A fresh set of downs for Pali High

The football team of wildfire nomads searches for elusive normalcy. Could the program survive upheaval after the campus burned?

- By Daniel Miller

PLAYERS on the Pali High football team burst through a banner before the Sept. 5 game in Santa Monica.

Twenty-four days after the worst wildfire in L.A. history burned their stadium, members of the Palisades Charter High School football team stretched and twisted on a middle school field in Santa Monica.

To the north, a sickly orange haze hung along the horizon, a reminder of the inferno that had reduced parts of their school to a ragged tangle of charred masonry, metal and wood. About 10 players had lost their homes in the Palisades fire.

During these confusing, grief-ridden days, those close to the football team — which in 2024 made it to the City Section Division I championship game — questioned whether continuing the program was possible.

Would there be enough players to field a team? Would first-stringers transfer? With their Stadium by the Sea in ruins, what would constitute a home game?

But on Jan. 31, the same day the Palisades fire was declared 100% contained, simply gathering for a practice felt like a kind of quiet reclaiming.

A dramatic viral video featuring several star players would set the tone for the next eight months as the team, forced into a fellowship of nomads, searched for what it had lost: normalcy.

"I am not going anywhere," the players echoed in the social media clip.

"We will field a football team," one of them insisted.

Then came anew refrain, determined and dauntless: “Pali strong!”

Despite the viral pledge, several players were leaving the school, transferring in search of stability.

Head coach Dylen Smith was staying put. So was Kelly Loftus, then a varsity assistant coach, who postponed his retirement.