The climb to become a high school football state champion for the Monroe Red Jackets took two years on the field, or maybe the trek goes back to 2016, when varsity football returned to the school in the Rochester City School District.
Terrell Cunningham, the coach at Monroe, believes the Red Jackets have a chance to make another, shorter climb to a second state title.
“The thing about sports is, sometimes you have waves,” Cunningham said, referring to Monroe’s classes of 2026 and 2027. “As I continue to say, and as I said many years ago, when my ’27s are juniors and seniors, I feel like we are going to do something special.
“This is the majority of that group who have lost just three games of high school football.”
Monroe won the Class B state championship in 2025, becoming the first football team in the city school district to make it through one of those tournaments and get one of those titles.
The Red Jackets and their achievement were recognized in the United States House of Representatives by Congressman Joe Morelle in January.
“When he had an opportunity to speak on the floor, he recognized and congratulated us,” Cunningham said. “When you are outside, around the community, you see how happy people are for the team.
“Just yesterday I was out, and I had people walking up and congratulating me. It’s still fresh on people’s minds. A lot of people are proud for the city. Now, for us, it’s what’s next?”
Counting two-way all-state players Jermaine Montgomery, Anthony Omebe and Messiah Hampton, the Class B player of the year, seven of Monroe’s starting 22 offensive and defensive players are seniors this school year.
“These guys, the bulk of (the Monroe players in the class of 2027) have approached the offseason working. They know that is the expectation, they want to go out on top.
“We are losing very productive players (including all-state linebacker Christien Franklin, a senior). The thinking that you can just plug in new starters and you (instantly) replace that productivity, I don’t think is realistic, but I believe that the players are going to know what it’s going to take to get that (state title).”
At the head of Monroe’s group of returning starters and Red Jackets who are in the school’s class of 2027, is Cunningham’s son, Terrell “Pooty” Cunningham Jr., the team’s quarterback.
Monroe coaches were convinced before the season that Cunningham was the best high school quarterback in the state. Cunningham Jr. is certainly one of the best, as he was named to the Class B all-state first team by the New York State Sportswriters Association after last season.
Raymond Garcia, a junior, had more than 1,200 receiving yards in 2025, and the expectation is that he also returns to Monroe’s offense. Brien Walker, a 6-foot-4 receiver who has shown high potential at Irondequoit and Monroe, is a junior this school year.
“We also get back one of the top athletes in the state,” Cunningham the coach said about Terrence Barner. “He missed the whole (2025) season, coming off a very good sophomore year.
“He’s sitting on 11 (scholarship) offers. (Scouting publications) have him ranked as the third-best athlete (in his class) in the state.”
Alijah Jones, another junior, is a highly-rated offensive tackle. According to Cunningham the coach and tweets on X by Jones, the offensive lineman has at least 13 scholarship offers from Football Bowl Subdivision college teams in one of the Power Four conferences.
James Brumfield, another all-state player at Monroe and a 2025 Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester defensive back, has two seasons of playing eligibility remaining.
“It’s all in the work that we put it in,” Cunningham the coach said about the prospect of a postseason run by the 2026 Monroe team. “We have guys who are working, they started two weeks after the season ended.”
Below are the list of 2025 all-state players at Monroe and on other teams in Section V, plus all-state players of the year, regardless of section or sanctioning body:
Class B
Class AA
Class A
Class C
Class D
James Johnson, who grew up in the city of Rochester, has worked as a full-time journalist covering high school sports for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1996. His career began as an intern during the summer of 1990, before the start of his senior year at Edison in the Rochester City School District. He has become a two-time winner of the Rochester Press-Radio Club’s Sports Media Excellence Award.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: What the Section V all-state football list says about 2026 contenders
Reporting by James Johnson, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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