Wilson head football coach Raudric Curtis speak addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson head football coach Raudric Curtis speak addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson’s John Chapman addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson’s Brooklyn Vega faces the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson’s Kingston Meyer addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson’s Logan Trafas addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson’s Kyle Harris addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson’s Jemel Grigsby addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Wilson’s Kyle Harris, left, Jemel Grigsby and Logan Trafas attend the Moore League’s media day on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Show Caption
1 of 9
Wilson head football coach Raudric Curtis speak addresses the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
LONG BEACH — Wilson football still has a lot to prove in coach Raudric Curtis’ second season.
Naysayers could call the Bruins’ undefeated Moore League title a fluke, won only because Long Beach Poly and Millikan were not at full strength.
“If you want to beat us,” Curtis said, “you better beat us on the field.”
However, Curtis said his team, which went 9-2 overall and 6-0 in league play last season, is still building a sustained identity.
“We want a culture at Wilson,” Curtis said. “When Wilson shows up, year in and year out, week in and week out, we want our reputation and work to precede us, and that’s going to be built around excitement, a love for the game. You’re going to see a team that’s passionate, that’s tough, that understands the game at a cerebral level, which at the high school (level), not a lot of teams do.”
Wilson was Long Beach’s top team last season but lost 54-48 at home in overtime to Paraclete in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 playoffs. Curtis said for better or worse, last season is last season, but his team will always play fundamentally sound football and has the potential to be one of the best teams he’s ever coached in 21 years.
“When you go against us, you’re going to see a very comprehensive nature to the way we play,” Curtis continued. “We’re asking a lot of these young men, athletically, leadership on campus, so you’re going to know that we represent class. We represent sound football, and we have some of the most incredible athletes around.”
Two of Wilson’s top receivers said it means a lot to them to have Coach Curtis’ unwavering support.
“Our goal every day is to match coach’s energy,” said Wilson junior running back/receiver/defensive back Jemel Grigsby, who is the team’s lone three-star recruit at the moment. “Him having our backs and batting for us is really like a thank you in a way. Us going out and proving ourselves is just a little token of us saying thank you in a way.”
“That chip is just getting better every day, working harder,” Wilson junior receiver Kyle Harris added. “We’re not the best until we show it.”
Harris also ran track during the spring. He dropped a speedy 100-meter time of 10.65 and admitted running 400-meter and 800-meter repeats is a more physically taxing practice than football. That experience should prepare him to once again be a two-way player and the team’s top kick returner.
Meanwhile, senior quarterback Logan Trafas, who did not complete a pass last season, will replace three-year starter Mack Cooper as the team’s starting quarterback.
“I’m super excited as well as every other guy here,” Trafas said. “We’ve been putting in work, day in and day out, focusing on our progress. Not focusing on the outcome but really working on our own craft and getting better each and every day, so we’re really excited.”
Sophomore quarterback Jacob Powell, who transferred from Servite, is also expected to be in the mix for playing time.
Wilson will open the season at Mayfair, a perennial playoff team out of the Gateway League on Aug. 21, but arguably the biggest test of the Bruins’ nonleague season will be on the road at JSerra on Aug. 28. They will also seek redemption against Dana Hills on Sept. 11, who handed them their only blowout loss of the season, 41-7 last September.
“When you lose players, the story is always the seniors that you lost carried the team,” Wilson senior offensive/defensive lineman John Chapman said. “We heard that with Thomas (Jones), Mack (Cooper), with all of our running backs. We’re just going to prove it’s next man up. This team is going to perform at a higher level and be a better team, especially with this upcoming schedule and show that the seniors didn’t carry us.”
Wilson’s Moore League season begins at Jordan on Oct. 2, before playing Long Beach Poly (Oct. 10), Lakewood (Oct. 16) and Millikan (Oct. 30).
“I have a saying that I’ll tell you how good you are after the season,” Curtis concluded.