Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Harry Kitchener, a legendary NJCAA track and field coach who won two national championships and turned Cloud County Community College into a consistent national title contender, announced his retirement after 48 years in Concordia.
"I have been so proud to coach and work for Cloud County for 48 years," coach Kitchener said in a statement. "Serving as head women's and men's cross country coach, head men's track and field coach, and director of cross country/track and field has been an amazing career. We have accomplished so much and have made so many connections with wonderful people, it is hard for me to end my coaching career."
Kitchener, the longest-tenured coach in Cloud County history, was inducted into the Cloud County Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006 and the National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2017. He was named Region 6 Coach of the Year five times (1999, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2019), and NJCAA Indoor Coach of the Year in 1994 and 2006.
Under Kitchener, Cloud County reached remarkable heights, winning twenty consecutive Prairie Junior College Conference championships, seventeen Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference - West Division championships, and eight Region 6 championships. Kitchener led the T-Birds to its first-ever NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in 2019. Kitchener was named that year's Region 6 Men's Coach of the Year, Central Region Coach of the Year, and NJCAA Men's Coach of the Year by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Kitchener also led Cloud County to a NJCAA Half Marathon National Championship in 2004.
Kitchener extended a heartfelt thank you to the student-athletes that chose to compete for him at Cloud County. In his 48 years with the T-Birds, Kitchener aided in the development of over 50 NJCAA national champions and nearly 350 national placers.
"I have had two team mottos in my overall 58 years of coaching," Kitchener said. "'Bigger is not always better!' and 'Make every finish line count for something!'"
Kitchener, whose original name was Harry Sargent Jr., was born May 2, 1945, in Compton, California. From age four, Kitchener and two of his siblings were raised in children's homes in Hutchinson, Kansas, and Newton, Kansas. At the age of 12, Kitchener, his sister Sally Ann, and his brother Robert William were all adopted by their foster parents, Orville and Marcena Kitchener of Oak Hill, Kansas.
Kitchener graduated from Longford Rural High School as class salutatorian in 1963. He played quarterback on the high school football team, while he also excelled in basketball and track and field. Kitchener received many scholarship offers but elected to walk on the track and field team at Kansas State University. He lettered as a triple jumper and pole vaulter at KSU.
After receiving his bachelor's degree in 1967 and his master's degree in 1970, Kitchener coached at Wakefield High School for ten years. There he coached junior and senior high school football, basketball, and track and field. He later started the school's high school cross country program and coached the team for many years. In one of Wakefield High School's best years under Kitchener, the school qualified teams for the state playoffs in both football and basketball while winning the state championship in cross country and track and field.
But Cloud County is where Kitchener established himself as one of the greatest coaches in Kansas sports history. Coach Kitchener made the move to Cloud County in 1977, first becoming the men's cross country and track and field coach. Besides his coaching position, he also served as the college's director of Student Activities and Student Senate sponsor for 23 years.
Kitchener led the T-Birds to eight top three national placings with more than 200 NJCAA All-Americans.
As legendary as Kitchener's coaching career has been, so too is the number of former student-athletes who became coaches themselves. He is proud of the number of former Cloud County student-athletes that also went on to become college and university track and field coaches, including Keith Blackwill (assistant cross country and track and field coach at Odessa College), Moses Dirane (graduate assistant at Fort Hays State University), Eugene Frazier (assistant coach at the University of Northern Colorado), Randy Hasenbank (associate head coach at the University of Iowa), Kirk Hunter (associate coach at Wichita State University), David Kaiser (head coach at University of Texas at Tyler), Mike Kirkland (former head coach at Southwestern College), the late Mark Phillips (distinguished head track and field coach at Cowley College), and Kirk Wren (head coach at Ottawa University), among others.
One of Kitchener's most meaningful relationships is with current Cloud County assistant track and field coach, Ted Schmitz. Schmitz was a walk-on turned standout track athlete at Cloud County for Kitchener from 1977-1979. After finishing his academic career at Kansas State, Schmitz returned to Cloud County where he served as the head women's track and field coach for 37 years and volunteer assistant men's track and field coach for 40 years. He was inducted into the Cloud County Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008 and the NJCAA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2021.
"I have been truly blessed with a coach like Ted Schmitz, who has been with me for 46 years as an athlete and coach," said Kitchener.
With Kitchener retiring, Schmitz is now the longest-tenured coach at Cloud County.
"I have been so proud and fortunate to coach Kansas high school athletes and athletes from all over the world and develop so many All-Americans in Concordia, Kansas," Kitchener added. "Thanks to all that have supported Cloud County track and field in our community."
