California's most winning girls basketball coach returns 'home' to Troy High

Kevin Kiernan, who spent 17 seasons as the head coach at powerhouse program Mater Dei, is going back to Troy High where it all started.

Kevin Kiernan, who spent 17 seasons as the head coach at powerhouse program Mater Dei, is going back to Troy High where it all started. / Photo courtesy of Kevin Kiernan

He's back.

Kevin Kiernan, who is California's most winning girls high school basketball coach of all-time, is going back to be the head coach at Troy High in Fullerton where he coached for 11 years before taking the job at Mater Dei.

Kiernan, 65, has 900 career wins (according to CalHiSports) and will retire from his position as athletic director at Mater Dei at the end of the 2024-25 school year before assuming his head coaching duties at Troy High starting July 1, according to the school's press release.

"I had an unbelievable time at Troy," Kiernan said on the CIF Southern Section Sitdown. "Troy is a special place to me. I was a special education teacher there and it was one of the best jobs I've ever had in my life."

While at Mater Dei from 2007-2024, Kiernan led the Monarchs to two national championships, seven CIF Southern Section titles and three CIF State crowns. Before taking over in Santa Ana, Kiernan built Troy into a formidable powerhouse in its own right, winning five Southern Section championships and three CIF State titles while at the helm of the Warriors from 1996-2007.

Kevin Kiernan joined the CIF Southern Section Sitdown with Tarek Fattal in April of 2024. / Taylor Martinez

Kiernan is the only coach in CIF history to win four straight CIF Southern Section titles two different times with two different programs. He did it with Troy in 2003, '04, '05 and '06, and with Mater Dei in 2009, '10, '11 and '12,

"For us, it's Kevin coming home," Troy athletic director Chris Blume told the OC Register. “He is a great person. He cares deeply about his student-athletes.”

Troy girls basketball didn't lose one Freeway League game in the 11 years Kiernan was head coach.

Kiernan stepped away from coaching for medical reasons, getting a procedure to remove a cyst on his vocal cords that kept him from coaching — let alone talking.

While at Troy, Kiernan was the head coach of the girls and boys' teams at the same time for three seasons.

"The principal came to me one day and asked me, 'Will you coach the guys?'," Kiernan recalled.

"I said no," Kiernan said laughing. "But ended up doing it. We won a boys league title my last year there, which was incredible because it was so much harder ... it was probably the toughest and most rewarding league title I won while at Troy."

KIERNAN ON CIF SOUTHERN SECTION SITDOWN

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