Twenty-four days after the worst wildfire in L.A. historical past burned their stadium, members of the Palisades Constitution Excessive College soccer staff stretched and twisted on a center faculty area in Santa Monica.
To the north, a sickly orange haze hung alongside the horizon, a reminder of the inferno that had lowered components of their faculty to a ragged tangle of charred masonry, metallic and wooden. About 10 gamers had misplaced their properties within the Palisades fireplace.
Throughout these complicated, grief-ridden days, these near the soccer staff — which in 2024 made it to the Metropolis Part Division I championship recreation — questioned whether or not persevering with this system was doable.
A view of Palisades Excessive College on Jan. 8 after wildfire swept by way of the world, badly damaging the campus.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Would there be sufficient gamers to area a staff? Would first-stringers switch? With their Stadium by the Sea in ruins, what would represent a house recreation?
However on Jan. 31, the identical day the Palisades fireplace was declared 100% contained, merely gathering for a apply felt like a form of quiet reclaiming.
A dramatic viral video that includes a number of star gamers would set the tone for the subsequent 9 months because the staff, pressured right into a fellowship of nomads, looked for what it had misplaced: normalcy.
“I am not going anywhere,” the gamers echoed within the social media clip.
“We will field a football team,” one among them insisted.
Then got here a brand new chorus, decided and dauntless: “Pali strong!”
‘Desperately needed’ exercises 
Pali Excessive head soccer coach Dylen Smith watches apply from the sidelines at Santa Monica School.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
Regardless of the viral pledge, a number of gamers have been leaving the college, transferring looking for stability.
Head coach Dylen Smith was staying put. So was Kelly Loftus, then a varsity assistant coach, who postponed his retirement.
“When they showed pictures [on TV] of the school in flames — it just made my stomach roll. I got 25 years vested into that place,” mentioned Loftus, 68. “Coach Dylen Smith sent me a picture of the field house — that was gone. And that’s when I realized: I don’t think my services are quite used up here.”
Smith, 46, determined to start out training within the winter offseason to offer the gamers with a routine. “We just wanted to get everybody together and do something,” he mentioned.
Amongst these in attendance on Jan. 31 was then-sophomore Max Gayler, who’d performed on the junior varsity staff throughout the 2024 season. His household had moved to a Pacific Palisades condominium six years in the past, relocating “basically for the school,” mentioned his mom, Kim Gayler.
After their constructing burned, they resettled throughout city, in Carthay Circle. However there was no query Max would stay at Pali — and play soccer.
Pali Excessive quarterback Jack Thomas, proper, interacts with teammate Demare Dezeurn, left, at apply at Santa Monica School on July 31.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
“When you have a place to go, especially for a kid, and you’re with people who care about you and you’re all working toward something, it is really important,” mentioned Max’s father, Richard Gayler. “It was desperately needed.”
Except for apply, goodwill flowed to the staff: L.A.’s NFL groups, the Rams and Chargers, welcomed the Dolphins to their amenities for particular gatherings.
However, greater than something, Richard mentioned, the practices have been what sure Max and his teammates.
“It gave him hope,” he mentioned.
Spring brings a turning level 
After Pali Excessive’s campus burned in January’s Palisades fireplace, the way forward for the college’s soccer program was in query.
By spring, apply has shifted to Santa Monica’s Airport Park.
Simply seven gamers confirmed up for a voluntary exercise on March 24.
“It’s been a struggle, I’m not gonna lie,” Smith mentioned.
Zane Shakarian, who performed on the JV staff as a freshman in 2024, couldn’t make it to the practices within the months after his mom’s Palisades house burned down. For a month or two, he mentioned he’d been dwelling “place to place.”
“I was just dealing with bigger things at the time,” he mentioned.
Pali Excessive head coach Dylen Smith directs gamers throughout apply at Santa Monica School.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
Could 2 marked a turning level for this system.
