Familiar Faces: With Drew Brees and family in town, Newman taking businesslike approach
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
A year ago, when Newman coach Aaron Vice began working on his 2026 schedule, he wanted to take his Greenies to Houston to open the season against St. John’s School, a place he served for two years as offensive coordinator.
The second week, though, took a turn that not even Vice believed was possible when the school’s volleyball coach Colleen Loerzel mentioned the option of Newman facing Sante Fe Christian of Solana Beach, Calif.
“I thought she was joking,” Vice said.
Loerzel had an inside track on helping land such a game with Santa Fe, where assistant coach Drew Brees, the team’s passing game coordinator and recent inductee into the NFL’s Hall of Fame, was college friends with her husband from their time together at Purdue University.
Brees’ 14-year career in New Orleans, where he led the Saints to their only Super Bowl championship, coincided with all four of his children attending Newman, making the likelihood of a return to the Crescent City and playing the game credible.
Vice’s only stipulation was that he wanted a two-year contract and was adamant his team would return the trip to the San Diego area in 2027.
“Once they confirmed we could do the return trip, it was all a go,” Vice said.
Newman (1-0), which opened with a 33-32 victory over St. John’s, will host its second straight out-of-state opponent on Thursday when Santa Fe (3-0) visits Newman’s Lupin Field for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
“I think the kids are fired up about that,” said Vice, who said Brees’ oldest son, senior wide receiver Baylen, attended Newman with this year’s current senior class. “It will be a cool experience. They’re good, and they’re going on their fourth game, and we’ll be on our second.
“The quarterback (Dax Labrum) is a Cornell commitment that’s really good, and they throw the ball well,” Vice said. “You can see that there’s some influence there from Drew Brees or one of their coaches. They do some really good stuff on offense. It will be a huge challenge, which is good for us.”
Santa Fe has outscored its three foes 150-20 and blew out Westview, 70-0, last week. Labrum has completed 48 of 66 passes for 811 yards without any interceptions and 10 touchdowns. His top receiver, Chase Wooley, leads the team with 19 receptions for 426 yards and 5 TDs.
Baylen Brees has five catches for 25 yards, while his brother Bowen is a sophomore and Callen is a member of the freshman team.
“When we set up the schedule, we thought we could see a run-heavy team, or we could see a passing team,” Vice said. “You get to see all of this stuff early on to see where we’re at.”
Newman was 8-4 a year ago in Vice’s first season, ending with a loss to eventual Division III select state champion Dunham in the quarterfinal round.
The Greenies, the District 11-2A champions, covered considerable ground after the school hired Vice, the offensive coordinator at University High, on April 25. He put together a coaching staff that was eventually in place by July, but held onto the duties of offensive coordinator, running backs coach, and quarterbacks coach.
Vice had a different mode of operation during this offseason, introducing a new program that really took root during this past June and July. He also hired Ken Sears Jr. as offensive coordinator, a position he previously held under his father, Ken Sears Sr., who stepped down at St. Paul’s following the 2025 season.
“We’re so far ahead on staff and offseason stuff,” Vice said. “I don’t think we win Friday if it wasn’t from what we did all summer. We kind of re-programmed the summer here. We had really good attendance and hopefully it’s something we get better at in the future to compete in this playoff bracket they have us in. You’re going to have to be really good in June and July.
“We didn’t have everyone hired, and kind of know who everyone was until right before we started fall camp,” Vice said of the ’25 season. “That’s helped tremendously this year. Being able to hire an OC and being able to retain some young guys that we had has been very good for us and for me. I’m still involved offensively and in special teams. I have a great staff. For a (Class) 2A staff, I’d put them up against just about anybody.”
Newman had five starters back on offense, with junior running back Tanner Robert, more of a blocker last season, expected to take on a greater role in the backfield.
The Greenies made senior Ren Guidry their quarterback to replace Tulane signee Jake Randke. They also had plenty of depth at wide receiver with the return of seniors Hendrix Hill and Atticus Lafleur and sophomore Jayce Irving. Junior Thomas Smallpage, junior Patrick Dugan, senior Emeric LaBorde and junior Elliott Rice provide additional targets.
Hill, a hybrid tight end/H-back/running back, had 40 receptions for 528 yards and nine touchdowns.
Sophomore Charles Jackson headlined the Greenies’ offensive line along with junior Emory Wolfson, sophomore Eli Toshova and junior Jack Roos.
Junior linebacker A.J. Yunusah provided a tremendous amount of leadership and experience in his third year as a starter. The all-district selection topped Newman’s defense with 89 tackles and five tackles for loss, with two-way starters such as Irving, another three-year starter, and Lafleur also impacting the team’s defense.
The Greenies also had senior lineman Alex Roth, senior safety Ben Singer, and junior defensive back Nick Gardner.
“I didn’t know how long I was going to survive doing all of that,” Vice said of his multiple duties on offense. “I thought I wasn’t great at times at all of it. I had always been in the press box, and playcalling was tough. I thought at times I missed things. Kenny was the offensive coordinator for his dad at St. Paul’s and called plays on a high level. He’s done great, and it’s been great asset to our program.”
Newman tested its mettle during a bus trip to Houston that took eight hours to open the season against St. John’s.
A day later, they battled the elements and a seemingly red-hot opponent; the Greenies eventually had to hold off at the end.
“It’s kind of a trend if you look around at different schools going out of town and giving your kids an experience,” Vice said. “I know the kids had fun. I know the parents had a lot of fun going to Houston. We had to travel on a bus and stay a night in a hotel. It was a team bonding event. We got to hang out together. Our kids are used to traveling for school trips and other sports and handled it pretty well.
