitchell explained. “They kind of ignited that fire in me to pursue it and I prayed on it and God landed me right here. I think we can definitely have the success we’ve had over the years and continue to grow. I plan to be here for 10, 15, 20 years, God willing.”
Mitchell is a native of Compton, and attended King/Drew High School where he played for new Jordan High head coach Chris Francis. From there, Mitchell played at LA Southwest College under Hall of Fame coach Reggie Morris, Sr. After his playing days in college, Mitchell continued to hoop in the LA area as a participant in the prestigious Drew League for more than a decade. There he went toe-to-toe with NBA stars like Gilbert Arenas, Nick Young, JaVale McGee, DeMar DeRozan, James Harden, Casper Ware, and many others.
Mitchell began his coaching career at his alma maters, coaching at King/Drew and at Southwest before becoming an assistant at Redondo Union. In addition to his role with the Saints, Mitchell also coaches with Los Angeles Elite on the adidas AAU circuit. Now in his first head coaching job at the high school level, Mitchell says he wants to preserve the culture that he and Caveness have helped instill over the past few seasons, while also putting his own spin on it.
“The culture of high energy and imposing our will is going to remain,” said Mitchell. “Cav created a great culture. We were a tight knit group and I definitely want to continue that, but I will have my own style to it. I’m a high energy guy on the sidelines, so that’s definitely going to stay there. I do have my twist that I’ll add in, but you can definitely expect our will from St. Anthony to be imposed. Every game guys are going to know they’re in a battle, so it’ll be fun.”
