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.
A view of Palisades High School on Jan. 8 after wildfire swept through the area, badly damaging the campus.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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 nine 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 a new refrain, determined and dauntless: “Pali strong!”
‘Desperately needed’ workouts
Pali High head football coach Dylen Smith watches practice from the sidelines at Santa Monica College.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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.
“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,” said 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, decided to start practicing in the winter offseason to provide the players with a routine. “We just wanted to get everybody together and do something,” he said.
Among those in attendance on Jan. 31 was then-sophomore Max Gayler, who’d played on the junior varsity team during the 2024 season. His family had moved to a Pacific Palisades apartment six years ago, relocating “basically for the school,” said his mother, Kim Gayler.
After their building burned, they resettled across town, in Carthay Circle. But there was no question Max would remain at Pali — and play football.
Pali High quarterback Jack Thomas, right, interacts with teammate Demare Dezeurn, left, at practice at Santa Monica College on July 31.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“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,” said Max’s father, Richard Gayler. “It was desperately needed.”
Aside from practice, goodwill flowed to the team: L.A.’s NFL teams, the Rams and Chargers, welcomed the Dolphins to their facilities for special gatherings.
But, more than anything, Richard said, the practices were what bound Max and his teammates.
“It gave him hope,” he said.
Spring brings a turning point
After Pali High’s campus burned in January’s Palisades fire, the future of the school’s football program was in question.
By spring, practice has shifted to Santa Monica’s Airport Park.
Just seven players showed up for a voluntary workout on March 24.
“It’s been a struggle, I’m not gonna lie,” Smith said.
Zane Shakarian, who played on the JV team as a freshman in 2024, couldn’t make it to the practices in the months after his mother’s Palisades home burned down. For a month or two, he said he’d been living “place to place.”
“I was just dealing with bigger things at the time,” he said.
Pali High head coach Dylen Smith directs players during practice at Santa Monica College.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
May 2 marked a turning point for the program.
That’s when the Pali Quarterback Club, a parent-led, nonprofit group that supports the program, made good on a beloved tradition, Friday Night Lights. It’s a gathering of players and parents to celebrate the first spring practice.
About 45 players showed up.
“It was a little off, because it’s not at the Stadium by the Sea,” said King Demethris, then a junior wide receiver. “But I was grateful to play football. So I just took it all in.”
After practice, Stewart Wilson-Turner, co-president of the Quarterback Club, addressed the attendees.
“We want you guys to win — despite everything that’s gone on, there’s no reason why you can’t,” said Wilson-Turner, whose son, Aidan, is on the team. “Because you have what you need: yourself, your coaches. As long as you guys are dedicated, we will stay dedicated with you.”
This makeshift version of Friday Night Lights made one thing clear: There would be a season.
“We’re down,” Demethris said. “But we will come back — like we never left.”
Summer in Santa Monica
The team relocated practice to Santa Monica College over the summer. It was a kind of homecoming for Smith, who grew up in the city, eventually playing quarterback at Santa Monica High School and the college before transferring to the University of Kansas for two seasons starting in 1999.
Pali High offensive lineman Iliya Heydarkhanie takes a break during practice at Santa Monica College.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Smith had hoped to go pro. But injuries derailed that dream. After two decades coaching high school football in West L.A., he was hired as Pali’s varsity head coach in 2023.
The Dolphins’ July 23 practice had a buoyant feel as the team settled into its new “home” stadium at the college. While the program had lost some players, it had gained some too, most notably wide receiver Demare Dezeurn, a four-star college prospect.
His arrival was a signal, Smith said, that “people want to be a part of this.”
After practice, the coach was swarmed by players. Some approached to just shake Smith’s hand, others had questions about paperwork, and a few wanted to discuss equipment issues. It was, he said, nice to be dealing with prosaic concerns again.
Before long, practices began intensifying. Loftus, the veteran Pali coach who postponed retirement, helped see to that.
Pali High JV head coach Reynaldo Padilla, left, and Kelly Loftus, the team’s defensive coordinator, give a victory speech after defeating Taft High School on Aug. 22.
A voluble man, Loftus draws on his colorful life experience — “I was a bartender for years, broke up bar fights,” he said — to coach with a playful rigor.
In a new role as JV defensive coordinator, he deployed his gruff but humor-infused brand of coaching while welcoming a group of incoming ninth-graders to the program. They looked like underclassmen during a July 31 practice, dropping balls and running incorrect routes. And Loftus let them have it.
“What in the wide world of football are you doing?” he howled at a player.
“This is the gridiron, not a golf course. Do not walk. Finish!” he bellowed.
