Twenty-four days after the worst wildfire in L.A. historical past burned their stadium, members of the Palisades Constitution Excessive College soccer group stretched and twisted on a center faculty discipline in Santa Monica.
To the north, a sickly orange haze hung alongside the horizon, a reminder of the inferno that had diminished components of their faculty to a ragged tangle of charred masonry, metallic and wooden. About 10 gamers had misplaced their properties within the Palisades hearth.
Throughout these complicated, grief-ridden days, these near the soccer group — which in 2024 made it to the Metropolis Part Division I championship recreation — questioned whether or not persevering with this system was potential.
A view of Palisades Excessive College on Jan. 8 after wildfire swept by means of the realm, badly damaging the campus.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)
Would there be sufficient gamers to discipline a group? 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 hearth was declared 100% contained, merely gathering for a follow felt like a sort of quiet reclaiming.
A dramatic viral video that includes a number of star gamers would set the tone for the subsequent eight months because the group, compelled right into a fellowship of nomads, looked for what it had misplaced: normalcy.
“I’m not going wherever,” the gamers echoed within the social media clip.
“We are going to discipline a soccer group,” one in every of them insisted.
Then got here a brand new chorus, decided and dauntless: “Pali sturdy!”
‘Desperately wanted’ exercises
Pali Excessive head soccer coach Dylen Smith watches follow from the sidelines at Santa Monica Faculty.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
Regardless of the viral pledge, a number of gamers have been leaving the college, transferring searching for stability.
Head coach Dylen Smith was staying put. So was Kelly Loftus, then a varsity assistant coach, who postponed his retirement.
“Once they confirmed footage [on TV] of the college in flames — it simply made my abdomen roll. I obtained 25 years vested into that place,” stated Loftus, 68. “Coach Dylen Smith despatched me an image of the sphere home — that was gone. And that’s once I realized: I don’t assume my providers are fairly used up right here.”
Smith, 46, determined to begin working towards within the winter offseason to supply the gamers with a routine. “We simply needed to get everyone collectively and do one thing,” he stated.
Amongst these in attendance on Jan. 31 was then-sophomore Max Gayler, who’d performed on the junior varsity group in the course of the 2024 season. His household had moved to a Pacific Palisades house six years in the past, relocating “principally for the college,” stated 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 follow at Santa Monica Faculty on July 31.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
“When you could have a spot to go, particularly for a child, and also you’re with individuals who care about you and also you’re all working towards one thing, it’s actually necessary,” stated Max’s father, Richard Gayler. “It was desperately wanted.”
Apart from follow, goodwill flowed to the group: L.A.’s NFL groups, the Rams and Chargers, welcomed the Dolphins to their services for particular gatherings.
However, greater than something, Richard stated, the practices have been what certain Max and his teammates.
“It gave him hope,” he stated.
Spring brings a turning level
After Pali Excessive’s campus burned in January’s Palisades hearth, the way forward for the college’s soccer program was in query.
By spring, follow has shifted to Santa Monica’s Airport Park.
Simply seven gamers confirmed up for a voluntary exercise on March 24.
“It’s been a battle, I’m not gonna lie,” Smith stated.
Zane Shakarian, who performed on the JV group as a freshman in 2024, couldn’t make it to the practices within the months after his mom’s Palisades dwelling burned down. For a month or two, he stated he’d been residing “place to put.”
“I used to be simply coping with larger issues on the time,” he stated.
Pali Excessive head coach Dylen Smith directs gamers throughout follow at Santa Monica Faculty.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
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 fun the primary spring follow.
About 45 gamers confirmed up.
“It was a little bit off, as a result of it’s not on the Stadium by the Sea,” stated King Demethris, then a junior huge receiver. “However I used to be grateful to play soccer. So I simply took all of it in.”
After follow, Stewart Wilson-Turner, co-president of the Quarterback Membership, addressed the attendees.
“We wish you guys to win — regardless of all the things that’s gone on, there’s no cause why you may’t,” stated Wilson-Turner, whose son, Aidan, is on the group. “As a result of you could have what you want: your self, your coaches. So long as you guys are devoted, we are going to keep devoted with you.”
This makeshift model of Friday Evening Lights made one factor clear: There can be a season.
“We’re down,” Demethris stated. “However we are going to come again — like we by no means left.”
Summer time in Santa Monica
The group relocated follow to Santa Monica Faculty over the summer season. It was a sort of homecoming for Smith, who grew up within the metropolis, ultimately taking part in quarterback at Santa Monica Excessive College and the school earlier than transferring to the College of Kansas for 2 seasons beginning in 1999.
