Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — After barely having enough players to field a varsity team last year and finishing one of their games with just nine players available, the McKinleyville Panthers are far better positioned to compete in the Little 4 this fall.

Head coach Fel Barlow and his players have been busy preparing for the new season, which opens in a little over two weeks when they host Kelseyville at Mack High.

And with 25 players on this year’s varsity and 31 on the JV squad, numbers won’t be a problem in 2024.

“The numbers are better than last year, thank God, and that’s a good thing,” Barlow said. “We still have a lot of youngsters, but with 25 players it’s way better than last year and we can breath a little bit.”

This year’s McKinleyville varsity team features several players moving up from a JV roster that won two of its final three games in 2023 to carry some momentum into the offseason.

And Barlow hopes that will help with the transition to the varsity level.

This year’s team features just a handful of seniors, some of whom are first-year players, and Barlow and his staff will rely on the presence of veteran team leaders Kaden Waugh and Steven Graves, who are two of the three team captains along with Ruger Baxter.

The versatile Waugh will play running back as well as a rover safety/linebacker position on defense, while Graves will line up at guard and middle linebacker, as well as possibly seeing some time on the defensive line.

“We can mix and match with those two,” the coach said.

Baxter, a junior, will see some time at quarterback and returns to the team this year after not playing a year ago.

Another junior, Jeremiah Smith, also will likely see some time at quarterback.

The Panthers will be particularly young in the trenches, but it’s a unit that should continue to grow together with multiple linemen starting as freshmen a year ago.

Now sophomores, Kobe Ashcom, Kolby Larsen-Willis, Cayson Reeves and Charles Chrivell will all see action on both sides of the ball and if this group continues to play together they will be a force to reckon with a year or two from now.

“We’ve got some youngsters out there, but I think they’ve got some heart,” Barlow said. “They’re hungry this year.

“Having a year’s experience with these kids, they’re starting to figure it out a lot better, and some of them had never played before last year.”

The entire roster is hungry and eager for a better showing this fall after a disappointing winless campaign in 2023 as they battled just to field a team every week.

The 2024 schedule will be tough for the Panthers, however, with their first six games all against quality playoff teams from a year ago.

“It’s going to be a tough schedule, but I think we’re going to be competitive,” Barlow added.

The season opener against Kelseyville has switched venue and will take place at McKinleyville High School after originally being scheduled to take place in Lake County.

After that, the Panthers will play Fortuna (away), University Prep (home) and Del Norte (home) before kicking off conference play at Arcata on Oct. 4.