Bio

Vijay Mani is from Harbor City, Ca, a small suburb of Los Angeles. He lettered in basketball and track at Narbonne HS and went on to play for the men’s basketball team at LA Harbor Community College.  

After having a son, the decision was made to focus on being a father; therefore, basketball was put on hold. After a while, he began coaching and playing in adult leagues and during that time won several championships in the southern California division. Additionally, he began to coach the local girls’ basketball club team to support his daughter.

Vijay now has three children, Son #1, Ajay; 22, attending CS Fullerton and on his way to UCLA for graduate school; son# 2 Samajay, 20, attending and playing football at El Camino College and in the process of transferring to University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff; and his “baby girl” Niya, 15, attending Rancho Dominguez Prep with a 3.8 GPA and is also the starting forward for the girls basketball team.

In 2001, Coach Mani was diagnosed with kidney disease. Even while on dialysis, he continued to play and coach basketball, and continued to win championships. He was fortunate to receive a kidney transplant in 2010 and with a lot prayer from friends and family, was once again blessed with another kidney transplant in April of 2015.  So far, everything is going very well.

Vijay says, “Basketball is my first love…I have learned a lot from playing and coaching basketball.  The lessons I’ve learned over the years did not just apply to the court, it also applied to life.  You learn teamwork, leadership, patience, humility, sacrifice, and that hard work always pay off.”

Vijay received his AS degree in Electronic Engineering from ITT Technical Institute in 2000. He will be in charge of Video and Film coordination, student-athlete skill development and study hall, and will assist Coach A with recruiting.