Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Crusaders in action at last weekend’s preseason league jamboree.

By Ray Hamill — One of the biggest stories heading into the new H-DNL football season is the Big 4 switching to a home-and-away format for the first since the COVID-affected 2021 season.

All four conference schools will play each other twice each this year, a move that sees conference play begin in early October, and it’s a new format that has been widely welcomed by local fans.

It should make for an intriguing race for this year’s Big 4 championship, a race that will now go for six weeks instead of just three.

One of the big advantages with the move is that it involves less travel for local teams, as it has become harder and harder to get out-of-area schools to make the trip to the North Coast.

However, not every coach is embracing the change.

“I don’t like it,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin admitted. “I’m probably the only voice in the league that doesn’t like the six-game schedule.”

Like many coaches, Tomlin is not a fan of playing the same teams twice in the same season.

“I don’t like it because I like to play 10 different teams,” he added. 

The switch also means the Crusaders won’t have the opportunity to play an out-of-state game this fall, something that has become an annual tradition and important team-bonding trip for the program.

It also means the Crusaders will not play their annual rivalry matchup against the Ferndale Wildcats, with just four non-conference matches on the schedule now instead of seven.

And Tomlin is not alone in his assessment.

“What I like about it is we don’t have to travel as much,” said Fortuna head coach Mike Benbow, who stressed it has become very difficult to get teams to travel here for non-conference games. “But I’m never a fan of playing the same teams twice. But I also appreciate the fact that a home-and-home (format) just makes more sense financially.”

Tomlin added that he understands why the switch is seen as a positive by most local fans.

The Fortuna Huskies at last week’s preseason league jamboree.

“As far as HDN fans go, I get why they like it,” he said. “And honestly, I think anyone could win it this year.”

All four conference schools will certainly harbor championship ambitions heading into the new season, with obvious strengths and some question marks for all four.

“The Big 4 is incredibly balanced in the sense that we all haven’t figured out where we are, and it’s going to take a couple of games for that,” Benbow said. “Eureka is definitely improved, and St. Bernard’s always figures things out and coach does a great job getting them to the level they need to be at.

“And Del Norte’s just always tough. That’s what it comes down to when you play Del Norte, can you out-tough them?”

The Huskies also look well poised to challenge for the conference crown with a dynamic ground attack and two of the best running backs in the entire HDN.

The Del Norte Warriors