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By Ray Hamill — It’s been a remarkable fall so far for Ferndale High sports, with the Wildcats’ football and girls soccer teams enjoying outstanding campaigns.

But while both of those teams are soaring, another Ferndale team is quickly establishing itself and offering a lot of hope for the future.

This year sees the Wildcats field a boys soccer team for the first time since 2018, with a JV squad competing against several schools from around the H-DNL.

And it all came about thanks to the initiative of one of the players, team captain James Dowd.

“He was pretty instrumental in reaching out to see if there were people interested,” assistant coach Will Stephens said. “It was pretty student driven.”

Dowd and his teammates began practice during the summer in preparation for the season and the team officially took the field for the first time in a game against St. Bernard’s on Sept. 10.

Since then, a young Cats team has played in five more games against mostly JV squads and they have been enjoying plenty of success.

The Ferndale boys have recorded victories over McKinleyville (4-2) and Eureka (3-2), while also tying Del Norte 1-1.

Their three losses have come against St. Bernard’s varsity (5-0) and Fortuna and Arcata JV programs by scores of 4-3 and 4-2, respectively.

“You know, we’ve been doing surprisingly well,” Stephens said. 

Stephens and head coach Jason Roy have just 13 players on their roster, and close to half of them have never played the sport before.

However, the newcomers, who are taking to the game quickly and seem to be enjoying the experience, are benefitting from a talented core group of players who bring some experience to the field

“We’ve got a few really talented players that have played a lot of competitive soccer,” Stephens said. “So we have a real strong spine on the team.”

That core group includes Dowd, who helps set the tone in midfield along with teammates Wyatt Truscott and Gately Kendall, as well as the latter’s brother August Kendall, who anchors the team defense.

Gately Kendall and Truscott each have a co-team-leading four goals.

“We’ve got some really quality players in the center of the field, and everybody’s been able to build around that nicely,” Stephens said.

The roster includes three juniors and mostly freshmen and sophomores, and the Wildcats are planning on competing at the varsity level next season.

“It’s a young team that we should be able to build around from here,” the coach added.

Another young player who has been impressing his coaches in his first year ever playing the sport is sophomore Ellis Daniels, who has taken on the important role of stopper in the heart of defense.

“He puts in an unbelievable amount of hustle and has a lack of fear,” Stephens said. 

As for what he says he like most about the team, Shaw is quick to point to the team chemistry.

“They mesh well together,” he said. “And it’s just a really nice group of guys.”

The Ferndale roster also includes Zach Bradfield, Nathaniel Harris, Addison Harter, Fabian Nunez, Logan Sanders, Benjamin Soria-Herrera, Shane Tait and Valentin Vargas, with Ian Snyder also an assistant coach with the team.