Dustin Croick built Agoura Football into a CIF title contender through toughness, tragedy, and togetherness

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. — Attitude, Toughness, Brotherhood — those are the three words senior captain George Hastings shares with his teammates as the team prepares for overtime. Oak Park’s 4-star QB Bryson Kennedy had just thrown a miraculous 44-yard touchdown while rolling to his right with a defender closing in- forcing overtime with just seconds left. The Chargers had multiple chances to put the game away in the 4th quarter, but suddenly let their two-touchdown lead evaporate against rivals Oak Park.

Nevertheless, Agoura emerged victorious, winning the dogfight with the help of their star running back, Hastings, rushing for 134 yards on the game and taking every carry on their game-winning touchdown drive in overtime.  On the ensuing defensive possession, Hastings defended a pass against Division 1-bound receiver Gary Ferguson to shut the door on Oak Park’s star-studded offence, securing a 29-21 Kanan Bowl rivalry win.

“Defensive end Colin Murphy says, 'We are a close-knit group; a lot of us have played together since we were kids- the team knows the gravity of the situation, and we have each other's backs. The defence stepped up when the offense made mistakes; we got the win”

Agoura High School is the flagship high school for the Agoura Hills community, sitting at the gateway of the Santa Monica Mountains. The small town is known for its inclusive bubble and rural suburban charm.  

In this small town, Dustin Croick has turned this program into a sleeping giant. Agoura is home to new UCLA starting Quarterback Ty Dieffenbach. Dieffenbach played cold off the bench, displaying  grit, toughness, and moxie to guide UCLA to win at Oregon. The Chargers showed that same toughness to pull off a 4th straight Kanan Bowl win and put themselves in the lead in the Coastal 101 league race.

When watching UCLA’s 4th quarter, head coach Dustin Croick felt the same type of anxiety he felt Friday night. He knew of Dieffanbacher's success. “I’m just so proud of Ty, Croick said, it just proves you can go to Agoura and play big-time college football.”

The A-Town program has won 27 games the past three seasons, including two league titles and CIF semifinal experience. After a 6-1 start, this senior class has become the winningest class in school history.  It’s incredible how far this program has come.

Football wasn’t always an easy thing for the community. A decade prior, the program experienced eight losing seasons between 2010-2019.  The program had back to back 1-9 campaigns in 2018-2019, forcing a change to be made. Nearby local programs Newbury Park, Oaks Christian, Calabasas and Westlake High School rose to prominence, while Agoura circled down the drain.

Croick, a local commodity himself, quarterbacked the Chargers in the early 2000s, setting records for career wins, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. He went on to have a successful college career at Iona. Upon graduating college in 2009, Croick intended to get into the movie business until tragedy struck his family.  He was packed and ready to drive home when he got a call that his dad got in a major car accident.  His dad, now paralysed at home, Dustin was forced to take care of his father. That’s when Agoura head coach Charlie Wegher called to check on him, and he offered to help with the program. In the midst of tragedy, football found Croick again. Wegher took Croick under his wing, making him the offensive coordinator for the Varsity team.  “I fell in love with coaching. And learned to love the game of football from a different angle.” Croick would get opportunities to coach at the  collegiate level shortly after at Cal Lutheran. The financial realities of the position forced him to build his family business, Mike Green Fire Protection Agency.

“My business pays the bills, but football is my passion”, Croick says. “The timing of the opening had to be fate; I had just bought a house in Oak Park, and I just started getting back in the scene volunteering at Oak Park. I still had zero head coaching experience and wasn’t a teacher. I didn’t think I was going to get the job”

Because of Croick’s passion for Agoura and a blessing from former coach Charlie Wegher, Croick officially got the call to become the Chargers' next football coach. He officially signed the contract on January 26th, 2020, the day Los Angeles will always remember for all the wrong reasons. At 10:00am local time, a helicopter crashed into a Calabasas hillside containing Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi, along with eight other victims who were a part of the same basketball club. In what should have been an exciting day for the Croick family quickly turned somber- as the news shocked Los Angeles and the world Kobe Bryant tragic helicopter crash.

“The day I got hired was a bittersweet moment. Kobe was my hero growing up. For that to happen literally down the road was definitely a shock.  I was with our Athletic Director and Principal soaking in the news. From that point forward, I wanted to honour Kobe with this opportunity by taking on the Mamba mentality when it came to building this program.”

