By Ray Hamill — Conference play kicks off this weekend for four of the eight H-DNL JV football teams, as the season begins to heat up for the younger players.

The Little 4 gets under way on Friday night when Arcata hosts McKinleyville, and conference action continues on Saturday morning when Ferndale and Hoopa will face off at Coach Carlson Field in Ferndale in a matchup of the two co-champs from 2023.

And the race for this year’s championship appears to be wide open.

The Wildcats come into conference play with a record of 2-2 after suffering their second straight loss last weekend at St. Bernard’s.

The young Cats fell 20-12.

The Hoopa JVs, meanwhile, got their first win of the season in their last game at Trinity two weeks ago (43-0) and are coming off a bye last weekend.

The Arcata Tigers also had a bye last week as they continue their preparation for conference play, and also got their first win of the season in their last game, winning 28-21 at Oakland two weeks ago.

The Mack JVs will also carry some momentum into conference play after tying their last two games, including a 14-14 showing last week against Del Norte in their final pore-conference game.

So the race for this year’s championship appears to wide open and all four local programs will like their chances of taking home the title.

The Big 4 teams, meanwhile, won’t begin conference play for a few more weeks, but they will continue their preparation with three of them in action this weekend.

And so far it has been a good season for all four, each of which has a winning record, including three undefeated teams.

Fortuna and St. Bernard’s, in particular, have impressed through the first half of the campaign and each are now 5-0 after big wins last week.

The Huskies won 15-0 at University Prep and the Crusaders beat the Wildcats in Eureka.

The unbeaten Fortuna JV team will try to keep its impressive season going at St. Vincent de Paul on Saturday, while the young Crusaders will have a bye this week.

The Del Norte Warriors also will be in action this week as they try to continue their recent good run.

Since opening the season with a loss at Fortuna, the young Warriors are unbeaten in four games and they are now 3-1-1 after last week’s tie at McKinleyville.

And rounding out the JV action this weekend, the unbeaten Eureka Loggers will play at Windsor, which is 2-2.

The young Eureka players had a bye last week after shutting out Willow Glen 14-0 two weeks ago.

Eureka is now 3-0-1 on the season.