In his third year as principal at North High School, Paul Nitake has put a focus on early college outreach and emerging technologies.
Family, community and some wisdom from Kobe Bryant keep North High principal Paul Nitake aiming high.
By KATHEE YAMAMOTO
When Paul Nitake was a kid of 5 or 6 years old, he was running basketball dribbling drills up and down the neighborhood block, every day.
“All our neighbors knew. Hey, when it’s the bouncing, it’s us coming!” Nitake, now 40, laughs.
Those morning drills started him — and his three siblings — on a path that saw each of them shine as varsity high school basketball stars and later, as coaches, Paul at both West High and Torrance High in Torrance.
And in Nitake’s case, that path also included 10 years as a science and math teacher … then, as an assistant principal … and most recently, as the principal of North High School in Torrance, which under his leadership has been winning accolades and breaking achievement records.
The school is currently rated by The Daily Breeze as the “Best High School in the South Bay.” And fulfilling a promise to his students, he recently dyed his hair blue to celebrate their surpassing school and district records in English and math state testing.
For Nitake, “I would say coaching and teaching are a great background, a great experience for any principal or leadership role because you’re trying to unite a variety of different people towards a common goal. So I think there’s a lot of great parallels there.”
But his career in education and coaching was not the original plan.
After graduating from UC Irvine with a degree in chemistry and physical science, he was on track to be a pharmacist, like both his father Michael and his mother Christine King-Nitake, when he was unexpectedly offered an opportunity from his former youth and high school coach Karim Girgis, then the assistant principal at West High.
“Karim said, ‘We have a math and science position open. Are you interested in teaching?’ And I told him, maybe I could do it for one year, since you need to find somebody and that is my background, so I could fill in while I’m studying (for admission to pharmacy school).”
“So I did it for a year, and I loved it! And I told my parents, your work is awesome too, but it can’t compare to what I get to do with kids, making a difference in their lives and bringing inspiration, fun and real-world examples into the classroom.”
His parents, for their part, were hesitant. “They were like, ‘Are you sure?’ And the pay differential was four times different (lower).” So he understood his parents’ concerns for his future.
“Both my parents grew up very poor. My mom is actually first generation (Taiwanese). She was teased and made fun of in school for her language. And my mom and my dad always felt like they needed to work extra hard to prove themselves. But it is ingrained in the Japanese culture like, ‘Hey, buckle down, outwork everybody. There’s nobody that’s going to outlast you and whatever it takes, do what you need to do to succeed.’”
And Nitake realized that he had “found my calling.”
“A Lot of Great Things”
In his third year as North High School principal, his enthusiasm remains high. “We’re super fired up and excited! There’s a lot of great things that we’re doing here and our teachers are amazing. And one of the cool things too about our school is that at North Torrance, we get permits (students living outside the neighboring area) from Gardena, from Lawndale, different parts of Torrance, about 20%, because our school can offer better opportunities for them.
“So 47% of our students’ families are socioeconomically disadvantaged, meaning they qualify for free or reduced lunch. But if you compare schools, demographics, our English state test scores have been number one in California for the past two years.”
Nitake continues, “In addition to that, some of our AP test scores are the highest in the area. And we have an early college program where kids can earn an AA degree before they even get their high school diploma. So when they go to college, they’ve already earned two years of college credit, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“And one of the things that we pride ourselves on is helping our students accelerate through life after high school, whether it be college, whether it be career. So we have opportunities for them to get career industry experience, but for dual enrollment credit, which is high school and college credit.
“Last school year, we saved our families over $1.3 million in college credit course-work — all due to our amazing faculty and staff. This doesn’t include all the scholarships and financial aid our students earned as well. We plan to expand that and do more next year and the year after. But we’ve also partnered with other people and groups.”
According to Nitake, in coordination with Torrance Chamber of Commerce CEO Donna Duperron, they pursued the question of “Can we get our kids ready for future careers?”
“I said, absolutely. We need to do that! So we’re partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to do that. They’re going to get 25 to 30 different companies and businesses throughout the city of Torrance, all different walks of careers. And we’re going to have them come and create a mentorship program with our kids. They’ll get to meet people that inspire them … learn what education or certification you need … check into internship possibilities. We’re the only school in this area that’s going to have that, and we’re super excited to kick that off this year.”