That’s when the Pali Quarterback Membership, a parent-led, nonprofit group that helps this system, made good on a beloved custom, Friday Evening Lights. It’s a gathering of gamers and oldsters to have a good time the primary spring apply.
About 45 gamers confirmed up.
“It was a little off, because it’s not at the Stadium by the Sea,” mentioned King Demethris, then a junior vast receiver. “But I was grateful to play football. So I just took it all in.”
After apply, Stewart Wilson-Turner, co-president of the Quarterback Membership, addressed the attendees.
“We want you guys to win — despite everything that’s gone on, there’s no reason why you can’t,” mentioned Wilson-Turner, whose son, Aidan, is on the staff. “Because you have what you need: yourself, your coaches. As long as you guys are dedicated, we will stay dedicated with you.”
This makeshift model of Friday Evening Lights made one factor clear: There can be a season.
“We’re down,” Demethris mentioned. “But we will come back — like we never left.”
Summer season in Santa Monica
The staff relocated apply to Santa Monica School over the summer time. It was a form of homecoming for Smith, who grew up within the metropolis, finally taking part in quarterback at Santa Monica Excessive College and the faculty earlier than transferring to the College of Kansas for 2 seasons beginning in 1999.
Pali Excessive offensive lineman Iliya Heydarkhanie takes a break throughout apply at Santa Monica School.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
Smith had hoped to go professional. However accidents derailed that dream. After 20 years teaching highschool soccer in West L.A., he was employed as Pali’s varsity head coach in 2023.
The Dolphins’ July 23 apply had a buoyant really feel because the staff settled into its new “home” stadium on the school. Whereas this system had misplaced some gamers, it had gained some too, most notably vast receiver Demare Dezeurn, a four-star school prospect.
His arrival was a sign, Smith mentioned, that “people want to be a part of this.”
After apply, the coach was swarmed by gamers. Some approached to simply shake Smith’s hand, others had questions on paperwork, and some wished to debate tools points. It was, he mentioned, good to be coping with prosaic issues once more.
Earlier than lengthy, practices started intensifying. Loftus, the veteran Pali coach who postponed retirement, helped see to that.
Pali Excessive JV head coach Reynaldo Padilla, left, and Kelly Loftus, the staff’s defensive coordinator, give a victory speech after defeating Taft Excessive College on Aug. 22.
A voluble man, Loftus attracts on his colourful life expertise — “I was a bartender for years, broke up bar fights,” he mentioned — to teach with a playful rigor.
In a brand new function as JV defensive coordinator, he deployed his gruff however humor-infused model of teaching whereas welcoming a bunch of incoming ninth-graders to this system. They regarded like underclassmen throughout a July 31 apply, dropping balls and working incorrect routes. And Loftus allow them to have it.
“What in the wide world of football are you doing?” he howled at a participant.
“This is the gridiron, not a golf course. Do not walk. Finish!” he bellowed.
One varsity participant who delighted in training once more: Max Rastegar, who had left Pali Excessive following the hearth.
He had determined to maneuver on from Pali in late March, enrolling at Laguna Seaside Excessive College, close to the place his mom had relocated. Switching to Laguna Excessive had appeared like the correct resolution — he had discovered Pali’s non permanent pivot to on-line studying tedious, and felt remoted from his mates.
“I wanted to go to school in person and keep practicing football,” mentioned Rastegar, who joined Laguna’s soccer staff.
But it surely didn’t really feel everlasting: “My mind was always set on going back to Pali.”
By July, Rastegar had moved again into his father’s Palisades house and returned to this system. The junior vast receiver was embraced by his teammates.
“It was,” he mentioned, “such a good feeling to see everyone again.”
Pali Excessive freshman defender Hudson Roth’s (34) helmet flies off whereas trying to deal with a Taft Excessive participant throughout the JV soccer recreation between the faculties on Aug. 22.
It was the form of sweltering day that Los Angeles had principally been spared throughout a comparatively gentle summer time. On Aug. 22, the JV staff traveled to Woodland Hills to face Taft Constitution Excessive College for its first recreation.
