Royal Palm Beach football was not supposed to be great — and no one would have blamed them if they weren't good, either.
The Wildcats' second-year head coach Sam Curry entered 2026 with a lot of questions
on his roster: Quarterback Max Griner transferred, safety Da'coby Wooten transferred and Tyree Pearson was among five of Royal Palm's top seven offensive playmakers that graduated.
Apparently, Curry had the answers, because the Wildcats are one 75-yard 'Hail Mary' away from an undefeated season.
That came in the Wildcats' season opener, with many in the county uncertain of what Royal Palm might be able to offer this year — and it's tough to blame them. Tough to blame us.
After that loss, Royal Palm went back to the drawing board with a tough, productive practice routine.
"We had an amazing practice," head coach Sam Curry said. "Went back to the old-school with sprinting, hard-hitting, and demanding. You know, I had to get more vocal and come back to the old coach Sam, and I've seen the change in the way they work.
"And then we had a big district game against Martin County. And I'm like, 'Yeah, we've got something.' I think that loss to Pahokee was a blessing in disguise."
Now, Royal Palm is fresh off a 14-0 win against previously-undefeated Palm Beach Central, with coach's son Samari Curry doubling the Wildcats' interception count with a trio of takeaways.
The Broncos offense was not simply stymied; they were unable to do virtually anything. And once again, Royal Palm needed to do very little on offense to take down another quality team.
No Wildcats receivers are averaging more than 30 yards a game. Outside of a pair of blowout wins over Martin County and South Fork, the Wildcats have averaged 13.3 points in three other victories. In six games, the team has 13 takeaways and 16 sacks, led by stars like Curry, Rodney Hammonds, TJ McCall, and Kentavis Porter.
Hammonds has 66 tackles already on the season, and he contributes on both sides of the ball.
"When you have a guy like Rodney, you can do a whole lot of different things," Curry said. "The defense is starting to find their mojo, if you want to call it that."
Still, when Royal Palm crushed Martin County, it was chalked up by many as the Tigers caught sleeping. When they beat Glades Central, it was written as an off-year for the Raiders.
When the Wildcats took down Archbishop McCarthy, my head turned. A lot of heads turned. It was a Tuesday evening game, and I wasn't even there. While I was frustrated for missing it, the Mavericks' scorekeeper was downright salty.
Quarterback Matthew Coolman took over as Royal Palm's third string in that game. Less than 14 days later, the Wildcats beat Central with all four of its running backs injured.
"Once we won that game, I think it gave them comfort to go into South Fork and go to Palm Beach Central and know they can play against the three-star and four-star folks and show them that we're for real," Curry said.
Demetrice Rolle has been a four-year starter for Royal Palm, and he's one inevitable factor the Wildcats put on the field week-in, week-out. He scored a touchdown against Central when the need arose despite being reduced to a hobble.
"Trey is amazing, man," Curry said. "A hard-worker, close to 500 on squats, benches like 300, and runs a 4.4," Curry praised. "He puts in the work to be great. He doesn't talk much, but he gets on the players and he's a special kid that cares. A touchdown waiting to happen anytime he touches the ball."
Royal Palm's remarkable streak has catapulted the team to the No. 3 ranking spot in The Post's 'Super 25.' But for Curry, this has been the expectation all along, even if his pronounced "five-year plan" is bearing fruit early.
"It's Royal Palm, so we're trying to build it up to what is used to be when they had the glory days of Brandon Pendergrass and Jimmy Moreland," Curry said. "We scheduled Archbishop for a reason. We scheduled Palm Beach Central for a reason. We know we had a good team, but people are only going to respect us if we start beating teams like that."
The formula is simple: just keep winning. There are times when we aren't sure how it's working the way it is. But as long as the Wildcats are putting up Ws, who is to judge?
Alex Peterman is a high school sports reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at apeterman@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Inside Royal Palm Beach football's remarkable climb this season
