Harry Kitchener enters his 46th season as the Head Coach of the Cloud County Men’s Track and Field program. He is also the Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Operations for the college and was inducted into the NJCAA Coaches Association Hall of Fame in May of 2017.
Kitchener has aided in the development of 50 NJCAA National Champions, most recently Mohamed Ahmed in the men's hammer throw at the 2023 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, and nearly 325 National Placers in his time at Cloud County. He has been named Region VI Coach of the Year five times (1999, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2019) and National Indoor Coach of the Year in 1994 and 2006. He was inducted into the Cloud County Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.
An abbreviated 2020 season would see Kitchener lead the T-Bird men to a second consecutive NJCAA Region VI and KJCCC West Division Indoor Title as the T-Birds would have three Region VI individual champions and would also sweep the post-meet awards with Santino Kenyi being named High Point Athlete of the Meet and Andrew Betton earning Field Athlete of the Meet. Kitchener would then lead the T-Birds to a fifth-place finish at the 2020 NJCAA Indoor National Championships before seeing the outdoor season canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2019 season was a banner year for Kitchener and the T-Birds as the program won its first-ever NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field national championship. It capped off a season that also saw Cloud County win its first two Region VI/KJCCC West championships as the team swept the indoor and outdoor titles.
Kitchener was named the Region VI Men's Coach of the Year, as well as the Central Region Coach of the Year, and NJCAA Men's Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA.
Harry Kitchener began his teaching and coaching career at Wakefield High School from 1967 to 1977. Coaching duties included junior and senior high school football, basketball, and track and field. He later started high school cross country and coached all Wakefield teams for many years. In one of Wakefield High School's best years under Kitchener, the school qualified teams to football and basketball state playoffs while winning the state indoor track and field meet. That year Kitchener also assisted in winning the state championship in cross country.
Coach Kitchener made the move to Cloud County in 1977 and became the Men's Cross Country and Track and Field coach. He coached the first back-to-back, two-time NJCAA National Cross-Country Champion and has coached over 200 NJCAA All-Americans in Cross Country and Track and Field.
Under Kitchener, the Women's Cross-Country team placed 2nd nationally in 1994 and followed up the next year with a 3rd place in 1995. The Men's team placed 3rd in 2003 and 2nd in 2004. Cloud won the first NJCAA Half Marathon National Championship in 2004 and the men's indoor track team was Runner-Up NJCAA National Champions. His teams have consistently placed in the top ten in the nation for academics.
Kitchener participated in track and field at Kansas State University. He walked on the track team and lettered his senior year as a pole vaulter and triple jumper. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1967 and his Master of Science degree in 1970 from Kansas State University.
Kitchener is married to Laureli Kitchener. Laureli is the highly successful former Concordia Volleyball coach, winning 10 state volleyball titles with 17 trips to state tournaments and a winning percentage of 89.5%. She was a three-time National Finalist for High School Volleyball Coach of the Year. All the Kitchener children attended Cloud; Kristie Hinson, Kerry and Kelly Kitchener and Gabe Hedstrom. The Kitcheners are blessed with 8 grandchildren: Hailey, Chase, Emily, and Lindsey Hinson and Logan, Aaron, Jaxton, and Kolton Kitchener.
Coach Kitchener has two team slogans that he has used in 50 years of coaching: "BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER" and "MAKE EVERY FINISH LINE COUNT".
