Submitted photo – The Ferndale players and coaches celebrate their win on Friday night.
By Ray Hamill — When it comes to postseason success on the football field, no local high school team can match the Wildcats.
On Friday night, Ferndale secured a 14th all-time North Coast Section championship with a 14-7 victory over Willits in the Division-7 final at Ukiah High School.
It was the Wildcats’ third straight road playoff win against a higher seed.
But that won’t come as much of a surprise for a town that embraces its football team more than any in the area and the Wildcats have often found a way to rise to the challenge when it comes to the NCS playoffs.
In the words of Ferndale Mustangs AAA youth football team head coach Nathan Coppini, “Football is the lifeblood of Ferndale.”
The Cream City is in a league of its own compared to the rest of the H-DNL and the 14 NCS titles makes up close to half of the league’s 31 all-time titles.
It’s also nine more than St. Bernard’s, the second most successful of the local programs.
But where do the Wildcats stand among the elite programs in the section?
No school in the NCS comes close to matching the success of De La Salle, which secured an incredible 38th section title last weekend in the open division and has now won 31 straight titles.
But Friday’s win leaves Ferndale in a tie with Marin Catholic for second among all the NCS schools, with the Kentfield school securing its 14th all-time title with a victory over Cardinal Newman in the Division-3 final on Saturday.
And that’s extremely impressive for a school the size of Ferndale.
The Wildcats’ 14 titles are three more than Cardinal Newman, which is the fourth most successful program in NCS history.
Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com
Next best is Miramonte with nine titles after Saturday’s win over St. Bernard’s in the Division-5 final, but no other team in the NCS has more than half of Ferndale’s total.
Salesian, which lost to St. Vincent de Paul in Saturday’s Division-6 final, has seven all-time titles, as does Fort Bragg, Campolindo and Monte Vista, while Pittsburg and Justin-Siena each have six all-time section titles.
The next best H-DNL team when it comes to section championships is Fortuna with four, including two recent back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018.
The Eureka Loggers have three section championships, winning in 2003 and 2009, as well as all the way back in 1929.
The Hoopa Warriors have two section championships, coming in back-to-back years in 2010 and 2011, while South Fork (2023), Del Norte (2019) and McKinleyville (1989) each have one.
St. Bernard’s won in 1976, 2000, 2003, 2015 and 2019.
After South Fork won a first-ever championship last week, Arcata is now the only H-DNL school not to have at least one section crown, which is an impressive statistic for the league.
Ferndale’s storied postseason history began with a first NCS championship back in 1975 and the Wildcats have won at least one championship in each of the last five decades.
They also won in 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012.
The Wildcats will now turn their attention to the state playoffs, where they hope to match the state championships won by Fortuna (2017) and St. Bernard’s (2015 and 2019).
They will play a Division 7-AA NorCal playoff game against Portola on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Redwood Bowl.
We’ll have much more on that game in the coming days.
Well done Ferndale. In the article it mentions “And that’s extremely impressive for a school the size of Ferndale” with respect to Section titles. The reason why Ferndale has done so well in the last 6 years is because SB has been removed from the Little 4. End of story.
Especially important with the quote….extremely impressive for a school their size…SB has had to compete against the best Big 5 teams (Arcata and McKinlyeville in Little 4 now) in this new league, and then has to compete against even bigger schools for Section titles.
Absolutely unfair, and absolutely not equitable for the hard work the players from this small school put in over the year! SB should be competing against schools their same size, period. Get rid of this “everyone gets a trophy” syndrome.
Ferndale can’t recruit Athletes like a private School.
All schools recruit, period. I have seen it at all levels too.
St B has players on their team that started their high school careers at almost every major football school in Humboldt. No other School in the area can say that. Take those kids away and see what you have left.