The NFL named Palisades Charter High School football coach Dylen Smith as the AFC recipient of the 2025 Don Shula High School Coach of the Year Award last week.
Smith, who was nominated by the Los Angeles Chargers, shares the national honor with NFC recipient Dave Ettinger of Garden City High School in New York. The two coaches were recognized at the Pro Bowl Games and attended Super Bowl LX in the Bay Area as special guests of the NFL, where they walked the red carpet at NFL Honors.
My satisfaction comes from changing kids' lives, and hopefully they'll pay it forward down the road. Football is a microcosm of life.
The Don Shula High School Coach of the Year Award is named after Pro Football Hall of Famer Don Shula, the winningest coach in NFL history. Each year, all 32 NFL clubs nominate a high school coach for the honor, with one winner selected from each conference. Nominees are judged on the values Shula exemplified during his career — character, integrity, leadership, dedication to the community, commitment to player health and safety and on-field success.
The NFL Foundation and Jersey Mike's provide each winner with a $15,000 award for their high school football program and a $10,000 cash award. The remaining 30 club nominees each receive a $1,000 cash award.
Smith earned the recognition after guiding the Dolphins through what he called a year filled with undeniable adversity. The Palisades Fire, which ignited on Jan. 7, 2025, destroyed the school's football field, weight room and equipment, leaving the program without a home base. Ten players lost their homes in the blaze.
Rather than surrender the season, Smith arranged for the team to practice and play at alternate sites across Los Angeles, borrowing gear and cobbling together resources to keep the program alive. He reached out to the Chargers for assistance, and the team responded with support. Under his leadership, Palisades completed a perfect 10-0 regular season and earned a berth in the City Section Open Division playoffs.
"I am honored and humbled to accept the Don Shula High School Coach of the Year Award, reflecting the unwavering dedication our entire program has shown throughout a year filled with undeniable adversity," Smith said. "Coaching is the way I can show love. It's my way of giving back because so many people poured into me and my brothers and sisters when we were young. My satisfaction comes from changing kids' lives, and hopefully they'll pay it forward down the road. Football is a microcosm of life."
Smith is a Southern California native with deep roots in local football. A former quarterback at Santa Monica High School, he went on to play at Santa Monica College before becoming the starting quarterback at the University of Kansas in 1999 and 2000.
After his playing career, Smith transitioned into coaching, serving two stints as an assistant at Malibu High School, where he worked as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. He then spent nine seasons as an assistant under coach Jake Ford at Brentwood School before being hired as the 13th head football coach at Palisades Charter High School in February 2023.
The challenges Smith and his team overcame in 2025 mirrored the broader ordeal faced by the entire Palisades Charter High School community. The Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive in Los Angeles history, killed 12 people and destroyed nearly 7,000 structures. The blaze damaged or destroyed roughly 30-40% of the school's campus buildings, rendering it unusable.
Students were forced into remote learning for approximately four months before the school relocated to a temporary campus in Santa Monica. A vacant Sears department store on 4th Street was rapidly converted into a makeshift school facility dubbed "Pali High South," providing approximately 100,000 square feet of classroom space for the school's roughly 2,500 students. Architecture firm Gensler and construction crews outfitted the building with classrooms, science labs and cafeteria facilities in approximately 30 days.
The displacement took a significant toll. Enrollment dropped from 2,900 to about 2,450 as some families relocated. Students faced long commutes, limited facilities and the absence of athletic fields and outdoor space. Over $3 million in textbooks had to be discarded due to smoke damage. Athletic teams lost their home fields and gyms, with the baseball diamond paved over to accommodate portable classroom trailers for the campus rebuild.
Students and staff endured the temporary arrangement through the fall 2025 semester before returning to the original Palisades campus on Jan. 27, 2026 — one year and 20 days after the fire. The school installed 36 modular classroom buildings to handle classes while permanent reconstruction continues over the next two to three years.