Patrick Henry High School’s football team is one win away from a perfect regular season, with only Mira Mesa High School standing in its way.
The 2026 season has been a major improvement for the Patriots compared to a year ago when the team finished 6-6. Now, after nine games, Patrick Henry has the opportunity to do something that not many teams can claim: go undefeated.
For Patrick Henry head coach Colby Davies, he believed that his team had a shot at winning out if the team could get through its first two opponents in La Jolla and Mission Bay. That’s exactly what the Patriots did. A nail-biting 35-30 win over La Jolla in week one was followed up by a 41-28 win against Mission Bay.
“I think after game one, after La Jolla, it was like, ‘Wow, this group’s gonna really gonna take some effort and a lot of work to run the table and have us go undefeated,” Coach Davies said. “I just remember deep down thinking like, ‘I think we’ve played our best two opponents.’”
Coach Davies has been at Patrick Henry since 2022 and has only had one season with a winning record prior to this season.
But those seasons, going 6-6, 7-5, 5-6, and 2-8, led Davies to find growth as a coach and growth within his staff. But as any coach will say, Davies has been optimistic since year one that his team could go undefeated.
“I’m always very optimistic, and we’re in year five now, but even in year one I was really optimistic, and we ended up going 2-8, and I thought we could win every game,” Davies said. “Every year we have progressed and gotten better and better, but I usually go every year thinking we can go 10-0.”
The turnaround from the previous four years to now is partly due to Davies and his coaching staff and partly due to a crop of super-talented players, including senior quarterback Madin Gardini, who has thrown for 29 touchdown passes over 2,500 yards passing while completing 70% of his passes.
Gardini is also able to get it done with his legs; the dual-threat quarterback leads the team in rushing yards and touchdowns with 840 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The Patriots have six receivers with over 100 receiving yards on the season, with seniors Kymani Joseph and Cole Farace both tied with nine touchdown catches this season.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the players we have, and we have great players who just never give up and make this thing run every week,” Davies said. “They had to buy in despite, you know, us trying to humble them. But you know our group has a lot of confidence; they did an amazing job.”
Patrick Henry now awaits its biggest game yet of the season on Friday night against Mira Mesa High School, the 7-2 Mauraders.
“You got a 7-2 team playing up there, and we know some of their guys, and they know some of our guys, so that makes it a little more fun and a little more spicy,” Davies said. “My confidence hasn’t wavered very much or changed, but the team definitely has, and this team has it; it has what it takes to do it and go 10-0.”