The challenge for the new head coach was to build relationships and establish his culture on the team virtually over the next several months.  He hired former NFL conditioning coach Ryan Capretta’s company Proactive to oversee the program's conditioning, and together they found 

A little more than a month later, Croick had one meeting with the team before Covid shut down the world.  Croick had to chacreative ways to host team workouts over Zoom. Croick used his experience as a business owner

“I think that season may have worked in our favour. I was just figuring it out; during that season, no one had the answers no matter how experienced you were. I welcomed my son during the heat of the pandemic, so I was very excited, but that added to my plate.  I just kept instilling hope that we were going to play. Did my best to install our schemes and to get to know the players.” The program needed change, and Croick turned his own spin on it, establishing his A-Town slogan. D-Line coach Chance Redman, who has been involved with AHS athletics since 2006, coined A-Town “ It’s a slang term for the city. Over the years, it carries more than that. It’s an identity that  brings a unique attitude, swagger, and toughness to the program-  it’s about a captivating way to show pride for your community.”

“A-Town wasn’t originally supposed to be a branding thing. Relatively, A-Town is the nickname for Agoura.” Croick said  he came up with the slogan ATB- Attitude, Toughness, Brotherhood- that’s what A-Town is all about. At Agoura, I thought about what we could sell. We can’t match resources, facilities, or winning success with some of the other programs, but to Agoura youth,, I can sell the experience of playing with the friends you grow up with. It unintentionally and organically became our brand;; it’s really about the kids and the pride of the community. High school football is some of the best years of your life and it's best to do it with the people you love most.”

During Agoura’s first practice, a tall wide receiver catches Croick’s eye throwing a 40-yard pass back to the coaches after running a fade route. The slender sophomore receiver was named Ty Dieffenbach. “I went to him and said we need to try putting you at quarterback. Let’s give it a shot.” Reluctantly, Ty gave in and became Agoura’s first Quarterback then launched the Chargers into new heights. Dieffenbach broke Croick’s previous records, throwing for 4,153 yards and 48 touchdowns. After earning All-State honors during his junior season, Dieffenbach committed to UNLV that summer. His recruiting proved that you can get noticed while playing at Agoura. 

Coach Croick

Coach Croick standing next to Ty Dieffeenbach after breaking the school's All time passing TD record

Just as things were about to lift off for the Chargers, tragedy struck. On August 25th, a day before their first game, freshmen offensive lineman Carter Jones died of cardiac arrest during surgery; doctors found an undiagnosed tumour.  The Jones family leaned heavily into the football program, hosting a team dinner the week after Carter passed.

“I don’t know how they did it; it was the most inspiring thing I ever saw. While they were hurting, they chose to give. The team was hurting, and football held that team together.”

In a season of grieving, the Chargers would face tons of adversity.  The team went 1-9 with a young team facing a difficult schedule. They had lost star wide receiver Jake East,who earned a scholarship to Cal Poly to graduate. Dieffenbach was sidelined with a knee injury early while he was personally going through family issues with his mom being diagnosed with breast cancer. Croick had to make important business decisions after a partner at his company fell through.

“That was the hardest thing I have to do in my life. I was proud of how the players responded; they wanted to play for Carter. It just put everything in perspective for me personally and professionally. It wasn’t about wins and losses anymore. We started the “Be Like Carter" movement, dedicating a game every year  to share his story. I’m proud of how our students responded. How we continue to carry on Carter’s legacy today.”

While Varsity struggled, the Junior Varsity team went 9-1 that year. It's often rare when a JV team outshines the Varisty team, but that year they did. They were the story of the area and the whole entire Conejo Valley football community supported them.  "That group of players faced the type of adversity kids that age shouldn't ever have to face. They grew up very fast.  I'm just proud how they supported each other throughout that year. The play was suburb, but the culture those freshmen and sophores built a foundation that would ground this program the next few seasons."  

Carter Jone's legacy still lives on and is shared every year. The program retired his number 76 and the Chargers host a "Be Like Carter" every season to carry on his legacy preaching living with compassion and also to share awareness of pediatric research. 

After a 1-9 season there were multiple roads the Chargers program could have gone. Their star Quarterback Dieffenbach was on his way to Pitt. The Chargers had a very tough schedule and had to replace other key pieces. 

 The man to replace school's all time leading passer was a “surfer kid named Harrison Novak. Novak was 5'8, 155 pounds; teams would tell Croick, “That’s your quarterback no way.”  Novak had a lot of moxie about him; he was smart, athletic, accurate, calculated, and the team loved him. Novak passed for 3,000 yards that season and lead the county in completion percentage. 

