Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com
By Ray Hamill — It could be a record-setting opening weekend in football for the Fortuna Huskies.
With their season opener fast approaching, the Huskies will be hoping for a fast start to the new campaign when they kick off next week.
However, it won’t be easy, with one of the teams they shared last year’s Big 4 championship with coming to town on opening night.
In what will be one of the most anticipated matchups of opening weekend, the Huskies will host the Del Norte Warriors in a non-conference showdown in the first of two meetings between the two schools this fall.
But a fast start isn’t the only thing the Huskies will be hoping for when they kick off the new season.
In the opening round of the North Coast Section playoffs last year, Fortuna head coach Mike Benbow guided the Huskies to a 36-0 win over Middletown in the Division-6 playoffs.
And in doing so he tied his old head coach for most wins ever in program history.
The win for Benbow was his 121st with Fortuna, tying him with Dick Cahill, whom he played for.
Cahill coached at Fortuna from 1975 through 1995.
If the Huskies can beat Del Norte on opening night this year, Benbow will stand alone as the winningest coach in program history.
Even if they fall short, it’s surely only a matter of time before the longtime and well-respected coach sets the record.
And that would be a fitting honor for a coach who has served the school and Huskies football so well.
Benbow won a state championship with the Huskies as a head coach in 2017.
Game time on opening night is set for 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 30, with the schools’ JVs kicking off their season earlier in the evening.
