Bright blue skies, an unmasked crowd, 97-degree heat and absolute domination by the Redwood varsity football team on Aug. 28 made for a great start to the 2021-2022 school year. In the first game of the season, Redwood’s varsity team crushed College Park 48-0. 

Starting quarterback, junior Brady Weingart, led the team to victory, throwing for five touchdowns, three of which went to receiver senior Nico Tribuzio. Weingart and Tribuzio both won preps of the week in the Marin Independent Journal which after this game, was clearly well deserved. The game started off the season on the right foot, giving the team and Coach Allen Talley high hopes for the upcoming season.

“The game went well, but we really had to fight the heat. We don’t usually get that hot [on the field]. We do have to clean up the little mistakes, but all [of them] we made are very fixable. We’ve got to keep on working hard and cut down on them, ” Talley said.

In addition to five touchdowns from Weingart and three from Tribuzio, senior Hudson Lavinsky and junior Miles Grossman were able to score a few important touchdowns as well. The Giants conquered the field, already winning 42-0 by half-time.

Since the 2020-2021 football season was postponed to spring and cut short to just five games instead of the usual ten, the players have not had as much time together over the past two years as they would have preferred. Athletic trainer, Americ Alvarado, had concerns going into this season, fearing a lowered morale could lead to more injuries. But instead, he was amazed by the outcome.

“I was afraid that this would be the moment that would turn everybody off from sports. But I looked at the numbers that we have for all the sports across the board, and all of our athletics here have increased substantially, participation-wise. In the 13 years I’ve been here, we’ve never had to cut anybody from a team, or even have the opportunity to cut. This year we had so many kids try out [that] we’ve had to rearrange things to not make cuts,” Alvarado said.

Senior Valentino Starbird has been playing for the Redwood football team since his freshman year, and if given the chance, he intends to continue his athletic career next year in college. Being a part of the team has always been a pivotal part of his life.

“[Being a part of] a group that you know, no matter what happens, you can always go back to has always been great. If you’re having a bad day, you can text the group chat or somebody individually and they will be there for you. That was nice to have going through high school,” Starbird said.

Redwood football started off with an easy win playing College Park, creating the best atmosphere for the first in-person start of school since 2019. After having their previous season cut from ten games to a mere five, the varsity Giants are eager to continue their winning streak this season at their next game on Sept. 1 against Galileo Academy at Redwood.