After the bell rings, as students stream out of classrooms, a small group turns in the opposite direction — toward the locker rooms at Vashon High School.

They pull on jerseys and lace up cleats, heading out to the turf for walk-throughs the day before the anticipated homecoming game.

“Is it just walk-throughs today, Coach?” one player asks as he passes by on his way to change into his uniform.

“It’s not just walk-throughs,” head coach Brian Banducci fires back with a grin.

Most locals would agree that Vashon is not known for its football prowess. Wins have been hard to come by in recent seasons. But the team remains a fall fixture on the island, a gathering point where students, parents and neighbors fill the stands in their green and gold, shouting “Let’s go Pirates” no matter the score.

For Banducci, now in his third season leading the program, the goal is to instill something more meaningful than what the scoreboard shows at the end of the night. He wants the team to define success by how they show up — for themselves and for each other — lessons, he said, that will likely carry them much further.

A veteran coach with more than three decades of experience, Banducci came to Vashon from Southern California, where he worked at both high-level programs and small public schools like this one.

Banducci said what he enjoys most about coaching isn’t just teaching the game itself, but helping players develop life skills and discover more about themselves. “All of those important skills that they take from a sport like football and can apply to their lives are the things I really enjoy being part of, imparting and sharing with the team,” he said.

This season, those lessons have been tested, Banducci said. The team has just 18 players on the roster, plus two eighth graders who practice with them. Substitutions are rare, and many players stay on the field for entire games. Opponents often have twice as many athletes on the sidelines. Through four games, the Pirates haven’t recorded a win.

“But if we didn’t have those situations, we wouldn’t have been able to know what it’s like to come out at halftime… when we’re really down, and be able to show what we’re made of,” Banducci said. “Like as individuals, how do we rise to the challenge? How do we pull together and support each other? How do we lead through difficult circumstances?”

Banducci focuses on what the team can control: effort, focus and how they treat one another. He emphasizes playing until the final whistle — keeping each other up and not giving up.

The program has also invested in safety. Through fundraising, the team purchased new helmets equipped with impact sensors — the same model used by the Seahawks — and players are drilled in updated tackling techniques designed to reduce head contact.

But recruiting for football on Vashon is hard and multifaceted, Banducci said. Getting players to join a team with a reputation for losing hasn’t been easy. On top of that, there’s the physical strain the sport demands, and some parents are hesitant about letting their children play. The team also lost its feeder program from McMurray Middle School due to low participation and expired helmets — a cost-saving cut that left a gap in the pipeline.

“There is a certain amount of, ‘I would come out if the team was more successful on the scoreboard,’” Banducci said. To shift that mindset, he hopes more students will realize that their participation could help change the team’s trajectory.

Senior running back and defensive player Tallis Sullivan said that while there are 18 players on the team, only about 14 regularly attend practice.

“It definitely isn’t a great feeling every week to go out and get hit pretty hard,” Tallis said. “We’re coming out here two hours every day after school and we’re all tired.”

Between the low turnout and the physical demands, Tallis said there’s also a sense of pride in the group that continues to show up.

“There’s no shortage of athletes on Vashon,” he said. “We have a lot of people who could be playing, but they just decided not to.”

Still, Tallis shows up every day. “The way I was raised, was if you commit to something, you commit it to it fully,” he said. “That’s kind of the mentality of the team right now — keep going and keep getting better.”

The game before homecoming, the Pirates scored a field goal just before halftime — a rare moment that Banducci said had a visceral effect on the team. Moments like that, he said, help players believe that wins are possible.

This score, for sophomore quarterback Memphis Cress, felt like a turning point. “That just gives you so much motivation to keep on going,” Memphis said, referring to the goal.

Memphis stepped into the starting role last year after an injury sidelined the senior quarterback. He said despite the size of the team, he loves playing.

“It’s tough being on such a small team like this,” Memphis said. “It doesn’t help when not a lot of people want to come out and even try playing the sport… It’s so fun though. We’re getting experience, we’re getting all these good memories. I love my team a lot.”

He said the support of his teammates and community keeps him going. “There’s always someone there to pick me up,” he said.

The Pirates’ season is about halfway through. For Banducci, Memphis, Tallis and their teammates, success has not been measured in the numbers on the scoreboard, but in the habits and grit built during long afternoons on the field. While perception can be a challenge for teams that struggle, Banducci said Vashon stands apart. The community keeps showing up — and keeps cheering.

And in the end, as Tallis said, laughing, “Losing by so much every week is definitely something that brings people together.”

Tallis Sullivan, left and Memphis Cress, co-captains of the Vashon High School football team, get ready for walkthroughs the day before homecoming. (Aspen Anderson Photo)