With a 52-37 win over Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) on Saturday,
Harvard-Westlake (Studio City) girls basketball coach Melissa Hearlihy became the second in California state history to reach 800 wins.
In her 37th season, Hearlihy joined Kevin Kiernan of Mater Dei (Santa Ana) in the 800 club as Wolverines got 15 points from
Amelia Scharff and 14 from
Jordyn Call. Harvard-Westlake improved to 17-12 on the season and advances to the Southern Section playoffs this week.
Hearlihy is 800-292 in her career, which was highlighted by a 34-1 season in 2009-10 season when the Wolverines won the state Division IV championship. She has won multiple Coach of the Year awards at the local, regional and state levels, including the Los Angeles Times naming her Southern California's best five times.
Melissa Hearlihy, Harvard-Westlake
File photo by Samuel Mawanda
She's mentored some great players, including current Stanford freshman
Kiki Iriafen, a 2021 McDonald's All-American (see her highlights above), and her teams have won at least 20 games the last seven seasons straight.
Hearlihy coached 15 seasons at Alemany (Mission Hills) before moving over to Harvard-Westlake in 2000.
According to the
Cal-Hi record book, Kiernan has 843 victories while Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) coach Sue Phillips sits at No. 3 among active coaches with 752.
Hearlihy told Eric Sondheimer last spring in a Los Angeles Times
podcast that the wins have been a byproduct of something much greater.
"I love basketball and my sons will tell you I'm a very competitive person," she said. "But at the end of the day it's all about developing young women. … They see what I do. They see the grind it takes and the love of the game I have and hopefully that sets a tone and helps get my kids to play hard."
Melissa Hearlihy won her 800th game as girls basketball coach on Saturday.
File photo by Samuel Mawanda