Pali Excessive offensive lineman Iliya Heydarkhanie takes a break throughout follow at Santa Monica Faculty.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
Smith had hoped to go professional. However accidents derailed that dream. After twenty years teaching highschool soccer in West L.A., he was employed as Pali’s varsity head coach in 2023.
The Dolphins’ July 23 follow had a buoyant really feel because the group settled into its new “dwelling” stadium on the faculty. Whereas this system had misplaced some gamers, it had gained some too, most notably huge receiver Demare Dezeurn, a four-star faculty prospect.
His arrival was a sign, Smith stated, that “individuals wish to be part of this.”
After follow, the coach was swarmed by gamers. Some approached to simply shake Smith’s hand, others had questions on paperwork, and some needed to debate gear points. It was, he stated, good to be coping with prosaic considerations 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 group’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 used to be a bartender for years, broke up bar fights,” he stated — to teach with a playful rigor.
In a brand new position as JV defensive coordinator, he deployed his gruff however humor-infused model of teaching whereas welcoming a gaggle of incoming ninth-graders to this system. They seemed like underclassmen throughout a July 31 follow, dropping balls and operating incorrect routes. And Loftus allow them to have it.
“What within the huge world of soccer are you doing?” he howled at a participant.
“That is the gridiron, not a golf course. Don’t stroll. End!” he bellowed.
One varsity participant who delighted in working towards 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 Seashore Excessive College, close to the place his mom had relocated. Switching to Laguna Excessive had appeared like the suitable determination — he had discovered Pali’s short-term pivot to on-line studying tedious, and felt remoted from his buddies.
“I needed to go to highschool in individual and maintain working towards soccer,” stated Rastegar, who joined Laguna’s soccer group.
But it surely didn’t really feel everlasting: “My thoughts was all the time set on going again to Pali.”
By July, Rastegar had moved again into his father’s Palisades dwelling and returned to this system. The junior huge receiver was embraced by his teammates.
“It was,” he stated, “such feeling to see everybody once more.”
Pali Excessive freshman defender Hudson Roth’s (34) helmet flies off whereas trying to sort out a Taft Excessive participant in the course of the JV soccer recreation between the colleges on Aug. 22.
It was the sort of sweltering day that Los Angeles had principally been spared throughout a comparatively delicate summer season. On Aug. 22, the JV group 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 pink flag warning for the elevated threat of fireside. 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 dwelling had burned, led the group on a drive that culminated in his 43-yard landing strike.
“It was nice listening to the cheers within the stands after,” he stated. “Simply grateful to be again.”
Pali Excessive gamers have fun a turnover in the course of the JV soccer recreation in opposition to Taft Excessive College.
Last 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 stated. “They did it.”
The varsity group 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 dwelling — of types
Pali Excessive soccer gamers burst by means of their faculty banner earlier than the sport in opposition to Granada Hills Constitution Excessive College at Santa Monica Faculty on Sept. 5.
2 hundred and forty-one days after the Palisades hearth, the Dolphins hosted their first dwelling recreation at Santa Monica Faculty’s Corsair Discipline.
Cheerleaders and the band went by means 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 individuals. That was by design.
“We needed to return into this recreation actually simply to deliver individuals collectively as a neighborhood,” stated Evans, whose son Augie is a group captain. “There are such a lot of individuals who have misplaced all the things.”
Smith’s pregame message to his gamers solely obliquely touched on the tragedy. “Let’s transfer ahead,” he informed them. “The neighborhood is right here for you guys. Let’s play for them.”
Clockwise from prime left: Pali Excessive huge receiver King Demethris pushes previous the protection in the course of the soccer group’s Sept. 5 conflict with Granada Hills Excessive; Pali senior Alessandra Santini, heart, decorates junior Hudson Ramberg’s shirt earlier than the sport; Pali Excessive assistant coach Donte Dezeurn congratulates the group after its victory; Pali cheerleader Julianna Pulido rallies followers earlier than the competition.
Pali was dealing with Granada Hills Constitution College in what is named the Constitution Bowl — an annual matchup between the 2 outstanding charters.
The colleges traded touchdowns for a lot of the primary half, with Pali putting shortly by means 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 obtained 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 gained 59-44.
After the sport, Smith seemed towards the stands, which have been nonetheless stuffed with Pali followers. On an evening when a lot had been left unsaid about what introduced them to Santa Monica, he centered on his group’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 sphere.
“The climate,” he stated, “felt just like the Palisades.”
Pali Excessive quarterback Jack Thomas, left, and huge receiver King Demethris pray earlier than their Sept. 5 recreation in opposition to Granada Hills Excessive.
