By Ray Hamill — It is now officially less than four weeks to go to the new high school football season, and this fall we will see some big changes in the Big 4.

The season kicks off on Aug. 28 with a Thursday night showdown for the South Fork Cubs at California School for the Deaf, and eight of the nine local varsity teams will be in action on opening weekend.

The first Friday night of the season will be a busy one for the H-DNL schools and features a pair of all-local matchups, with Hoopa traveling to play defending Big 4 champs Del Norte in an all-Warriors showdown.

Fresh off their state championship last year, the Arcata Tigers will begin the new season against the Eureka Loggers, also on that Friday night.

And rounding out the Friday night action on opening weekend, McKinleyville will host Fort Bragg and Fortuna travels to play St. Helena.

One local varsity team will be in action on Saturday, Aug. 30, with St. Bernard’s welcoming Clear Lake to Crusader Field for an afternoon showdown.

The Ferndale Wildcats are the only local varsity team to have a bye on opening weekend and will kick off their season at Fort Bragg on Sept. 5.

This season, however, will feature some noticeable changes to the schedule later in the campaign.

Instead of playing each other just once in conference play as they have in recent years, the Big 4 schools will face off against each other twice each, home and away, similar to the Little 4.

That means the Big 4 schedule gets under way in early October and will run for six weeks, adding to the excitement in the race for the championship. 

Opening weekend in the Big 4 is set for Oct. 3 and 4, with Eureka hosting St. Bernard’s and Del Norte facing Fortuna.

The final weekend for both the Little 4 and Big 4 will take place on the second weekend of November, with the North Coast Section playoffs kicking off the following weekend.