All American has been renewed for an eighth season that will also complete its narrative, reported Deadline Monday morning. The sports drama, which first premiered on The CW in 2018, will receive its final 13 episodes sometime in 2026, picking up from the cliffhanger the show’s Season Seven finale concluded with on May 5th.

The series’ showrunner and executive producer, Nkechi Okoro Carrol (Bones, Found), celebrated the news in a public statement, per Deadline: “How do I condense into just a few words what would be the longest love letter to this show, the fans, the cast, crew, staff, and producers? My heart is so filled with love and gratitude for everyone who helped bring All American to life and kept it going for its historic run. It is so hard to say goodbye to the thing that you love, but we are so excited we get to do it in the way we envisioned with this final season.”

Brad Schwartz, president of the network, also commented on the renewal, calling the football drama “one of the greatest CW shows of all time” and stating that he felt honored to “give fans a chance to say a meaningful goodbye to these inspiring characters and this incredible world,” per Deadline.

All American, which follows the exploits of Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), a high school football player with dreams of playing in the NFL, has had something of a historic run on The CW, recovering from an understated initial reception thanks to positive word-of-mouth and a streaming deal with Netflix to become one of the network’s best performers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Since Season Six largely served as the culmination of James’ character arc, Season Seven pivoted to focus on other members of the cast, such as coach Billy Baker (Taye Diggs), a trend Season Eight is slated to continue.

Carroll further told Deadline: “Thank you to Brad Schwartz, Channing Dungey, Brett Paul, and Greg Berlanti for supporting our vision. Thank you to the many executives at Warner Bros Discovery, CW and Berlanti Productions who have been a supportive part of the All American huddle since day one. Thank you to our OG and new generation cast members, our writers, crew and full staff for raising the bar every episode. Thank you to Spencer Paysinger, whose life inspired this epic journey. And thank you to everyone who not only watched the show, but took Spencer James’s mantra of ‘Dream Big. Stay Real’ to heart and were inspired to chase their seemingly impossible dreams. We see you. We salute you. Here’s to leaving it all on the field one last time.”

The first seven seasons of All American are available to stream now on Netflix.