The Walnut boys basketball program has a huge hole to fill after the resignation of coach Joe Khouzam, widely recognized by his peers and those who follow Mustangs basketball as one of the area’s top coaches.

Khouzam resigned to pursue coaching at the collegiate level. He will be an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at Glendale Community College next season. Khouzam will remain at Walnut as a teacher.

“I’m returning to Glendale to coach where I played as a player many years ago,” Khouzam said. “It was a hard decision to resign at Walnut. So many great relationships, memories and we achieved a lot of success. But I always wanted to know if I can coach at the next level. I’m getting older, so I don’t want to regret not giving it a shot.”

The Mustangs never won a CIF Southern Section championship under Khouzam, but had tremendous success during his 11-year tenure. He finished with an overall record of 232-85-9.

The Mustangs won at least 20 games in nine of Khouzam’s 11 seasons, won two league titles and never missed the CIF-SS playoffs. Khouzam turned the Mustangs into a program — mostly without transfers — that played in Division 1 or 2 for most of his tenure.

The Mustangs reached the quarterfinals of the playoffs five times, and all of those appearances came in Division 2 or higher.

The Mustangs’ best season was in 2022-23 when they finished 28-3 and lost to La Mirada in the quarterfinals of Division 2A. That team featured Khouzam’s son, Malik Khouzam, who averaged 21 points and was a San Gabriel Valley All-Area first team selection.

The 2022-23 season was also filled with heartbreak for Khouzam and his son. In December of 2022, just before the Christmas Classic at Covina High School, Khouzam’s daughter Kayla Khouzam, 22, died in a car crash.

Joe managed to coach and Malik managed to play the rest of the season with help from an outpouring of support from the community.

JACKSON to guide MUIR

Muir has hired Wendell Jackson as its new boys basketball coach.

Jackson, a 2007 Mustangs graduate, was an assistant at Arcadia this past season and is known as someone with deep ties to club basketball and the AAU circuit.

This past season, under coach Brent Moore, who was not brought back, the Mustangs finished 7-23.