Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — After playing their home games at the Redwood Bowl in 2019, the McKinleyville Panthers will return home for the 2020 football season.

Last year, McKinleyville was forced to play at the iconic Humboldt State stadium for the entire season due to ongoing renovations to the high school sports fields.

This year, however, with the renovations now complete, the Panthers will return home.

The team will play five of its 10 games at Mack High.

After opening the season at Yreka on August 28, the Panthers will then host Anderson, before traveling to Fort Bragg and then returning home to play Willits.

After a bye, the Panthers will then play a pair of road games to open the Little 4, at Hoopa and Arcata on consecutive weekends, before three straight home games.

McKinleyville hosts Ferndale, Hoopa and Arcata to close out October, before a regular-season finale at Ferndale in early November.

A young Panthers team that is expected to feature mostly juniors in 2020 was enjoying a productive offseason before the COVID-19 shutdown.

“It’s strange for sure,” McKinleyville head coach Keoki Burbank said. “It’s tough because we were  having a really good offseason. We had the best weight room attendance since I’ve been at McKinleyville.”