Once Overlooked, Now Everyone Keeps an Eye on Buena Park : Freeway League: After long drought, Coyotes’ trip to playoffs last year makes them league favorites.

Marty Luczaj, Buena Park High School football coach, sat outside his school’s new weight room and talked about last season, when the Coyotes reached the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.

Luczaj, 37, had no idea what to expect when he left his secure position as an assistant coach at Fullerton College to help rebuild Buena Park’s bargain-basement program.

Buena Park had won only one Freeway League game in seven seasons when Luczaj arrived last spring, and he promptly began to bury the past. He changed the school’s logo and colors and built a weight room that the players now call home.

Luczaj was trying to erase the memories of a 28-game league losing streak, but new helmets and jerseys are often not enough to change a losing attitude.

A league-opening 33-0 loss to Sunny Hills could have ruined Luczaj’s plan for success. But the plan kicked in before Buena Park played La Habra, which many believed would pin another league loss on the Coyotes in Week 2.

Buena Park won, and won big, beating the Highlanders, 54-0. It was the beginning of a three-game league winning streak that propelled the Coyotes into the playoffs. Luczaj will long remember that game.

“Instead of getting down after the Sunny Hills game, we came back against La Habra,” Luczaj said. “Everything that had gone wrong against Sunny Hills turned around for us against La Habra.

“To our credit, we stuck to what we believed in. We didn’t make wholesale changes like coaches here in the past had done when we lost to Sunny Hills.”

Luczaj likes to show an anonymous letter he received after the Sunny Hills’ game; the writer praised his defense and then politely suggested a new offensive scheme. Funny, but someone was expecting more in the league opener.

“Can you imagine?” Luczaj said. “We win once in seven years, and when I lose the opener, I get a letter criticizing the offense.”

Undaunted, Buena Park went on to score 54, 48 and 28 points against La Habra, Sonora and Troy to qualify for the playoffs. The Coyotes scored 130 points in three games, or more points than they had scored in three previous seasons.

This year, Freeway League followers are calling the Coyotes title contenders. Four of the league’s six coaches picked Buena Park to win the league.

“It’s difficult not to pick Buena Park,” La Habra Coach Jack Nicholls said. “They have the best returning players in the league. They got some momentum going last year, and I think that will carry over to this season.”

Even Sunny Hills Coach Tim Devaney, whose team won the league and Division VI titles last year, is conceding the favorite’s role to Buena Park.

“Buena Park has got to be the overwhelming favorite,” Devaney said. “But Sunny Hills will always be in the hunt.”

Naturally, Luczaj discounts his team’s chances and only laughs when told his peers have listed his team as the favorite.

“We win one league game in seven years, and all of a sudden, we’re the favorite?” Luczaj said. “Around here, you fight the losing attitude every day. We’re still trying to overcome it. But if nothing else, I think the players learned that a good work ethic goes along with success.”

Buena Park has five first-team, all-league players returning, including the league’s best running back--Angel Barrios--and the league’s best lineman--tackle Gavin Molinar. Barrios is a four-sport athlete who also excels in basketball, baseball and track. He averaged 8.5 yards per carry as a junior.

Sunny Hills graduated the outstanding backfield combination of halfback Mike Sullivan and fullback Kenny Overby and lost its entire offensive line. But Sunny Hills’ lower-division teams swept to league titles and the Lancers’ coaching staff is among the most respected in the county.

“Sunny Hills walked through the league last year, and you know they’re going to be right there in the end again,” Troy Coach John Turek said.

Fullerton, runner-up in the league last year, is expected to battle La Habra and Troy for the third playoff spot. Sonora will have to be content to be a spoiler in one of the county’s most competitive leagues.