One varsity player who delighted in practicing again: Max Rastegar, who had left Pali High following the fire.
He had decided to move on from Pali in late March, enrolling at Laguna Beach High School, near where his mother had relocated. Switching to Laguna High had seemed like the right decision — he had found Pali’s temporary pivot to online learning tedious, and felt isolated from his friends.
“I wanted to go to school in person and keep practicing football,” said Rastegar, who joined Laguna’s football team.
But it didn’t feel permanent: “My mind was always set on going back to Pali.”
By July, Rastegar had moved back into his father’s Palisades home and returned to the program. The junior wide receiver was embraced by his teammates.
“It was,” he said, “such a good feeling to see everyone again.”
Pali High freshman defender Hudson Roth’s (34) helmet flies off while attempting to tackle a Taft High player during the JV football game between the schools on Aug. 22.
It was the kind of sweltering day that Los Angeles had mostly been spared during a relatively mild summer. On Aug. 22, the JV team traveled to Woodland Hills to face Taft Charter High School for its first game.
Midafternoon brought 102-degree heat. The National Weather Service had issued a red flag warning for the increased risk of fire. By the 5 p.m. start, a hot wind was blowing over the top of the bleachers that framed Hal Lambert Stadium.
After Pali fell behind by a touchdown early on, sophomore quarterback Zane Shakarian, the player whose mother’s home had burned, led the team on a drive that culminated in his 43-yard touchdown strike.
“It was great hearing the cheers in the stands after,” he said. “Just grateful to be back.”
Pali High players celebrate a turnover during the JV football game against Taft High School.
Final score: Palisades 13, Taft 7.
Surrounded by players and parents streaming toward the exits, Wilson-Turner smiled, working to stifle tears. “They did it, man,” he said. “They did it.”
The varsity team would debut Aug. 28 in an away game, when it defeated Harvard-Westlake, 37-34. The Dolphins were led by Dezeurn, the high-profile transfer, who caught four touchdown passes.
A milestone loomed on Sept. 5.
A return home — of sorts
Pali High football players burst through their school banner before the game against Granada Hills Charter High School at Santa Monica College on Sept. 5.
Two hundred and forty-one days after the Palisades fire, the Dolphins hosted their first home game at Santa Monica College’s Corsair Field.
Cheerleaders and the band went through boisterous pregame routines before a crowd of about 1,400 as a ceremony hosted by emcee Lorenz Evans honored notables close to the program.
He did not mention the Palisades or Eaton fires, which destroyed more than 16,000 structures and killed 31 people. That was by design.
“We wanted to come into this game really just to bring people together as a community,” said Evans, whose son Augie is a team captain. “There are so many people who have lost everything.”
Smith’s pregame message to his players only obliquely touched on the tragedy. “Let’s move forward,” he told them. “The community is here for you guys. Let’s play for them.”
Clockwise from top left: Pali High wide receiver King Demethris pushes past the defense during the football team’s Sept. 5 clash with Granada Hills High; Pali senior Alessandra Santini, center, decorates junior Hudson Ramberg’s shirt before the game; Pali High assistant coach Donte Dezeurn congratulates the team after its victory; Pali cheerleader Julianna Pulido rallies fans before the contest.
Pali was facing Granada Hills Charter School in what is known as the Charter Bowl — an annual matchup between the two prominent charters.
The schools traded touchdowns for much of the first half, with Pali striking quickly through the air. The Highlanders countered with deliberate, run-focused drives. At halftime, the Dolphins led 35-30.
The second half continued in this manner. Pali and Granada Hills again swapped scores. But something changed late in the third quarter. The temperature dipped into the 60s as moist ocean air crept inland.
Right around this time, the Dolphins’ defense got a key stop on fourth down in Granada Hills territory. On the subsequent possession, Pali quarterback Jack Thomas threw a touchdown strike to Demethris that broke the game open. After a two-point conversion, the Dolphins had a 51-36 advantage.
Led by Thomas and his six touchdown passes — three of which went to Demethris — Pali won 59-44.
After the game, Smith looked toward the stands, which were still filled with Pali fans. On a night when so much had been left unsaid about what brought them to Santa Monica, he focused on his team’s performance in the postgame huddle.
Later, he noted how important the fourth-down stop — and a subsequent fumble recovery — had been. But he also mentioned something else: the cool veil draped over the field.
“The weather,” he said, “felt like the Palisades.”
Pali High quarterback Jack Thomas, left, and wide receiver King Demethris pray before their Sept. 5 game against Granada Hills High.
