It was a slow build. With each win and each week, the Westbrook High football team went from ignored to adored, from afterthought to champion.

As the team gained momentum, stacking wins, the community also caught on. By the time the Blue Blazes — the top-seeded Blue Blazes, that is — hosted Kennebunk in the B South final, the stands were packed and hundreds more in the crowd of 2,500 stood on the sidehill creating a wall of sound.

They were watching playmakers like quarterback Giovanni Staples and receiver Dimitri Lubin, top defenders Tony Bongomin and Owen Taylor, and a host of other contributors take down Kennebunk, 34-27.

When the game was over, it seemed no one from Westbrook wanted to leave the field. Not the coaches, not the players, not the high school friends nor family members. The smiles were big and maybe tinged with just a bit of disbelief.

Did Westbrook, a team that was 2-6 the year before, really win its first regional football championship?

“The community came out and they showed out. It’s awesome,” Lubin said that night. “We had the chip on our shoulder. We were the underdogs even though we were the one seed.”

Westbrook and its vocal, delighted fan base descended on Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland the next week. Once again Westbrook had its doubters. Eight of the nine Varsity Maine staff members picked Cony to win the game.

The Westbrook student section enjoys what they are seeing while watching the Blue Blazes win their first football regional title. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)<?xml version="1.0"?> Purchase this image

The Blue Blazes overwhelmed Cony with a slew of big plays and won 40-20 to capture the Class B championship. Staples ran for two scores and threw for two more. Lubin had three catches for 100 yards, highlighted by a 71-yard touchdown. The Bongomin-led defense intercepted four passes. Bongomin, playing with a broken hand taped up to resemble a club, returned one pick 87 yards for the first touchdown.

“We all wanted to do it for this city, and to bring a title to Westbrook. It means the world to all of us,” Bongomin said.

Westbrook football had it all in its 10-1 season. The backstory of failure (a combined 8-18 the previous three seasons). Stars who stuck with the program and shone the brightest when it mattered most. An energetic young coach working to improve his hometown. A community of supporters who connected to the championship journey in a genuinely gleeful way.

Put all the facets together and Westbrook High football was the easy and clear choice to be the 2025-26 Varsity Maine Boys Team of the Year.

“We were just a fun story,” said Westbrook coach Sam Johnson. “We were the underdog. That team that just kind of kept going and kept going.”

As Johnson put it, at first it was a case of people noticing Westbrook had won a couple games in a row. Then came a 20-0 shutout of Kennebunk in the regular season to level both teams at 5-1 and ultimately give Westbrook home field through the regional playoffs.

The run nearly ended in the semifinals. Trailing undermanned Marshwood, Westbrook escaped with a 15-12 win when Staples scrambled for a 5-yard score with less than 30 seconds to play.

Johnson said after that win, he began to get scouting and game-planning tips from other Class B South teams who had been eliminated.

Westbrook’s Tony Bongomin (4) and Adrian Anderson (51) chase down Cony’s Ben Hanke. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)<?xml version="1.0"?> Purchase this image

When Westbrook beat Kennebunk a second time in the regional final, Johnson said Rams coach “Keith Noel was the same way.” Noel, who had taken Kennebunk to the previous two title games, winning in 2023, offered tips on what it was like to prep for and coach in a state final.

“They were all like, go get ’em,” Johnson said. “It felt like every coach was rooting for us. Except B.L. Lippert and the Cony staff.”

After the championship game, Lippert joined in the praise, specifically advocating for the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Bongomin, a linebacker who was in on 170 tackles as a senior. Lippert called Bongomin the best player in the state and possibly the best linebacker he’d ever coached against.

“That’s B.L. That’s just classy … but that’s also a testament to our kids and our team,” Johnson said.

Three months later, Bongomin signed to play at Maine. Lubin will play college football as a defensive back at Colby College in Waterville. Staples will join Lubin on the West team for the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic on July 18, then head to Southern Maine Community College to play basketball.

They and their teammates will move on, but the memory of the 2025 football team will stay with them — and the town of Westbrook — for years to come.