Layla Butler enjoying very good season at point guard for NVC women's basketball
Photos: Napa Valley College's Layla Butler.
Courtesy photos
By MARTY JAMES
Layla Butler has a lot going on in her life.
As a freshman at Napa Valley College, she plays on the women's basketball team, and is enjoying a very good season at the point guard position. She has played in 27 games and is averaging 9.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game for the Storm.
She took three business classes and an English class in the fall.
This spring, she is taking Calculus I, an economics class and a computer class.
"That's pretty much what I've got on my plate right now," said Butler.
Actually, there is more.
As a musician, she is a drummer in a New Orleans brass band, with The Jazzschool in Berkeley. The group meets and plays on Saturdays.
She also plays drums with a worship team on Sundays at LifeLine Vallejo, a church.
The schedule, said Butler, requires a lot of patience.
"I know basketball comes first, before all my drumming stuff," Butler said after a Storm practice last week. "When I come here for basketball, I know I've got to be here for my team.
"For my schoolwork, I just fit that in-between. I know that with the drums, I can easily do that anytime I want to. It's not even stressful at all. It's been very fun, actually. I really enjoy it."
Butler has had a lot to do with Napa Valley's success during the 2025-26 season, with the Storm compiling a winning record and advancing to the postseason.
She is shooting 46.9 percent from the field, 24.3 percent from 3-point distance, and 59.7 percent from the free-throw line.
She has scored in double figures in 13 games, and had a season-high 18-point game in a Bay Valley Conference win over Solano Community College-Fairfield on Jan. 10.
She had a streak of five consecutive games of scoring in double figures in January.
She had a season-high 11-assist game in a nonconference win over Lassen College-Susanville on Dec. 30.
She had a season-high eight-rebound game in a Bay Valley Conference loss to Los Medanos College-Pittsburg on Jan. 2
"She's got everything organized, and she really works hard at it, everything that she's committed to," Storm coach Paul DeBolt said. "Our coaching staff, we're trying to recruit young student athletes who have a purpose, like they have something that they're doing. It's great when basketball is very, very important to them. But also, just having something outside of basketball and school, I think, is very healthy and it's a thing where they can get their minds on something else. They're dedicated to something else.
"We look for that. She's got a lot of stuff that she's interested in. She's just a model student-athlete for us."
Napa Valley (19-8 overall, 8-6 Bay Valley Conference) continues its season when it faces host Sacramento City College (13-15 overall, 7-9 Big 8 Conference) on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. in Round 1 of the 2026 California Community College Athletic Association Northern California Regional.
Napa Valley is the No. 19 seed and the fourth-place team from the Bay Valley Conference.
Sacramento City is the No. 14 seed and finished in fifth place in the Big 8.
"Our team has come a long way," said Butler. "We've got to play through fatigue and everything. I feel like we have good team chemistry. It's like a family."
The NorCal Regionals has a 24-team field. It's led by No. 1 seed San Joaquin Delta-Stockton, No. 2 seed Folsom Lake, No. 3 seed Laney-Oakland, No. 4 seed Fresno City, No. 5 seed Santa Rosa, No. 6 seed Butte-Oroville, No. 7 seed San Francisco and No. 8 seed Sequoias-Visalia.
It's Napa Valley's fourth straight postseason appearance.
Round 2 games are on Saturday, March 28.
The 3C2A Championships are March 12, 14-15 at College of the Sequoias-Visalia.
Butler had a major impact early on in the season, scoring 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, in Napa Valley's 73-60 nonconference win over Sacramento City on Nov. 13. She also had five rebounds.
"When I first started in high school, I was like the underdog. People were way better than me on the team," said Butler.
"Now that I've come to Napa, I have to be a leader and help my team out and be the best that I can be. I've got to keep going because the momentum of the game never stops."
Butler graduated from Pinole Valley High School in 2025. She played four years of varsity basketball at Pinole Valley, at the point guard and shooting guard positions. She also played quarterback and running back in flag football.
"I've seen her play all through her high school career at Pinole Valley. She just really grew as a player, and she got better every year there. It was nice to see, just her growth. You can see the trajectory on her. You can see that she was going to continue to grow. So, that was important with her," said DeBolt.
There's so much that Butler brings to the NVC program.
She has made the adjustment and transition, from high school to community college, to making a commitment to NVC and the Storm program.
There is the great speed that she plays with, along with a defensive toughness.
"I think for Layla, it was just a matter of settling down and settling in, and then getting comfortable with her teammates, and the situation with us coaches," said DeBolt. "Layla has really grown. She has shown great strides this year. And it really came early. It came in December, where it was like, she's really starting to put some good games together. And I think some of the other freshmen have followed her.
"She brings a basketball IQ. She brings a certain maturity to everything that she does. She's pretty confident in what she does, which we like. She's a great defensive player. She doesn't take bad shots. Her shot selection is really good. She's a steady scorer. She doesn't take a lot of shots. She gets steals and assists, and takes care of the ball for us. There are times when she just has to stay on the court, and she has accepted that role.
"She's explosively athletic, but she's got a smoothness to her game and a calmness to her personality that goes well with her athleticism. She's a great athlete. But she's more than that. She is a really complete personality and player for us."
Butler's confidence in the game is soaring playing for NVC, in all aspects of her game.
"Coach (DeBolt) sees the potential in me, and he has helped me to where I am," said Butler. "I have high confidence in my game. Coach (DeBolt) has helped me with that confidence. I've elevated my confidence with driving to the basket.
"I've learned that it doesn't matter how young you are. It doesn't matter if you're a freshman or sophomore, that you can always be a leader and that you can always carry the team. Because it matters about skill more than age at the end of the day."
Butler's musical background
Layla Butler keeps busy performing with a New Orleans brass band, with The Jazzschool in Berkeley, on Saturdays. There are seven members of the band – two on trombone, one on saxophone, one on trumpet, one on baritone saxophone, Butler on drums, and a vocalist. The band has an emphasis on jazz.
She got her start as a drummer through East Bay Center-Performing Arts, in Richmond.
Butler also spends part of her Saturdays in rehearsals with LifeLine Vallejo. The group consists of five vocalists, two drummers, one on guitar and one on keyboards.
"At times, it's good to have something else that you can go to, to get your mind off of basketball. I've always believed that as part of what we've done as coaches is encouraged them to do some things that are away from basketball, because it freshens the mind. And when you get back in the gym, you're ready to go. You've got some balance to your life and to your interests. And I think that she really epitomizes that," said DeBolt.
* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.