The Firebirds are rising from the ashes.
Last season was a brutal 1-9 campaign for Kellenberg Memorial, but they already have flipped the script with a mighty opening-week victory over rival Chaminade, 21-10.
“That’s probably one of the best wins that I’ve had as head coach,” Firebirds coach Eric Meisse told The Post.
“The birds are back!” declared senior linebacker Joseph Mullin.
The strong start for Kellenberg, a Catholic school in Uniondale, is doubly sweet in that the AA squad beat a larger AAA program — and it was the team’s first win over the Flyers since 2021.
“We didn’t want [a lost season] to happen again. We knew that wasn’t going to happen again,” said Sacred Heart-bound senior offensive lineman Christopher Biondi. “I think we proved ourselves — definitely more of where that came from.”
Fired up
The buy-in has been at an entirely new level from players, coaches — and the school community as a whole.
Alumni who played helped finance a state-of-the-art strength and conditioning center on campus for the team a year ago — and that helped Biondi tack on an extra 30 pounds of muscle.
“We all trained so hard — and we held each other accountable for it, too,” added lineman Christian Jean-Francois, who will play with Biondi for the Pioneers next season.
Team lifts boosted camaraderie and the culture of Firebirds football during the offseason — whether it was by pumping iron or watching Biondi slam down a few dozen wings at Croxley’s Ale House in Rockville Centre during March Madness games.
“We were quiet last year,” Mullin said. “We weren’t as juiced up as we were this year.”
“We all have the same goal in mind, and that’s winning a championship in November,” Jean-Francois added.
Although 2025 was a rough time to be on varsity, Kellenberg’s JV squad took home a championship over Staten Island’s St. Joseph by-the-Sea.
Many of those juniors have moved up, already leaving their mark as they step into starting roles.
“It’s a very talented group this year, and us seniors are pushing them; they’re pushing us,” Jean-Francois said. “Every practice — it’s a dogfight.”
Keeping the faith
Being written off as a smaller school after a down year is something the players have grappled with, according to Mullin.
“People think we’re the underdogs because we’re in AA,” he said. “That doesn’t faze us at all.”
Despite the lousy 2025 record, Kellenberg’s varsity fought tooth and nail against the AA title-winning Xavier in the opening round of last year’s playoffs. The Firebirds fell 14-7 on a contested and dropped pass in the end zone as time expired.
Running back Brendan Barkley can’t wait for a rematch with the Manhattan school Oct. 24 with his new and improved team.
“It was a tough feeling,” said the junior who was on varsity as a sophomore. “We want to get back out there this year and get a win.”
The high aspirations and early success still haven’t gone to their heads.
The team is treating the Chaminade win with short-term “goldfish memory,” moving right on to their next game: an out-of-conference matchup against New Rochelle.
“Everyone’s very excited, but there’s a lot of work to do here,” Meisse said.
“We still have 12 more weeks together. One week’s not going to define the season. It’s great, but it’s something to build off of.”
Kellenberg’s schedule tilts toward AA schools for the remainder of the fall, but Jean-Francois is hungry to try for another AAA victory — namely against The Bronx’s Cardinal Hayes on Sept. 19.
“We’re not just talking the talk; we’re walking the walk,” he said. “And show the whole island, the whole state of New York, what we could do.”
