the other side of the ball on a Giddings squad that also featured wide
receiver Ho Truong and defensive back Tom Spangler.
As a junior, Kitchens played tight end -- "although they never threw
the ball to me," he quipped -- and defensive tackle as Newport Harbor
produced a Sea View League title and 8-3-1 record, also reaching the CIF
Central Conference quarterfinals.
"I'd say Mike Giddings the coach was one of the more important things
about my experience," Kitchens said. "He was so great for younger guys,
those of us developing and getting into our adult years."
Kitchens went on to play junior varsity football and rugby at the Air
Force Academy, then continued his athletic career as a self-described
"scrummy," a rugby term for "one of the bigger guys who interlock and
compete over the ball ... the backs are the faster guys and they tend to
do a lot of opening field running, like in football. I was a total
scrummy in both football and rugby."
His experience in football's two-a-day summer practices helped groom
Kitchens for an 11-month pilot training program after graduating from the
Air Force Academy.
"You eat, breath and sleep nothing but flying," said Kitchens, who
took up his wings in 1990.
Kitchens became disgruntled with a desk job for a few years, before
going back up in the sky in 1995.
Kitchens, the latest member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame to
be honored, is engaged to be married and lives in downtown Seattle.
