Saucon Valley High School, a small school in Pennsylvania’s LeHigh Valley, wasn’t historically known as a football powerhouse. Having to rely on homegrown talent, they’d often lose out to bigger schools with larger recruiting bases.

But 2015 would prove to be different.

Digging deep and pounding out their final year as Saucon Valley Panthers, cocaptains Zach Thatcher, Evan Culver, Mike Kane, Christian Carvis, and their teammates embarked on a quest for a Pennsylvania state football championship that would defy the odds. Fielding the school’s best team in decades, Head Coach Matt Evancho brought a group of determined young men together for a journey none of them will ever forget.

With local roots but universal appeal, The Best Year of Our Lives uses recent interviews, personal stories, and media accounts from the time to paint the picture of everything the players, coaches, and local community experienced that storied year-the unity, the disappointments, and the triumphs.