Euclid Panthers Football Season Opens Friday with Browns High School Game of the Week Nomination

At Brush High School's Korb Field, Euclid's first snap of 2026 will carry more than opening-night stakes.

The Panthers open their season at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, at Brush — a matchup the Cleveland Browns pre-selected as the High School Game of the Week for Week 1, giving Euclid an opportunity for regional recognition beyond a typical opener.

That spotlight arrives as Euclid looks to rebound from a 4-6 finish in 2025. Head coach Damion Creel is entering his third year leading the Panthers with a 6-14 career record at the school.

"We want to turn this thing back to how it used to be," Damion Creel, head football coach at Euclid High School, said.

For Euclid, that means producing a winning season, contending for the Greater Cleveland Conference title and making the playoffs. Friday's opener is the Panthers' first chance to show the program is on an upward trajectory.

Euclid brings back 12 letterwinners for that effort. Dion Russell returns at quarterback, while Sincere Hamilton is back at wide receiver. Penn State commit Kei'Shjuan Telfair returns at cornerback and defensive back, giving Euclid a proven player around whom to build.

The Browns' High School Game of the Week program returned for its 17th consecutive season in 2026 with a 10-week schedule beginning Aug. 21 and fan voting on weekly matchups. Each weekly winning team receives $3,000 for its football program, and the selected matchup gets expanded coverage across the Browns' digital and social channels, including highlights, photography and player recognition. At the end of the season, the High School Coach of the Year award provides another $6,000 to the winner's school football program.

For Euclid residents, the nomination creates a direct way to support the Panthers: vote and show up in force at Korb Field on Friday night. Winning the vote would bring that $3,000 to the program while putting local players on a stage that extends well beyond the Euclid sideline — a chance, for a community that views Friday night football as a point of civic pride, to remind the region that Euclid football remains part of the city's identity.

The challenge will extend well beyond Week 1. Euclid competes in the Greater Cleveland Conference and is classified in OHSAA Division I, Region 1, for the 2026 season. Its conference schedule includes Lorain, Strongsville, Shaker Heights, Brunswick, Cleveland Heights, Riverside and Mentor. The Panthers also face Brush, Berea-Midpark and St. John's Jesuit in non-conference games.

The larger test is whether Creel and his 12 returning letterwinners can turn Friday's visibility into wins and playoff contention — and restore faith in a program determined to prove that last year's 4-6 record was the floor, not the ceiling.