When members of the Class of ‘26 were freshmen, they secured an upset by defeating the seniors at Falcon Puff. Now as the graduating class, the Class of ‘26 has a perfect 4-year run, winning all eight games without a single loss.
Both the win in freshman year and 4-year streak are the first in school history, according to athletic director Rick Ellis.
Looking back at freshman year, football player Anthony Tran said he was selected by upperclassmen to lead the Falcon Puff team. Soon after, Anthony said he recruited his “core” coaching staff: defensive coordinator Jayden Kwon and offensive coordinator Lucas Hawthorne.
Throughout the years, other seniors have helped coach the team as well, including Rian Khetani, Brennan Pak and Miles Sy.
Anthony thinks the wins were only made possible because of the players; top contributors include Thalea Charton, Sophia Faraone, Elli Kline and Sasha Prasad.
“It’s more about the athletes in this game. They had the talent; we just needed to guide them a little, and they learned from there,” Anthony said. “I have to give the credit to all the players.”
Jayden added: “The coaches can only do so much, ultimately it is up to the players to execute and they for sure just did that.”
In freshman year, the team practiced often and had strong student participation, which led to their wins against the juniors and seniors.
“I feel like no other teams practiced as much as we did when we were freshmen,” Anthony said. “We came in as underdogs, and no one expected us to even make it past the first round.”
Anthony said the most difficult year was this year’s Falcon Puff, due to decreased participation. In fact, the team did not begin practicing until a day before its first game.
Despite their lack of preparation, the fundamentals the seniors had developed in previous years carried over, so the games themselves were not difficult for them.
After their history-making eight wins over four years, a strong sense of camaraderie between the players and coaches has developed. Anthony said he’s gotten to know the players well and truly trusts them.
For her part, Thalea added, “A lot of us have been doing it since freshman year. It’s just nice having fun with the girls around me.”
Now, the seniors get to walk away with a legacy that will be hard for future classes to beat.
“I’m confident and proud of our class,” Jadeyn said. “Personally, I believe we had the best coached and best athletic team throughout all four years and that [contributed] to our success.”
