{"id":12669,"date":"2025-10-19T12:27:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/12669\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T12:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:27:06","slug":"sondheimer-loyola-highs-max-meier-rises-above-loss-of-home-and-a-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/12669\/","title":{"rendered":"Sondheimer: Loyola High&#8217;s Max Meier rises above loss of home and a friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Imagine losing your home and belongings to a wildfire, then losing your best friend when he was killed by a suspected driver under the influence, all happening within months of each other.<\/p>\n<p>Max Meier, a star defensive tackle for Loyola High who has committed to Stanford, dealt with that kind of awful adversity this year, losing his family home in the Palisades fire, then losing classmate Braun Levi in May when he was hit by a car while walking on a  Manhattan Beach street.<\/p>\n<p>To hear Meier\u2019s response and wisdom while dealing with two tragedies offers hope for the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think in this life, everyone has demons in the closet,\u201d Meier said. \u201cEveryone has bad things that happen But we realize in these moments, as horrible as they are, losing your things in a fire, they\u2019re replaceable, but losing someone who was like an older brother, can\u2019t replace that. He\u2019s somebody I\u2019ll be be chasing to live like he did. As a teenager it was tough, but you learn about life and how every day you have to give it your all. I\u2019ve actually started to live my life more fully and started to live every day the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Stanford-bound defensive lineman Max Meier of Loyola is the guest on Friday Night Live on Thursday at 5 p.m. via X. Here&#8217;s a clip talking about losing his house to the Palisades fire and losing good friend Braun Levi to a DUI driver. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QAa9flbe0f\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/QAa9flbe0f<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/latsondheimer\/status\/1978268627854848283?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 15, 2025<\/a>     <\/p>\n<p>As a football player, at 6 feet 5 and 250 pounds, Meier is enjoying his best season as a senior with 9 1\/2 sacks, and it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. Loyola lost close to a dozen players who abandoned the program one by one in the offseason. They gave up, thinking the Cubs were not going to be good or leaving because they disliked something. Those who stayed had to place their trust in themselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no better motivator knowing every single person left and you\u2019re the ones left,\u201d he said. \u201cThis summer, we\u2019re like, \u2018There\u2019s 10 games left and you\u2019re either going to give up or let\u2019s show everyone what we got and why they wrote us off.\u2019 We have some problems. Every team does. We\u2019re really motivated to show what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Playing at SoFi Stadium on Oct 19 and coming away with a 13-10 upset victory over Gardena Serra was a moment Meier and his teammates will cherish. The Cubs lost to Bishop Amat 30-14 on Friday night and are 4-4 and 1-2 in the Mission League.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWarming up under all those seats is just ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought it was the most awesome thing. That turf was super fast. You could hear things super loud and it gave you an idea what a college stadium might feel like, I thought it was the best experience all time. It was a thing on my bucket list. Getting a sack at SoFi never thought of something I want to do, but I did it. It was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since Meier lost his home, he was eligible to switch schools this year and play immediately. His two sisters graduated from Palisades. He has friends at Palisades. But he was never leaving Loyola.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/highschool\/story\/2025-01-09\/loyola-high-students-alumni-come-together-to-support-families-in-need-from-fires\" data-autoplayable-video=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">from parents to classmates to alumni, banded together<\/a> to help those affected by the fire. They provided food, clothing and emotional support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the fires, I realized how special it is,\u201d he said. \u201cAll that\u2019s left in my closet is from Loyola. They\u2019re the most amazing people to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So understand what you\u2019re getting each time you face Loyola this season \u2014 a team dedicated to each other and having each other\u2019s backs. And in Meier, the Cubs have someone who\u2019s going to represent Loyola values for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBreathing on this earth is a humble thing,\u201d Meier said.<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine losing your home and belongings to a wildfire, then losing your best friend when he was killed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11585,1576,11587,1073,48,52,51,1637,47,50,49,3289,11584,11583,1839,11588,11586,427,4610,5380,72],"class_list":["post-12669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-cubs","tag-friend","tag-good-season","tag-home","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-life","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-loss","tag-loyola-high","tag-max-meier","tag-palisades-fire","tag-sack","tag-sondheimer","tag-team","tag-thing","tag-well-time","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}