For the second year in a row, Millard South sits victorious as the Nebraska State School Activities Class A football champions. With a score of 49-0 win over Papillion La-Vista South on Nov. 25 at Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium, this game closed out an undefeated season. This is the second year in a row, they have won the championship, with last year’s match up against Westside High School. Winning with a score of 27-10, the start of their back to back championships.
“It’s obvious what you work for every year […] we came out and did what we were supposed to do.” senior Amarion Jackson said.
Millard South won the State football championship in the fall of 2025, and had a strong season as well. This year they kept that streak going, playing an undefeated season.
“Millard South football is and has been in a position to be a title contender each year, Head Coach Taylor Mendenhall said. “We have a blueprint for success and will continue to execute that plan in order to put our team in the best situations possible each day and each week,” he said.
The first game of the season was against Arbor View in Las Vegas, NV. After a defeat last year against the Basha Bears in Chandler, AZ, the Patriots came to dominate the competition. The team won their first game of the season, and their first ever game against Arbor View, by a score of 49-7.
“I honestly thought those wold be a more challenging , but we still had fun,” senior Antonio Harris said.
Going out and being the best was a big part of their mind-set this year.
“Go out and dominate,” senior Amarion Jackson said. “We kept the standard the same every year. We wanted to play every team like it was the championship game,” he said.
Mindset is a huge aspect of our football success and al
lows the team to thrive and claim the victory.
“Being better than last year,” Harris said. “Having better technique, being more conditioned, and being more focused minded,” Harris said.
The team brought that mindset to practice and continuously came out on top.
“We definitely wanted to win,” Jackson said. “We practiced like we wanted to win, we trained like we wanted to win.”
Millard South played like they wanted to win at every step on the road to the state championship, winning every game from this year. Yet with such success there are always challenges for the team.
“Even though our team had challenges, I feel like people might not think that with how the season went but every team has their challenges,” Jackson said.
One of the challenges and a big issue for the players at the state championship was the weather. There was a high of approximately 30°F and a low of 22°F, and halfway through the game, it snowed. High winds plagued the game, posing a new challenge for the final teams.
“We haven’t really prepared for that because there was nothing like that in practice or anything, so we just had to go out there and play and deal with it,” Thomalla said.
Many players were being recruited during the season, and that pressure impacted the athletes, posing a new challenge from the media.
“Dealing with the media a lot, we’re a highly recruited team. Just stuff with strangers and whatnot. We had to get that out of our head and focus on everyone in our room.”, Jackson Said
Even coaches felt the pressure, yet they were able to overcome that feeling.
“It was a very rewarding season. There were very high expectations for this group so with that there may have been some pressure to perform at times. Most of the pressure was probably self-induced because of the standards that I set for myself and our program,” Mendenhall said.
With a large part of the team being seniors, many are asking what this looks like for next year.
“We’re losing a lot of players […] they’re going to be really good,” Thomalla said. “The senior class was really good and they’ll have to overcome some challenges. And then win another state championship. Senior Jett Thomalla said.
