After a winless season in the Foothill League, the Coyotes rallied to earn a spot in the playoffs and beat El Segundo, 63-52, in the CIF Division 5AA Championship game.

“I always thought that these guys were talented and hard-working enough to get to this point, but I really didn’t realize it until it hit double zeros for us,” said Castaic Head Coach  Dominique Butler. “We just stayed the course and we use this word called trust. We trust each other; we trust the coaching staff that great things are going to happen.”

Throughout the entire season, the team and Coach Butler had trust in one another from the high and low points of the season. 

“I trusted these guys and you want to give guys opportunities, but I can tell these guys didn’t have tired legs,” said Butler. “They were here to fight and to compete and they wanted it.”

It was apparent that the Castaic squad was coming out aggressive because, in the first half alone, they sent El Segundo to the free-throw line 20 times.

Heading into halftime, the Coyotes trailed by 23-25, and the coaching staff knew it could be a different game if they managed to foul less.

“If we cut down on free throws for the other team and we can take them off the three-point line, we’re good,” said Butler. “If we needed to force them to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim, we’ve done really good this year at protecting the rim. That’s what we did in the second half.”

Coming out of halftime, the Coyotes played like a team possessed, putting up more points in the third quarter than the entire first half.

“They responded and I’m proud of them for that because some people can fold under pressure, but these guys didn’t. They took it as a challenge,” said Butler.

At the end of the third quarter, Castaic was 47-43 and they kept their foot on the gas heading into the final quarter of the championship game.

The defense stepped up in a big way and only allowed El Segundo to score 9 points in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a cliche saying, but I think it kind of sticks out for us, but it’s not how you start but how you finish,” said Butler. “These boys are finishing right now. We still have some ways to go; as long as we have another game, we are going to play our hardest and play the whole 32 minutes.”

They did just that; they played a hard-fought 32 minutes of basketball and became the 2024 CIF Champions.

“Surely, we are proud of the boys. I know there are two boys here who played extremely well tonight, but if it’s not for those 17 boys, whether it’s practice or team events, we’re not at this point right now,” said Butler. “I was proud of them before we even got to this point. They show up every day, whether it’s Saturday morning, Saturday evening whatever it is, they’re going to show up. I think that is half of the battle is showing up. Then, we have to lead them the rest of the way. I told them to meet me 50 percent and I’ll meet you the other 50 percent and we’ll see what happens.”

They saw that what would happen was a CIF Championship but they still are not finished because they have advanced to the CIF Regional State Tournament.

The Coyotes return to the court tomorrow at 7 p.m. when they take on the Westchester Comets on the road.

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