The Chargers turned heads on opening night when they  upset  a talented Lompoc tean on the road. Croick fielded several complaints from parents about scheduling a game 3 hrs away when that same Lompoc team beat them by 40 at home a year prior.  After a happy bus ride home from Lompoc, that Chargers team rattled off 7 straight wins and was featured in Spectrum’s game of the week when they faced rival Newbury Park. The program won its first playoff game in 7 seasons.

Agoura was put in the Tri-County league as part of the CIF re-leagueing process.  A-Town emerged as the dominant team in that league, going unbeaten in Tri-County Play the next two seasons.  In the 2025 season, the program won 10 games and made the CIF Semifinals for the first time in 20 years. Croick developed his second D-1 QB in Gavin Gray, who committed to Washington St and a Division Wide Receiver, Miles Hull, who went on to San Jose St.

Julian Patton, a former safety for the program, has seen it all with the Chargers program. He currently serves as the head coach for the girls flag football program and has been on Croick’s staff as a defensive backs coach for six years, and shows a lot of appreciation for what the program has become. It is a major program shift. You go from 1-9 to multiple league titles; that’s a big deal. It all starts with keeping Agoura’s best talent in Agoura and proving we can win.  It’s all centered around brotherhood and that you have the best high school experience playing with the people you grew up with.”

While it’s cool to reflect on the journey, Croick says A-Town's best moments lie ahead. The Chargers currently hold a 6-1 record with their lone loss to a top area team in Westlake.

“The goal is to win a CIF championship, " senior defensive lineman Will Gelt says, “We have a special group. Our team is so close; everyone has a puzzle piece in this team and everyone puts so much emphasis in their role.  We have all the talent, when we are dialed in I believe in what we can do.”

Gelt had three tackles for loss in the win against Oak Park and currently ranks 30th in California with 8.5 sacks on the season and has a scholarship to the University of San Diego.  When comparing this group to other teams, Croick says, “This is the most physical and balanced group we have, and it’s because of what we have in the trenches.” The Chargers returned all five offensive linemen from last year, led by left tackle Finn Ward, who was 3rd Team All-State selection last season, holding an offer from Dayton. The engine of this team starts and ends with their do-it-all captain George Hastings. Hastings is a Christian McCaffrey prototype with his ability to run between the tackles, catch the ball, run routes, return kicks and play elite defense. His character resembles a humble Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights.   “George is the type of player who can win you a game single-handedly; he keeps the team together in tough times; the team calls him Captain America for a reason.”  Early in Hastings' sophomore year, Agoura had both of their QBs hurt during a rivalry game against Calabasas;; Hastings went into the game as the emergency QB,,led a game-winning drive and ended the game defensively with 15 tackles, 3 sacks, and a game-sealing interception. He holds a 4.3 GPA in the classroom and has drawn interest from some of the country's best academic institutions, like John Hopkins.

Agoura football

Agoura Celebrates Las Virgenes CUP Against Calabasas

When asked about his role in the growth of the program, Hastings gives a humble answer:

“I just appreciate the trust the coaches have in me. I'm blessed to be part of this coaching staff. My role is to exemplify toughness everyday. I have to set the tone for running the football. It’s great for our identity to lean into our linemen. IT shows we can rely on our trenches to win games.”

After their Kanan Bowl victory, A-Town faces a tough road test when they travel down the grade to visit Camarillo.  In the season finale, they face their rival Calabasas in what will most likely be a showdown for a league championship. Everything about A-Town’s program is pointing full-steam ahead. Their alumni quarterback, Ty Dieffenbach, is quarterbacking a potential CFB team, and the program could bring home its first CIF Title since 1994.

Even with all these new expectations and success, Croick goes back to remembering what helped build this program-

“It’s easy to get washed up in the wins and losses and be encompassed in worrying about results. I want to enjoy the moments, and I want the students to as well. You only get to play high school football once, and you only have 4 years with every single class once. You find fulfillment by focusing on the relationships that matter, including those outside of football. There is fulfillment in that.  I also want to keep Carter’s story front of mind.  If you work hard, are disciplined in your process, and are dedicated to improving every day, the results will follow.”

With alumni Ty Dieffenbach making his first start on Saturday, the A-Town program is finally getting the attention it deserves. When asking coach Julian Patton about the attention the program has received in recent weeks, “Ty helped put this program on the map, we can’t wait to support him on Saturday.  The recognition is huge. But s our responsibility as coaches to capture momentum and take this program to next level.” Look for Chargers to continue to make headlines this fall.