Four more wins and four less losses. 

The Sunny Hills football team made a comeback in the 2025 fall season with a 6-4 overall record after ending the 2024 season with a 2-8 record.

“Our mantra all year was ‘fight’,” head coach Fred Gambrell said. “We had the thought process that no matter what happens, we’re gonna fight to the end, and that started the moment we put the pads on for practice.”

Not only did the team welcome a new offensive coach, Oscar Mont, but they also refined their training approach — sharpening play execution, increasing conditioning intensity and tightening communication on and off the field — and those changes showed up on game days, helping set the team up for a turnaround season.

The head coach described their comeback as a three-stage process.

STAGE 1: THE PRE-SEASON TRAINING

The team began training in January to prepare both physically and mentally for the upcoming season by going back to the basics, starting with old school heating drills to establish a strong foundation in preparation for the competition ahead. 

“The first stage was when we were in the weight room,” Gambrell said. “You can tell in the way they worked out: there wasn’t any playing around, and much more seriousness; they bonded as a team”

With a new starting quarterback, senior Mikael Khan, Gambrell said the team dynamic changed for the better ever since the first practice as a full team on April 1.

“As soon as he stepped on campus, he just displayed the abilities — arm strength, leadership,” the coach said. “He brought that standard of excellence that we talked about; he brought it to life.”

Khan said he transferred from San Clemente High School for his senior year to look for more opportunities, and received the chance to step into the role of starting quarterback on varsity for the first time ever.

“I put effort into being more of a leader and showing my teammates what to do to take the right steps and how to perform on and off the field,” Khan said. “Going into every game or practice, my mindset was to just trust the game plan, the practice game plan and all the work I put in.”

On the technical aspect of things, the quarterback said he worked out several new drills to prepare for the season.

“The preseason training I did was training with my strength and conditioning coach, coach Andrew Lachappelle,” Khan said. “I ran hills, lifted weights, and did plyometrics, which made me stronger and faster.”

Sandle said the team also ran tough drills, focusing on consistency and getting better everyday by running up and down the tennis courts to improve stamina and make sure no team could outrun them.

Overall, Gambrell said he gives huge credit to the pre-season training for the positive outcome of their season.

“Last year we lost games because there were times that we were not in the shape that we needed to be: we weren’t strong enough, we weren’t conditioned well enough,” Gambrell said. “But this year was totally different – our guys were strong enough, our guys were conditioned well enough; and our saying was that you have to be in shape to play the entire game, since we had guys playing both offense and defense, and that helped us be more fundamentally sound in what we do.” 

STAGE 2: SUMMER TOURNAMENTS

During the summer, while still pre-season training, the Lancers played in several tournaments, but Gambrell said the turning point was at the Ocean View tournament at Ocean View High School. 

“We had struggled a little bit in the summer, not so much with the offensive stuff, but more with connection, since we had a new quarterback,” he said. “But the whole weekend, we won games that we didn’t before — and that was the major difference all year: we won games people thought we weren’t supposed to win, but that was kind of a statement of who we are.”

The head coach described the group as a second half team — a team that doesn’t give up until the end and comes out to turn the game around in the third and fourth quarters.

Similarly, wide receiver senior Kruz Sandle said that the team has mastered the ability to recover and come out stronger after halftime.

“At halftime, we just flip that switch and we adapt,” Sandle said. “We take a step back, take a look at everything, make our changes in the offense, the defense and then we just come out hard.”

Like Gambrell, the players also said they saw a difference in the way they played after the summer tournaments.

“With all the tournaments that we had, we all built chemistry, and we got to know each other better,” Khan said. “We all came to compete [for the Ocean View tournament] and we put on our best show, and even though we lost in the semifinals, I think we still played well.”

Defensive end junior JD Yang said he saw the team’s potential when he saw the team’s performance during the summer.

“During summer practice, I saw how Michael was able to read all the options to play the ball,” he said. “And that’s when it finally clicked that we could do good during the season and that we have the weapons for it.”

STAGE 3: LEARNING TO FIGHT

Following their season motto, “fight”,  the Lancers’ third and final stage was to put their drive into action. 

“We talked about, not literally, but clawing and scratching, or doing whatever you got to do, within the rules of the game, to win games,” Gambrell said. “Never quit, never give up and continue to fight all the way to the end, and since you only get 48 minutes, do whatever you can to stop the other team, whatever you can to score as many points as you can.”

Khan said the motto stuck with the team ever since the pre-season training and drove them on until the end of the season.

“It started during the summer when we’d fight to win every conditioning rep — every one on one rep, every team rep,” the quarterback said. “And it continued on into the season — that’s why we’re saying we’re a second half team, we kept fighting and we never gave up.”

In addition to the short yet powerful mantra, Gambrell said he also taught his players to keep the standard of the three E’s: effort, energy, and execution.

“As long as we have the three E’s, we’ve met the standard – with energy, we’re going to celebrate, with the culture of effort, we’re gonna give everything that we got, and lastly we’re going to execute everyday, in our lifts, in practice, running plays,” he said. “Regardless of wins and losses, it’s just that standard of excellence that we strive to do, to achieve every day.”

Sandle said the three E’s set up the team for success during the season.

“I think that it was a very good mindset that set the players,” Sandle said. “He would always bring it up before the game, so it would give us the right mindset going into the game.”

In addition to preparing the mind for the game, Khan said he could see the three E’s positively affecting the players’ performance.

“We had effort every play, and executing led to more energy on the sideline,” Khan said. “And we had more motivation and better momentum overall.”

Looking back at the successful outcome of the season, with both Khan and Sandle breaking school records and coming back with a much stronger overall record, Sandle said the coaches really put in effort to make this year better, and it worked. 

“The team’s success was set up solely by our coaches since they make the decisions and set us up for success with help of our execution,” Sandle said. “And before every game, Coach Gambrell would bring the team in for a prayer and give thanks to the most high before going into battle, bringing us together.”

Going into next year, Yang hopes that this season can set a good example for next year’s team and inspire an even better season.

“I hope they’ll recognize us as a good football team that is trying to expand and build the program to be even better next year,” he said. “The goal is to make CIF, and after that, win the CIF division.”