Council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson honored the Crenshaw boys’ basketball team at City Hall on May 6. The cougars were recognized in front of the L.A. City Council for winning the Division I Los Angeles City Section Championship.
Family members, school staff, and alumni attended the presentation. Among the supporters in attendance was congresswomen Maxine Waters, mother of head coach Edward Waters.
“I’m very proud of my boys and my coach and all of the families that have helped and supported,” said Guy Quinn, the assistant principal of Crenshaw high school. “I can’t wait until next year so we can come back and do the same thing again.”
Head coach Waters, along with assistant coaches and the players received certificates from the city of Los Angeles. Waters became the CIF Division I Los Angeles City Section Coach of the Year this season.
“This is a very exciting moment in the history of Crenshaw High School,” Harris-Dawson said to the Councilmembers. “They’ve been standing at this lectern as champions many, many years before any of us were here and many, many years going forward.”
Juniors Lamar Harris and Chris Kendrick were elected to the All-CIF City Section Boys Basketball team. Kendrick earned a spot on the All-City team for the second consecutive year and Harris became the CIF Division I Player of the Year.
Crenshaw has not won the City Section championship since 1997. The high school now has 17 city section titles, eight state titles and one world title.
“I’m only the second coach in the history of the school,” Waters said to the L.A. City Council. “Many of the young men that were very instrumental in us winning were actually born in 1997, so there was some type of connection of destiny to this whole thing.”
This season, the Cougars had a 19-13 overall record and went 7-5 in the Coliseum league. Crenshaw lost to rival Dorsey high school in both meetings and could only defeat Fremont high school when they met in the playoffs. However, the cougars were the only team in the Coliseum League to win a City Section championship title in any division this season.
Harris-Dawson also honored the Crenshaw baseball team for going undefeated in season last year.
“We like to bring them in and show them off to the city when we have success,” Harris-Dawson said. “There needs to be positive stories, our kids come to school, work hard every day, overcome tremendous obstacles, and so when they do well, that ought to get as much attention as when something goes wrong.”
