Chowchilla High boys basketball celebrates first section championship since 1999
When Don Smith moved over as coach from the Chowchilla High girls basketball team to take over the boys program, the goal was to eventually when a section title.
Six years later, Smith and the Tribe accomplished that goal.
Fifth-seeded Chowchilla (20-12) led from start to finish to win the Central Section Division VI championship with a 63-59 victory over No. 6 Fowler at Selland Arena in Fresno on Friday afternoon.
“It was just kind of a dream come true,” said Smith, whose team will now move onto the state playoffs. “I feel like we’ve been kind of writing a story the last month of the season. There’s been a large group of these kids that have been playing together for a long time, so it was kind of cool for it to end that way.”
Smith has a knack for ending long section championship droughts. He led the girls basketball program to their first section title in 2018. It was their first section championship in 31 years.
The boys won their first section title since 1999.
“It was just great to see our players’ faces and their excitement,” Smith said.
The Tribe started the game with a 7-0 run and built their lead to as much as 18 points in the first half.
Zayne Smith had the hot hand for the Tribe, draining five of his six 3-pointers in the first half. The senior guard scored 19 of his his 24 points in the first two quarters.
Khaled Escheik chipped in with 14 points and Moritz Heckerodt added 13 points for Chowchilla.
Seven of the players have been playing together since they were in fifth grade, according to Smith.
The school and community showed up at Selland Arena to support the Tribe. After winning, the team received a police escort to the school when they returned to town on Friday night.
“We had a really good showing at the game,” Smith said. “Then we had a nice little parade when we got back into town with the police department and the fire department.”
Smith becomes the rare coach to lead both a boys and girls team to a section championship.
“When I made the decision to go coach the boys and rebuild the program and rebuild the culture, this is what I was doing,” Smith said. “This was the goal. It took us six years, and it’s amazing. I feel like I’ve accomplished what we wanted to do, but I want to try to keep it going.”
The Tribe will find out their matchup for the state playoffs on Sunday.
