By CJ Gray ’26

On December 3, 2025, a lifelong dream of mine came true. Once I knew I was coming to Brother Rice that was something that was instantly in my mind. Someone I looked up to a lot in eighth grade was Jack Lausch. Seeing his team fall short made me really want it. I wanted to be just as good, but in this case, even better.

As we arrived at Hancock Stadium, I was super locked in. Music blasting through my headphones, no laughing, no smiling, no playing. The vibe was very serious the whole bus ride and in the locker room pre-game. We all shared the same goal, and that was to win.

We stepped out onto the field for warmups with surges of energy bursting through the stadium. High fives, chest bumps, screaming and yelling was all you saw. After a long delay and our game getting postponed previously, it felt great to finally be out here.

We head back into the locker room before the game for our final talk. I’m sitting in my locker, and all I could think about was us going out on the first drive, setting the tone with a score. We step back out onto the field for the national anthem; once it ends, all you hear is the Crazies yelling.

The team fed off that energy, and now it was game time. Offense came out first and set the tone with a touchdown first drive. The defense did the same, just dominating and stopping them. Every time the defense got a stop or made a play, it gave the offense extra energy.

It was late fourth quarter with about five minutes left, 3rd down. We need to score right here to ice the game. Coach calls up one of our favorite plays; right then, I knew it would be a touchdown. I drop back, scan the field and find my target, senior captain Colin Goggin.

Touchdown.

The stadium roars and every Crusader fan can feel the victory in our hands.

The clock hits 0:00 and we all run over to the Crazies, chanting and shouting. The joy my teammates and I had was just surreal.

We put four years of work into this, late nights, early mornings, blood, sweat and tears to finally reach our goal and become your 2025 7A State Champions.