'This means everything' - El Camino Real hires Shawn Kolani to coach varsity boys basketball team
El Camino Real has hired Shawn Kolani to coach the varsity boys basketball team, the school announced on Wednesday. Kolani joins Brooke Kalama of Roybal and Jennifer Crockett of Sherman Oaks CES as female coaches leading boys basketball teams in the Los Angeles City Section.
"At this point, I'm excited beyond words," Kolani said Wednesday night in a phone interview with SBLive. "... This means everything. I've been born and raised in the Valley so being able to break some barriers and create kind of a new path for women in a place where I grew up and was in high school just like a lot of these kids, it's really special."
Kolani played at Taft High School and then coached the boys team at Taft in 2018-2019 as an assistant to head coach Derrick Taylor. She was elevated to head coach for two games that season when Taylor couldn't coach due to illness. Kolani is the sister of former Taft guard and UCLA great Jordan Farmar.
During the 2017-2018 NBA season, Kolani worked as a coaching associate with the Los Angeles Lakers. Her duties included working as a video coordinator, studying analytics and developing scouting reports. Kolani also assisted with on court workouts that season and worked with the Lakers summer league team in a coaching and scouting role.
"It was an experience that was very invaluable," Kolani said. "It really set the tone for what I saw myself doing and how to move as a professional at the highest level."
Last season, Kolani coached boys varsity basketball at Glendale Academy in addition to working as a private player development coach, which she has done for the last six years.
Kolani replaces Joe Wyatt, who was fired by El Camino Real earlier this month after 15 years at the school.
The Royals went 12-15 last season and qualified for the Open Division playoffs. If ECR returns to the Open Division next season, Kolani will be the first woman to coach in the Open Division boys basketball playoffs in Section history.
"Ultimately I think it's great to be one of the first, but I also think too, I'm a coach just like anybody else and so I'm excited for the opportunity to coach kids and make an impact," Kolani said. "Hopefully I'll create lifelong memories with the kids that I'm going to be working with this upcoming season."