Midafternoon introduced 102-degree warmth. The Nationwide Climate Service had issued a crimson flag warning for the elevated danger of fireplace. By the 5 p.m. begin, a scorching wind was blowing excessive of the bleachers that framed Hal Lambert Stadium.
After Pali fell behind by a landing early on, sophomore quarterback Zane Shakarian, the participant whose mom’s house had burned, led the staff on a drive that culminated in his 43-yard landing strike.
“It was great hearing the cheers in the stands after,” he mentioned. “Just grateful to be back.”
Pali Excessive gamers have a good time a turnover throughout the JV soccer recreation towards Taft Excessive College.
Closing rating: Palisades 13, Taft 7.
Surrounded by gamers and oldsters streaming towards the exits, Wilson-Turner smiled, working to stifle tears. “They did it, man,” he mentioned. “They did it.”
The varsity staff would debut Aug. 28 in an away recreation, when it defeated Harvard-Westlake, 37-34. The Dolphins have been led by Dezeurn, the high-profile switch, who caught 4 landing passes.
A milestone loomed on Sept. 5.
A return house — of types 
Pali Excessive soccer gamers burst by way of their faculty banner earlier than the sport towards Granada Hills Constitution Excessive College at Santa Monica School on Sept. 5.
200 and forty-one days after the Palisades fireplace, the Dolphins hosted their first house recreation at Santa Monica School’s Corsair Discipline.
Cheerleaders and the band went by way of boisterous pregame routines earlier than a crowd of about 1,400 as a ceremony hosted by emcee Lorenz Evans honored notables near this system.
He didn’t point out the Palisades or Eaton fires, which destroyed greater than 16,000 constructions and killed 31 folks. That was by design.
“We wanted to come into this game really just to bring people together as a community,” mentioned Evans, whose son Augie is a staff captain. “There are so many people who have lost everything.”
Smith’s pregame message to his gamers solely obliquely touched on the tragedy. “Let’s move forward,” he instructed them. “The community is here for you guys. Let’s play for them.”
Clockwise from prime left: Pali Excessive vast receiver King Demethris pushes previous the protection throughout the soccer staff’s Sept. 5 conflict with Granada Hills Excessive; Pali senior Alessandra Santini, middle, decorates junior Hudson Ramberg’s shirt earlier than the sport; Pali Excessive assistant coach Donte Dezeurn congratulates the staff after its victory; Pali cheerleader Julianna Pulido rallies followers earlier than the competition.
Pali was going through Granada Hills Constitution College in what is named the Constitution Bowl — an annual matchup between the 2 distinguished charters.
The colleges traded touchdowns for a lot of the primary half, with Pali placing shortly by way of the air. The Highlanders countered with deliberate, run-focused drives. At halftime, the Dolphins led 35-30.
The second half continued on this method. Pali and Granada Hills once more swapped scores. However one thing modified late within the third quarter. The temperature dipped into the 60s as moist ocean air crept inland.
Proper round this time, the Dolphins’ protection bought a key cease on fourth down in Granada Hills territory. On the next possession, Pali quarterback Jack Thomas threw a landing strike to Demethris that broke the sport open. After a two-point conversion, the Dolphins had a 51-36 benefit.
Led by Thomas and his six landing passes — three of which went to Demethris — Pali received 59-44.
After the sport, Smith regarded towards the stands, which have been nonetheless crammed with Pali followers. On an evening when a lot had been left unsaid about what introduced them to Santa Monica, he centered on his staff’s efficiency within the postgame huddle.
Later, he famous how necessary the fourth-down cease — and a subsequent fumble restoration — had been. However he additionally talked about one thing else: the cool veil draped over the sector.
“The weather,” he mentioned, “felt like the Palisades.”
Pali Excessive quarterback Jack Thomas, left, and vast receiver King Demethris pray earlier than their Sept. 5 recreation towards Granada Hills Excessive.
