Boys’ basketball: Ed Azzam passes Willie West as City Section’s winningest coach
Westchester coach gets win No. 804 to set City Section record
Leave it up to one of Ed Azzam’s loyal assistant coaches to print up pieces of paper to hand out to players with “804” in big print and the date, December 26, 2015, to let everyone know the significance of Westchester’s 62-54 win over Narbonne on Saturday night at L.A. Cathedral in a first-round game of the D1 tournament.
It gave Azzam win No. 804 in his coaching career, sending him past former Crenshaw Coach Willie West into the No. 1 spot as the winningest basketball coach in City Section history.
His players and assistant coaches celebrated. Azzam wanted to wave everyone off but they refused. They wanted him to autograph their suddenly valuable pieces of paper.
“I know there’s pressure on the kids to get this done,” Azzam said. “To me, it’s really not very much of anything. It’s a win against a really good team.”
But Azzam’s 804 victories, 12 City titles and six state titles make him a man who’s made a difference since taking over the Westchester program in 1979-80.
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