Looking back, he credits his father Michael for the discipline, the focus and skills that he, his sisters and his brother trained for at an early age.
Nitake recalls, “He got us into all the camps to train, and he was training us too, doing everything that he could, so we’d practice every day. Even on the weekends, he would bribe us with Slurpees at 7-Eleven. Whatever it took, give us a piece of candy to dribble around the block, he made it happen. And he was behind all of our success.”
The impetus behind their father’s encouraging and prodding his children with such intensity, Nitake says, goes back to the family’s financial hardships in the aftermath of his own father Toyoo’s incarceration, along with his siblings, at Heart Mountain. So Michael himself did not become a basketball player until attending high school in San Francisco.
“And their team won league titles, state championships,” Nitake continues. “Some of ‘em went to the NBA or ABA.”
Joining at that point, his dad was ”kind of like a practice player” and not able to participate in competitive play. “But because he loved it so much, he wanted to make sure that we started early and had the opportunities that he didn’t have.
“And honestly, our success in basketball really attributed to each of our own identities, because it was something that we were good at, something that the family was recognized for being outstanding. It helped our confidence and our leadership. And then all the attributes that we learned of hard work and persistence and being dedicated to your craft, that really helped us in all the aspects of life that we’re dealing with today.”
Inspiration from Kobe
Nitake also took inspiration from Kobe Bryant, a role model from his boyhood. He admired not only his basketball skills but also “hearing about the Mamba mentality and how hard he worked while other players were partying and doing other things, that motivated me even more. And that resonated with me and my Japanese (attitude) of ‘Hey, you’ve got to outwork everybody, be relentless.’”
Along with attending Laker games with his dad, Nitake would eventually meet Bryant at South Bay Hoops, where he’d become a camp coach. And in the summer of 2008, he was invited to coach at Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy, along with fellow South Bay Hoops coaches Ed Azzam and Nitake’s future West High coach and mentor Karim Girgis. “That was so cool!”
After Nitake first decided to apply the work ethic and principles he’d learned to education, he continued to teach for ten years, including four years at Torrance High, continuing to find the work “fun and rewarding.” He eventually became head coach of the boy’s varsity basketball team there, winning Coach of the Year distinctions and a Pioneer League championship.
In 2010, he was tapped to be head boys’ basketball coach at West High, a full-circle circumstance of sorts since he and his siblings, Lindsey Nitake Mitchell, Mark Nitake and Nicole Nitake Chiu, had all played and excelled on the varsity basketball teams there. (Nicole was featured in a May 2012 issue of The Rafu Shimpo when she signed a letter of intent to attend The Master’s College in Santa Clarita on a full, four-year basketball scholarship.)
Moreover, his sister Lindsey was then assistant coach of the girls’ basketball team at West High. “And my brother Mark and my dad were assistants on my staff. So it was like a family affair! And we won league championships, and my sister won a CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) ring. So we had a lot of success.”
After a tenure that included leading the West High team to the CIF Southern Section Divison III-AAA quarter finals, Nitake left in 2013 to take over the boys’ basketball program at Torrance High, where he had continued to enjoy teaching.
This resolved not just a logistical issue, he observed then, but also one of perceived conflicting school loyalties, with “three years teaching at one school and coaching at another.”
Another opportunity arose in 2018, when he was encouraged to apply for assistant principal at Torrance High. “Prior to that, I wasn’t considering it. It wasn’t until people said, ‘You might be good for this. You’re fair. You work hard, you’re willing to spend extra time, and you’re all about what’s best for the kids.’”
Nitake eventually “threw my name in the hat” and was selected, becoming assistant principal, again working under Girgis, now principal at Torrance High.
“And I learned everything from him. We’ve become really good friends and peers, but he became a great mentor to me, teaching me how to run and lead a school, becoming my coach in a principal position.”
After five years, when North High was looking for a new principal, Nitake says that Girgis encouraged him. “He said, ‘Paul, I want to keep you here … but if you want to try to run your own school, I think you’re ready.’”
Nitake was eventually selected, “and I love what I’m doing.”
