Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] North coast football fans will get their first opportunity to check out this year's HDNL teams in action at this weekend's league Preseason Jamboree. Hello and welcome to this week's KMUD News Sports Report. I'm Ray Hamill with humblesports.com we'll have more on the League Jamboree in just a moment as we take a look at all of the big local sports stories of the week, including a look ahead to the opening weekend of the 2026 football season, some College of the Redwoods football news, some high school soccer, an update on the newly renovated Albie Stadium, why August was a big month for CR Sports, how the Crabs fared in the end of season, Pacific Empire League awards and why it was a big week for local motorsports fans.
[00:00:46] But first up, with the 2026 high school football season now just a week away, local fans will get their first opportunity to check out the league teams in action and at this weekend's HDNL Pre Season Jamboree. The Jamboree will take place at McKinleyville High School on Saturday with the varsity teams taking the field at 10:00am followed by the JV teams at 12:30pm the jamboree includes 16 varsity scrimmages, each of which will include 10 plays on offense and 10 plays on defense for both schools involved. Each team will feature in four different scrimmages and scrimmages will be held simultaneously at both ends of the field with Saint Bernards and Eureka and Ferndale and Arcata getting the action underway. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students.
[00:01:35] The new season kicks off next week with six of the nine local varsity teams set to play on opening weekend. On Friday night, the Del Nord warriors open at Oakland High School, Fortuna will host St. Helena, Hoopa plays at Trinity and Ferndale travels to play Anderson High School the following day. The McKinleyville Panthers kick off their 2026 season at home against Cloverdale while Eureka hosts Windsor Arcata. South Fork and St. Bernards will each have an opening weekend bye before kicking off their seasons. The following weekend, South Fork opens at home against California School for the Deaf, Arcata travels to Ukiah and St Bernard's will be tested right off the bat with when North coast section powerhouse St. Vincent de Paul travels to Crusader Field.
[00:02:23] College of the Redwoods is also gearing up for the 2026 season opener in football. The Corsairs open at San Jose on Saturday, August 29, with kickoff set for noon. They will play their home opener against Reedley the following weekend and once again CR will play its home games at Cal Poly Humboldt's Redwood bowl this fall. The Eureka Loggers will also host their opening game at the Redwood Bowl. The the Loggers are putting the final touches on the newly renovated Albi Stadium as the iconic North Coast Stadium gets set to celebrate its centennial this year. Opened in 1926, Alby Stadium has been undergoing construction for the past couple of years, but the Lagers will get to call it home once again this fall. The high school will host football and boys and girls soccer games there on the new all weather field.
[00:03:12] However, it was announced this week that that the new facility will not be ready in time for the season openers. According to school officials, the Loggers will definitely play their games there this fall, but it remains week to week for now. In the meantime, the soccer teams will continue to play their home games at Washington Elementary School. Eureka is scheduled to play home football games against Marshfield and Ferndale in the month of September, but if the new stadium is not completed in time for those games, the they will also take place at the Redwood Bowl. The local Ute football season is also fast approaching with the Six Rivers Conference teams scheduled to scrimmage at the Redwood bowl this weekend. The preseason jamboree will be held on Sunday.
[00:03:56] Switching gears, the local high school sports year officially began this week. On Tuesday afternoon, the Ferndale girls soccer team kicked off the 2026 season with a dominating 70 win over Mendocino.
[00:04:09] The Wildcats, who are the defending Little Four and Nord Coast Section Division 1 champions, hit the ground running and scored five first half goals in the win. Reigning Little Four MVP Madison Hageman, who is a sophomore this year, picked up just where she left off a year ago and scored a hat trick of goals in her season debut.
[00:04:30] College of the Redwoods athletics, meanwhile, enjoyed a good month off the field of competition.
[00:04:36] Last week, the north coast sports community showed up in big numbers to support SEA or athletics as the local JC hosted its 22nd annual dinner and auction. Almost 500 community members were on hand to raise a record $285,000. With additional funds still being received. The annual dinner and auction is the department's biggest fundraiser of the year and all funds raised go towards supporting the college sports teams. The event honored former Corsair football standout Sean how, now a defensive assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers, inducted former CR football player and longtime Ferndale High School football coach Clint McClurg into the CR Athletics hall of Fame and celebrated the return of the historic Corsair Speedcar to the Eureka campus Switching gears A couple of former HTNL baseball standouts were included among the honorees in this year's Pacific Empire League End of Season awards with which were announced recently. McKinleyville's Jackson Kelly and Del Norte's Preston Daniels were each named among the All League pitchers. Kelly spent the summer playing with the Humboldt Crabs and pitched a no hitter against the West Coast Kings, which was one of the highlights of the summer at the Arcata Ballpark. The former Panthers star made 16 appearances for the Crabs and finished with a record of 40 and an ERA of 3.92. He is joined on the All League team by Daniels, who pitched for the Medford rogues for the second straight summer. Daniels, who was named Big 5 MVP and humble sports High School Player of the year in 2025, appeared in eight games for the Rogues and had an ERA of 2.33.
[00:06:17] Several other Crabs players also received All League recognition, including the versatile Adam Enyart, who recently closed out his college career at Sacramento State. Enyart was included among the All League pitchers and All League position players.
[00:06:32] In addition, the Crabs supporters were also honoured as the league's Fan Base of the Year. The Crabs recently closed out another successful summer season with a record of 40:13 and rounding out another busy week in local sports, it was a big weekend for North Coast Motorsports fans. The Redwood Acres Raceway hosted its popular Fan Appreciation Night at the local track on Saturday and a packed house showed up for a packed night of racing action. Among the highlights of the night Jerry Peterson took the checkered flats bag in the Late Models main event while Anthony Fomassi was first across the line in the Upstate Bombers Series main event Racing returns to Redwood Acres next weekend and that's this week's KMUD News Sports Report. Until next time, I'm Ray Hamill with Humboldt Sports. Com.
