Warren Is Named Harbor Coach : Basketball: As expected, former Rolling Hills High coach replaces Ken Curry. He will be assisted by former Harbor Coach Jim White.

Cliff Warren was officially named basketball coach at Harbor College and former Harbor Coach Jim White will serve as his assistant, Athletic Director Jim O’Brien said Thursday.

“Jim and Cliff will be a dynamite duo,” O’Brien said. “It will be an outstanding coaching staff.”

Warren, one of the South Bay’s most successful prep coaches during his six seasons at Rolling Hills, replaces Ken Curry, who was fired after coaching Harbor for four seasons.

Warren, 52, said he became interested in the Harbor job after being contacted by O’Brien and White. Warren coached Rolling Hills to a 123-46 record, three Bay League titles and six playoff appearances from 1985-91.

“I was ready for a new challenge,” he said. “To be honest, I was very flattered that two people who I respect so much as coaches, Jim O’Brien and Jim White, would contact me. When coaches like that want you, it makes you feel good. It had a big effect on me.”

Warren said he opted to pursue the Harbor job rather than the coaching position at Palos Verdes Peninsula High because he felt the Peninsula job should go to John Mihaljevich, the longtime coach at Palos Verdes and a teacher in the district for more than 20 years. Mihaljevich was named the Peninsula basketball coach this week.

“I truly did want the Harbor job,” Warren said. “And to get Jim White to help me, I can’t imagine having a better assistant on the (community college) level.”

White, a full-time physical education instructor at Harbor, has had two stints as Harbor’s coach and guided the Seahawks to their only state title in 1975. He last coached the team in the 1986-87 season and was an assistant to Curry in 1987-88.

Reportedly there was friction between Curry and White, who did not return as an assistant in 1988-89. Curry guided Harbor to three playoff appearances in his four seasons. The Seahawks, though, were 12-18 and did not qualify for the playoffs this past season.

O’Brien said Curry was released because he could not devote enough time to the job. Curry teaches at a junior high school in the L.A. Unified district. Warren, who runs his own investment firm, is also a walk-on coach, but is not restricted by his job.

Said a Rolling Hills coach: “Cliff was at school more than his players.”

O’Brien said Curry leaves Harbor on good terms.

“I feel badly for K. C.,” O’Brien said. “I have a lot of respect for what he did at Harbor College. But, hopefully, now we’ll have a coaching staff that will be more available. That’s what you have to have.”

Warren said he would begin recruiting high school players immediately.

“I’m ready to roll,” he said. “I just want to get where we are really competitive with everybody. But I want the players to become students, too. I want them to do a good job academically as well as on the court.

“I want to get as many local players as possible. I would like to get a lot of the City (Section) kids. That’s the area I would like to get most of our recruits from.”

Warren earned a reputation at Rolling Hills for developing competitive teams that played tough man-to-man defense, emphasized the running game and embraced the three-point shot when it was adopted by California high schools in 1987. Rolling Hills set the national record for three-point shots in the 1989-90 season, making 234 of 648 attempts.

Warren inherits a Harbor team that, by the end of the season, started five freshman, including All-Southern California Athletic Conference forward Chris Mijanovic.

“We’ll have an excellent nucleus next year,” O’Brien said. “And we are very hopeful that we can get some of the top high school players in the area. Hopefully, it will all work out.”