Lisa Nichols, English teacher and department chairperson at North High, attests to both Nitake’s spirit and effectiveness as a principal: “Paul brings energy, support, and fresh ideas to North High. Whether it is cheering the students on from the sidelines, wearing the Sammy Saxon mascot costume, dyeing his hair blue as part of a CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) test score challenge, or organizing fun and competitive contests for the teachers, he is the school’s biggest hype man.
“He brings his passion for competition and desire to excel to North. That mindset likely comes from his experiences as a coach — he knows how to motivate those around him to push themselves to be their best. North High is a special place — the students, teachers, and community are like no others, and Paul’s enthusiasm and drive are the perfect fit.”
Nitake looks back on the path he’s been on.
“Well, when I was first considering taking the leap from teacher to assistant principal, what was posed onto me was that when you’re a teacher, you have 160, 170 kids in your care. And that’s the influence you have.
“When you’re an assistant principal, you have a third of the school and you have 600, 700 people that you’re responsible for. When you’re the high school principal, you’ve got 1,900 to 2,000 families in care. As you pick up a higher role, you have fuller responsibility, and your power of influence is greater.
“Then, it’s even more important that you’re sharp, you know what you’re doing, or you learn to figure it out. And you have that relentless attitude and demeanor of ‘I’m going to do whatever it takes to find a way to make sure my kids succeed and have an edge in this world.’”
Giving Students a Boost
Nitake describes another program aimed at giving students a boost: “This is new, and the only school in the South Bay to have it — we’re partnering with the UCLA Early Academic Outreach program.”
He says that he hopes to add to the fact that “we had around 10 kids get into UCLA last year” through this program by guiding and helping to “better prepare and equip our kids for higher college acceptance rates all over.”
“So we’ve got both of those aspects (along with the mentorship program). Our overarching goal is to make sure every single student is college- or career-ready and prepared for life after high school.”
Towards that, another area of focus for Nitake is that “We need to be cutting-edge because things are constantly changing.”
That includes addressing “AI and Chat-GPT” to “stay at the forefront.”
“I’m actually on the AI Implementation Committee. Initially, many teachers were worried about plagiarism and taking away the students’ ability to think creatively and the negative effect on critical thinking skills. Well, one of the things that we need to think about too is if our kids are going to be competing against other kids who do have access to AI, our kids are at a disadvantage if we don’t teach them how to leverage it.
“We have an amazing ed tech team in Torrance Unified School District. And I invite them out every year to my campus to share the newest, best AI resources, things that can help teachers save time, things that can help adapt the curriculum to the needs of the individual kids. So there’s ways to use AI in positive ways for kids and for teachers.”
On a more basic level, Nitake wants to ensure that each incoming student has support and guidance.
“We have a Link Crew we started this year, which is a buddy system. We want every student to feel included and have a sense of belonging. So we partner every freshman with an upperclassman. For instance, before an event, they’ll call all the kids, inviting them to ‘Hey, come on out for this!’ Then you build a sense of community and belonging.”
When English Department head Nichols alludes to Nitake’s background as a coach and motivator, it’s a comparison that he embraces, with the students, faculty and staff as his team. He points to the weekly shout-outs “for the amazing work that happened in the last week … We thank people or teams for their accomplishments.”
He points to the monthly faculty potlucks and other activities throughout the school year, adding that this September, for the first time, “The whole staff, 170 people” will enjoy a breakfast buffet before the start of school. “There’s a lot of sense of belonging and strong culture of togetherness and I attribute that to the great people that are here.”
“Before I arrived on scene,” Nitake says, “They did a survey to all staff on what they were looking for in a new principal. One of the common themes that also came out was, ‘We do more because our kids need more.’”
Despite having a high rate of students coming from families that are socioeconomically disadvantaged, Nitake emphasizes, “That’s not reflected in our graduation rate, which is 99%. And our kids outperform, getting the highest scores in the area because of our amazing teachers and faculty who continue to do more because our kids need more. So that’s the biggest feather in their cap, and I remind them of that. Every chance I get, I say, ‘Thank you! Keep pushing forward!’”
With a majority minority student body, Nitake says, “We definitely celebrate diversity here. That’s something that’s very important. And we want to make sure that this is an inclusive space for everyone, regardless of your interests, your passions, and we want school to be home away from home for every kid.”