“I thought it was a chance to go to a place that’s pretty good, that was going to be ahead of us, that offered us a challenge,” Vice said. “They’re very much like us. It was a fair matchup, although they had played a couple of games ahead of us. It kind of tested us to see where we’re at in a different way. We needed to play someone like us to start.”
Guidry threw first-quarter touchdowns to Laborde and Hill of 63 and 21 yards, respectively, before bad weather in the area led to a lightning delay.
A stoppage of more than an hour seemed to halt the Greenies’ momentum through the game’s first 10 minutes, opening the door for St. John’s to pull even at 13-13 with back-to-back touchdowns in the second quarter.
“We got a stop out of the lightning delay; we got a first down and had a guy open in the end zone and dropped what should have been a touchdown that would have put us up 20,” Vice said. “Immediately, they scored, and they scored after we went three-and-out and it was a tied game. We scored before half to take the lead and scored out of the half and kind of held on. They came back rolling back on us.”
Newman regained a 26-13 lead when the combination of Guidry-to-Hill worked for a 15-yard touchdown, and Guidry followed that with a 6-yard TD pass to Irving.
St. John’s closed to 26-19 at halftime when Guidry threw his fifth touchdown of the game and third to Hill on a 16-yard connection that made it 33-19.
Guidry completed 18 of 32 passes for 230 yards; Hill had nine receptions for 98 yards and 3 TDs, while Smallpage added six grabs for 63 yards. Robert had a team-high 81 yards rushing on 10 attempts.
“He’s getting a little bit better each week,” Vice said of Guidry. “We knew there were some things we could get open against them. We missed a couple, we dropped a couple, but we hit a couple, too. In the end it all evens out. We needed to be able to run the ball, and there were times where we could.
“We had first-game little errors, and that kind of kept us behind the chains,” Vice said. “We played well offensively. Once some guys went down in some spots with cramps, it became a little touch and go where we were putting guys and what we could do schematically. It was a learning lesson for us. You can only do what you’ve got people available to do.”
St. John’s brought the crowd to its feet with a furious finish with scoring plays of 62 yards on a running play and a 40-yard pass play, reducing Newman’s lead to 33-32 and a decision to make.
Each team took timeouts, with St. John’s electing to go for two points and the victory with 40 seconds remaining.
The tandem of Singer and Hill combined for the stop on St. John’s two-point attempt, which wound up a yard short.
“They went for two to try to win it as we expected,” Vice said. “Just knowing the coach and he was at home, they would go for two. They came out in heavy set that we had seen. It was a long game that finished close to 11 p.m. The delay didn’t help us. We started cramping up in the second half.”
Yunusah was one of three double-digit tacklers for Newman with 15 stops. Singer and Colin Farnsworth each had 10 tackles, and Lafleur added eight tackles and an interception.
“They tried to attack the perimeter with some option, and we were able to make those tackles,” Vice said. “They hit us with a couple of things. Their coach goes for it a lot on fourth downs, and we shut a couple of those down. It was a battle until the end.
“We probably played more plays on defense (65) than we wanted to play,” Vice said. “Sometimes these games break down into track meets a little bit. We were holding on for dear life. It was a good win, and I think we learned a lot.”
Drew Brees became the face of New Orleans. His arrival coincided with the city’s greatest disaster, an area that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, yet Brees signed with the Saints instead of the Miami Dolphins.
He not only lifted a franchise to league supremacy, but he also did the same for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, which had been severely affected by Katrina.
Four years later, a fraction of the time in the city’s recovery, the Saints were among the league’s best teams with head coach Sean Payton and Brees, a former All-American at Purdue who enjoyed the first six years of his NFL career with the San Diego Chargers until a severe shoulder injury altered his path.
A total of 14 seasons in New Orleans showcased Brees’ skills as one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, cementing his legacy last summer in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
He was a two-time NFL Offensive Player of the Year and became the first quarterback to ever throw for 80,000 yards (80,358). He established an NFL record by throwing touchdowns in 54 consecutive games and recording the highest completion percentage (74.4) in a single season.
Brees is second all-time in career touchdowns (571) and career completions (7,142) and third in completion percentage (67.7). He’s also been inducted in the Saints’ Hall of Fame and was named both the Sports Illustrated and Associated Press Walter Payton Man of the Year.
“Our senior kids all played flag football together,” Vice said with Baylen. “To them it’s not as big of a deal because they know them in a different light. A bunch of other people are going to make a big deal about it. For us as coaches, we played three state champions (St. Charles, Riverside Academy, Dunham) last year. Drew Brees is obviously a huge deal in New Orleans and Louisiana. It’s pretty scary going against a (head coach) Wayne Stein and the St. Charles Comet team, too.”
Sante Fe was 13-1 in 2025 under head coach Jon Wallace, losing in the CIF Division 2-A to Rio Hondo Prep, 26-21.
Senior running back Joshua Husmann (43 carries, 366 yards, 3 TDs) is the leading rusher for a team that averages 118.1 yards per game.
“It’s all about lining up and taking care of what we need to do,” Vice said. “We’ll do the best we can. They’re good.”
The unofficial homecoming game for Brees and his family will be a 48-minute competition between two teams separated by 1,800 miles. There are no pre-game festivities scheduled, and Santa Fe is expected to tour the WWII museum as a team on Friday before returning home.
Next year, the Greenies will return the trip to the San Diego area, where another game will take place, and memories will be made for a group of teen-aged boys and their parents.
“That’s what we talked to the team about,” Vice said. “It’s a new week. We’re a different team than we were a week ago, and they’re going to be coming down here. They’ve got to deal with the travel, the distractions, and all of that. We get to play at home and try to focus on what we need to do.”