Drew Brees played his final game for the New Orleans Saints at the end of the 2020 season — before the oldest of his four children reached high school age.

Now in 2026, with oldest son Baylen ready to be a senior in the fall, the Brees family will make a return to New Orleans for a high school football game against Newman.

Newman and Santa Fe Christian, of Solana Beach, California, will face each other Thursday, Sept. 10, at Newman’s Michael Lupin Field in the first of two meetings between the schools. The teams will play a second game in 2027 in California, Newman coach Aaron Vice said.

“They kind of reached out to us about it,” Vice said about scheduling the Week 2 football game.

Baylen, primarily a wide receiver, played on the Santa Fe Christian varsity team last season. He caught two touchdown passes last season. Bowen, a sophomore this fall, played receiver on junior varsity last season. Callen will be a freshman in the fall.

The Brees children attended Newman during the football seasons when their father played quarterback for the Saints.

Santa Fe Christian is coming off a 13-1 season with 6-foot-3 quarterback Dax Labrum, a senior this fall, setting school passing records with 3,106 yards and 36 touchdowns — all with Drew Brees as his position coach for the past two seasons.

“He’s awesome,” Santa Fe Christian coach Jon Wallace said about Brees as a coach. “For someone with his pedigree and experience, it takes a lot of humility to come back to what high school football is.”

The Brees children attended Santa Fe Christian during the football offseason during Drew’s playing days.

Newman will open the season against two out-of-state opponents — the first one in Week 1 on the road against St. John School in Houston. Vice coached at St. John before he returned home to Louisiana and coached at U-High before his arrival at Newman in 2025.

Other nondistrict games are Week 3 against East Jefferson at home, Week 4 at Willow, Week 6 against Bonnabel at Joe Yenni Stadium and Week 6 against Morris Jeff at home.

District games are Week 7 at Houma Christian, followed by home games Week 8 against Fisher and Week 9 against Country Day and Week 10 at Covenant Christian.

Newman is coming off a 7-3 season that included three losses against three teams that won state championships when the season ended: St. Charles, Riverside and Catholic-New Iberia.