He notes that “We have in total around 60 (cultural and special interest) clubs.
Nitake regularly gets feedback that shows the success of his efforts to serve his students’ needs, whether it’s the school food bank, academic and career guidance, social support or school programs.
“Our band director announced at the band’s kickoff, ‘I’ve never had a principal this dedicated to showing up to all our events!’”
Nitake adds, “This year, our band was best high school music program in the South Bay. The numbers have grown from like 50, 60 kids to now almost 100. The band is flourishing and they’re super stoked. I’m helping to promote them on social media, going to their events to show them some love. And so my thing is, I try to go to every single program because I don’t want them to think, “Oh, Nitake only goes to basketball.’ No, I’m going to the dances, I’m going to the musicals …
“And that’s why my nights are long. But I need the kids to know … I want everyone to succeed no matter where they’re at.”
‘The MVP at Home’
While Nitake describes how much of his days and nights he devotes to that goal, he recognizes his wife as “the MVP at home.” Chloe Tsai has a master’s in education from USC, and though she planned on following in her mother’s footsteps and becoming a teacher herself, she worked in product development and e-commerce before taking time to focus on family.
She supports her husband’s “deep dedication to his role as principal” and often brings their daughter and son to support many of those evening and weekend events and programs, “so definitely, we have a very, very busy family life.”
“On top of that,” she adds, “Paul is pursuing his doctorate degree, which requires study and writing research papers.”
Nitake has two more years in USC’s doctoral program towards a Ph.D. in educational leadership.
Paul Nitake’s office at North High School is filled with memorabilia from his career in education.
He also makes time to be a volunteer coach for his 6-year old daughter Zoey, who’s just started playing in the South Bay F.O.R. youth sports organization, where he himself once played and earned scholarships. He is now acting as her team’s assistant coach to tje head coach, sister Lindsey, also an F.O.R. alumna. “It’s a great way to connect with Zoey and to give back.”
(The nonprofit Friends of Richard, named for the late outstanding athlete Richard Nishimoto, fosters youth athletic teams while encouraging leadership and community service.)
Nitake’s 2-year-old son seems destined to follow his sister into youth basketball, given that his name is Kobe.
With a lifetime immersed in team sports, Nitake says he’s well aware of the outsized role it plays in the Japanese American community, a bonding experience and cultural touchstone since the days of the WWII incarceration.
“Absolutely. That’s super important. In fact, when I was coaching high school basketball, I also coached an F.O.R team, and that was a great experience.”
After Nitake became varsity coach for West High’s boys’ basketball team, he went head-to-head with George Tachibana, then head coach of Torrance High’s team and a former coach when Nitake was playing basketball with F.O.R. decades earlier.
Jordan Ikeda, covering the game for The Rafu Shimpo in a February 2011 story titled “Life Lesssons Well Taught,” noted that “every West player interviewed mentioned the amazing chemistry of this year’s team … Before the season began, everyone in the program, from the starting players to the assistant coaches to the statistician and videographer, was included in the family.”
“I wanted everyone to know that every person is a part of the puzzle,” Nitake said at the time. “It’s about playing for each other at both ends of the court.”
From Ikeda’s article: “He has passion,” Tachibana said of Nitake. “He always did. If you’re going to be successful in playing or coaching, you have to have passion. And he definitely has that.”
Now, as the athletic director at Torrance High, Tachibana’s opinion has not changed: “Paul still has the same passion towards success today as he showed as a player, coach, teacher and school administrator. He has always been an extremely well-liked leader. Even as opponents on the court, we always had a mutual respect for each other.
“His meteoric rise to a high school principal and his success at that level is no surprise to me. The best part is that this a situation where good things are happening to a good person.”
Nitake, when asked to describe what he finds most gratifying about his role as principal, he quickly responds, “The most rewarding part of being in my position is finding any systemic inequities and ensuring that we find solutions to ensure that every student has an opportunity to be successful.
“And there’s no greater joy than walking around campus or going to different events or popping into classrooms and seeing the amazing work that our faculty is doing .. the learning and light bulbs and excitement and engagement that our kids are having … That inclusion and sense of belonging for every member of this community.
“There’s just no greater joy than that.”