Chris Furukawa enters his first season as an assistant coach at Whittier College in the 2025-26 season.
Most recently, Furukawa served as the JV Head Coach and Varsity Assistant Coach at Bishop Amat High School. In his lone season with the Lady Lancers, he led the JV girls to a 10-9 record and helped lead the Varsity to a 16-13 campaign along with a postseason appearance.
Prior to Amat, Furukawa was the Frosh Head Coach and Varsity Assistant Coach for the boys basketball program at Temple City High School. In his 2 seasons with the Rams, he led the Freshman boys to back-to-back double digit win seasons, including a 2nd place league finish in 2022-2023.
Furukawa has played an imperative role in both programs with player development, as he has coached 6 all-league players over his 3 seasons.
Furukawa has also worked for Pure Sweat Basketball, where he assisted NBA skills coach Drew Hanlen with workouts with his NBA clientele, which include NBA MVP Joel Embiid and NBA champion Jayson Tatum, as well as Pre-Draft workouts with NBA draft picks Mo Bamba and RJ Barrett.
Furukawa graduated from St. John’s University, where he was a practice player and student manager with the Women’s Basketball team, with a degree in Sports Management and a master’s degree in Business Management and Leadership from Western Governors University.
He enrolled at St. John’s University, where he joined the practice team for the Women’s Basketball team and would eventually become a student-manager for the Red Storm. In this role, he worked with the coaching staff by helping assistant coaches with their scouting reports and breaking down the opponent’s game film. During the off-seasons, he worked for Pure Sweat Basketball, assisting NBA skills coach Drew Hanlen with workouts with his NBA clientele, which include NBA champ Jayson Tatum and MVP Joel Embiid. He has also trained other college and pro basketball players following his time at Pure Sweat. Before returning to Amat, he was the head boys Frosh coach at Temple City High School, where he led the Rams to back-to-back runner up finishes in the competitive Rio Hondo League. He also an assistant coach for the Varsity team, primarily working with the guards, which led to 3 all-league selections in his 2 seasons at Temple City.
“We are thrilled to add Coach Chris to our WBB Basketball Family. He is very kind and a servant leader. He has been around high level basketball and we are excited to add his experience to our team,” said Dowling.
