The San Diego City College men’s basketball team begins its quest for a third straight Pacific Coast Athletic Conference championship when it faces East Los Angeles on the first day of November at Harry West Gym.

The Knights are coming off an incredible 2024-2025 season, dominating the PCAC with a record of 15-1 and an overall record of 23-6. 

Despite the season-ending 75-65 heartbreaking loss to Cerritos, which held the Knights to a season-low 17 points in a half, the team surpassed expectations, according to head coach Mitch Charlens.

“I think in a lot of ways, we over-achieved,” Charlens said. “We won 23 or 24 games and stormed through conference. One of those deals, which you kind of have to accept as a coach, we played our worst half of basketball that first half. Sometimes those crazy things happen.”

Despite the loss curtailing last year’s season, Charlens was awarded head coach of the year and the team’s captain, Logan Huston, was named the PCAC player of the year. 

Huston has moved on from City College and is set to play for Westmont College this upcoming season.

Entering his 20th season as head coach, Charlens is poised to achieve another monumental mark this season as he is just two games shy of 400 total wins at City College. 

Charlens mused about how his children have only known him as a coach of the City College basketball team, the team he took the job at 22 years ago.

Back then, he was the “young cool coach.” Now, he said, “(his players) don’t get any of my jokes anymore.”

“I have to remind myself that I’m a relic to these kids,” Charlens said. “You know when I was their age, somebody that was in their 50s was ancient to me. So that’s why I have to have a great staff that can relate to them and bridge that gap.”

Charlens will lean on his assistant coaching staff of Quincy Ferebee, Joe D’Ambro, Joe Seals, Dwayne Cosby, Brandon Cheeks, and legendary coach Rusty Smith, who Charlens was an assistant under in his first years of coaching. 

The upcoming 2025-2026 season begins with the Knights facing East LA, Yuba and West Valley – all winners of their respective conferences in three of City’s first four games this season. 

“We always schedule a tough non-conference schedule, because we get different points for the strength of schedule,” Charlens said. “So you have to play good schools (early), and we want to get the highest seat possible for the playoffs.”

Thus far, the Knights have gone 6-2 in two preseason tournaments.

Abraham Kamano, a 6-5 sophomore from Largo, Maryland, said the team has been working hard every single day and he enjoyed playing in the preseason after redshirting last year.

“We’ve been getting after it,” Kamano said. “Playing at the Juco Showcase and the Cerritos Jamboree and getting to scrimmage against other high-level teams in the So Cal area, it’s just been a really good thing.”

Sophomore Micah Brickner, who graduated from Scripps Ranch High School, has been a part of Charlen’s system for three years after redshirting his first year and finished last season with 103 points, shooting 47-of-90 in 28 games played.

Brickner believes in this team and is confident they will be up for the challenges ahead.

“Coach Charlens does a great job getting everyone ready for the season, getting everyone on the same page,” Brickner said. “It’s a process for sure, the offseason getting the team on the same level, but we’re getting there.”

The Knights are currently ranked No. 14 in the state and No. 7 in the Southern Region. They will open the season at City College’s Harry West Gym at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1 against East Los Angeles.

This story was edited by Briana Bush and Itzel Martinez.