Abrielle Jarles is a student at Valley Christian and is a member of the AIA Student SID Program.

The bus ride home from the semifinal wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t angry. It was quiet in the way only a season’s ending can be = the kind of quiet that settles in when helmets are buckled away, eye black is smudged, and seniors look out the window realizing that every practice, every film session, every Friday night had finally become memory.  

For Valley Christian, those memories were worth holding onto.  

The Trojans entered the 2025 playoffs as a team that had rebuilt its identity from the ground up. Their season had already rewritten parts of the record book – from Asher Hanzal breaking the school record for career receiving yards to Caleb Goldman finishing one of the strongest rushing seasons the program has ever seen, to Austin Schuder producing one of the most balanced dual-threat seasons in modern VCHS history. But November would determine what their legacy felt like.  

The opening round against Sabino set the tone. A rematch of their sweaty, chaotic season opener, this one unfolded differently from the first snap. Valley Christian controlled every piece of the game, pulling away for a 47-18 win that felt less like revenge and more like arrival. Schuder delivered the best postseason performance of his career, throwing for 250 yards, rushing for 44 more, and finishing with a career-high 158.3 passer rating, one of the most efficient playoff outings in school history. Goldman added 100 yards on the ground, cutting through Sabino’s front with the same patience and toughness he showed all season.  

But the real shift that night came in the way the team carried itself. One senior explained it best: “The identity of the team was character and holding each other to high standards. We wanted to change the reputation of the football team, and we did just that by being better on the field as well as off.” Said Senior Kristian Schoenhals #0. Sabino was just more confirmation that the standard they talked about all year had become something solid.  

The quarterfinal against Gilbert Christian demanded more. Valley Christian went into halftime tied 14-14, a crossroads moment for a team that had spent all season learning how to finish. And in the third quarter they proved they had. Schuder and Goldman combined for nearly 300 rushing yards, becoming the first duo in school playoff history to each break the 140-yard mark in the same game. Hanzal added a kick-return touchdown – one more exclamation mark in a season where he not only broke the career receiving record but also secured his place among the top receivers in 3A.  

By the time the Trojans walked off their home field that night – still undefeated at home, still pushing toward their goal – it felt like everything they had worked toward was finally lining up. They were 11-1, powerful in the trenches, confident in the air, and playing their best football at the right time.  

And then came Round Valley.  

The semifinal brought a different level of speed, physicality, and precision. Round Valley had been rolling for two months, and they played like a team destined for the championship they eventually won. Even so, Valley Christian fought until the last seconds, answering every punch with one of their own and pouring everything left in them into a fourth-quarter push.  

When it ended, 42-28, it wasn’t silence that followed – it was reflection.  

Senior Hudson Pickett #58 said the moment hit him after the handshake line, when he looked up and saw the grandmother who had flown across the world just to watch him play: “After the final seconds had ran out…seeing my grandma who had sacrificed so much traveling across the globe…that’s when it hit me that I would no longer have the opportunity to play in front of her and my family.” Others described their own versions of that realization – moments on the sideline, the walk to the locker room, the quiet on the bus.  

A Season Remembered: What the Seniors Carried with Them 

Their answers weren’t dramatic – they were honest. They talked about growth, brotherhood, adversity, and the memories that won’t fade.  

Growth 

Several players reflected on who they became over four years, not just how they played.  

Asher Hanzal #11 said he was most surprised by “how much I have grown as a person and the man I have become to be more of a Christ like person and to be a light to others.”  

Ryan Richard’s #1 shared how his confidence transformed: “Towards the end of my career at Valley, I would come into the games with a confidence that I can be better than anyone that I played, and I knew that I wanted it more that anyone I lined up against.”  

For Isaac Leone #50, growth meant responsibility: now that it’s over, he said, “it’s time for me to bring up the next group of seniors and teach them how to lead the team well.”  

Adversity 

Some discovered what they were capable of only when things got hard.  

Jesus Ruiz #5 shared that his toughest stretch was the pressure of planning his future and learning to “stop worrying and just focus on right now.”  

Caleb Goldman #22 learned he could “persevere through anything, and especially pain…to help out my team the best I can.”  

Daniel Hammond #19 will always remember returning from injury for a late-season touchdown – a moment of joy and support he said he would “never forget.”  

Brotherhood 

If one theme defined this senior class, it was the feeling of being bound together. 

Marcus Martin #42 would seal the senior retreat into a time capsule because “the brotherhood forged during those three days is truly unbreakable.”  

Stephon Weise #34 felt it most “right before we ran through the tunnel!”  

Colton Gautheir #6 pointed to the teammate who shaped him most – Asher – because “we would always push each other to be better.”  

Jackson Kuyoth #51 didn’t realize how much he’d miss practice until it was gone: “I wish I could go back and enjoy that time of being with my brothers.”  

Moments They’ll Replay 

Certain plays will live in their minds forever.  

Ethan Hodgson #13 still replays his quarterfinal sack: “I just loved seeing the joy and excitement on their faces.”  

Lorden Pickett #57 hopes the underclassmen “never lose compassion for the game and then not give up when the times are hard.”  

Jack Aulerich #3 said football taught him to “do everything to the best of my ability, whether it’s hard or easy.”  

These reflections stitched together the picture of who this team truly was.  

A Coach’s Perspective 

Coach Jake Petersen felt the same way. His praise for them was grounded in who they became far beyond the stat sheet. 

“The biggest difference between this team and others is the total character of the team. We have had teams in the past with high character, but this season was just a little bit different,” he said.  

He also pointed to one moment that defined the group for him:  

“One of the best moments of the season had nothing to do with what happened on the field. The moments in chapel sitting next to kids on the team worshipping all in…seeing Caden Palmquist and Kingston Martin with their hands held high during worship at SEC. That makes me proud as a coach.”  

As for their legacy? 

“The legacy that these young men built was a return to greatness. After last season’s disaster, it was great to see our boys bounce back with resilience.”