Quince Orchard High School’s football team secured its 27th win in a row Friday, and it was a big one.
The Cougars defeated Prince George’s County football powerhouse Henry A. Wise Jr. 26-21 in Maryland’s 4A State Championship. It’s Quince Orchard’s second consecutive state title. The Montgomery County program has just one loss since 2021.
“All the hard work and stuff like that, obviously, almost pretty much year-round, so it’s good,” coach John Kelley said.
Either Quince Orchard or Wise has won every single 4A state championship since 2015. And while success has practically become a given at Quince Orchard, Kelley said he tells his teams to take it one game at a time when the season starts in August.
“Don’t look ahead, we talk a lot about not being the same team that you are in August that you are in December.”
He said he wants his teams to get better — even if it’s just a little bit every week — to be ready to play and win at the end of the season.
He said he doesn’t focus on the team’s 27-game win streak.
“That’s just a byproduct of their hard work. We talk to the guys all the time, really. If you put the work in and the effort, good things will happen.”
The community has embraced the team, and Kelley said that means a lot.
“It’s outstanding. It’s awesome, the community support we have is second to none. The parent support we get, I say it all the time, it helps make the program go.”
So is Kelley eying a three-peat in 2026?
“That’ll be the standard as we get into next year. The thing is too, with our guys, we know everyone we play is going to give us their best shot and our guys embrace that, It’s like a challenge.”
The team will take the rest of the month off, Kelley said, before it gets back to work in January.
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