Point Loma High School's undefeated football team takes the field Friday night for a homecoming game unlike any other in the campus's history: its 100th. The Pointers, sitting at 4-0, host the Del Norte Nighthawks, who come in at 3-1, in a 7 p.m. kickoff that caps a week of spirited themed dress-up days and leads into a sold-out dance on Saturday.
The milestone game arrives a century after Point Loma High opened its doors, and as Times of San Diego reports, the school is marking the occasion with a homecoming week built around a boy-band theme, according to the outlet's account. Freshmen picked Maroon 5, sophomores went with the Jonas Brothers, juniors chose the Backstreet Boys, and the Class of 2027 landed on One Direction — a lineup the report attributes to school staff member Amy Denney. Students were encouraged to dress according to the daily themes throughout the week, which included a Western day Monday, a fraternity/sorority theme Tuesday, music merchandise Wednesday, a 2016-inspired day Thursday, and a pink-out for Friday's game.
A Century-Old Campus With a National Baseball First
Point Loma High was dedicated on September 8, 1925, opening as Point Loma Junior-Senior High School with 386 students and 30 teachers under founding principal Pete Ross, according to Times of San Diego. The school's first graduating class, in 1926, held commencement in Balboa Park with just seven students — four girls and three boys, per Times of San Diego's report and school records cited by the Point Loma High School Alumni Association. That contrast is stark next to today's enrollment of 1,682 students in grades 9 through 12 during the 2023–2024 school year, according to Wikipedia's entry on the school.
Point Loma High also holds a singular distinction in American sports history. It is the only high school in the country to produce two Major League Baseball pitchers who threw perfect games — Don Larsen, Class of 1947, and David Wells, Class of 1982 — a fact detailed by Times of San Diego's sports history coverage. Larsen threw his in the 1956 World Series for the New York Yankees, while Wells threw his for the same franchise in 1998.
Football Roots Run Deep, From Bennie Edens to Eric Allen
Friday's game is played on Bennie Edens Field, named for the coach who led the Pointers football program. Times of San Diego's reporting on the venue's origins lists four CIF football championships for the program. That coaching legacy helped produce Eric Allen, a star cornerback in the Class of 1983 who played under Edens before a 14-season NFL career. Allen was announced in February 2025 as an inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2025, according to OB Rag.
The halftime show Friday will lean into that tradition of school pride, featuring Point Loma alumni alongside the marching band, cheerleaders, and a parade of student skits and dances tied to the boy-band theme, per Times of San Diego. The homecoming dance follows Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. at Bloom in downtown San Diego, and it has already sold out.
From Spanish Revival to a Modern Campus
The buildings students walk through today look nothing like the original 1925 Spanish Revival campus, which was demolished and replaced after California enforced the 1973 Field Act's earthquake safety standards, according to OB Rag. Those seismic mandates reshaped dozens of legacy public school campuses across the state during that decade. The most recent overhaul came in February 2020, when San Diego Unified School District topped off a new three-story, 38,000-square-foot classroom, library, and media center building along Chatsworth Boulevard — the campus's largest modernization since 1925, according to the district.
The centennial celebration didn't start with Friday's game. A year earlier, on September 13, 2025, the school held a Cheers to 100 Years Gala at the Port Pavilion on Broadway Pier. The PLHS Centennial Celebration lists arts and athletics among its fundraising priorities. For Friday's festivities, the alumni association also provided an original photo of that first seven-student graduating class, which was repaired and colorized using AI, according to a photo caption cited in Times of San Diego's report.
Point Loma High remains the third-oldest high school still operating within San Diego Unified School District, according to Wikipedia's entry on the school, a distinction that adds weight to Friday's milestone matchup. Whether the Pointers can keep their undefeated season intact against Del Norte will be decided under the lights at Bennie Edens Field, a fitting stage for a program celebrating 100 years of Point Loma High history.
