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By Ray Hamill — As Ferndale coach Jim Cook said this week, these are “definitely good times” for Wildcats football.
The school’s varsity team captured national attention with its remarkable year and closed out the regular season with a perfect 10-0 record while outscoring its opponents 647-18.
But that was far from all for the most successful program in H-DNL history.
The school’s JV team also pieced together an undefeated season, going 10-0 and claiming a second straight Little 4 championship outright.
After not being able to field a team for four straight years from 2018 to 2021, the young Wildcats returned in 2022 and they have steadily grown in stature since then.
“We’re trying to keep that rolling,” said Cook, who is the head coach of the JV team and an assistant on Clint McClurg’s varsity staff. “And every year since, we’ve been kind of building progress.”
After such a dominating fall for the Cats’ varsity team, this might be the last thing their Little 4 rivals want to hear, but there’s a wealth of young talent at Ferndale High that could star on just about any other conference team right now, and this a group of players that look like they will continue the program’s dominance for the foreseeable future.
And like with the varsity team, the JVs feature a dominating line and plenty of depth at the skill positions.
“We knew we had a good core, but weren’t sure who we would put the pieces together,” Cook said. “The sophomore leadership was definitely solid. We had three or four returning sophomore linemen and that’s where it all starts.
“When things got tough, we were able to rely on the guys up front.”
That group included Rigel Hahner, who was called up to the varsity team ahead of a showdown against Arcata a few weeks back and had an immediate impact at the next level, as well as Greyson Mathews, Obadiah Gobel and Cody Frank, all of whom are also expected to make a smooth transition to varsity.
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Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Rigel Hahner (19) had an immediate impact after being called up to the Ferndale varsity team for a game against Arcata.
As you would expect from the smallest 11-player program in the North Coast Section, all of those players played both sides of the ball, setting the tone on defense as much as on offense.
Remarkably, the young Cats had six shutouts in the nine games they played — they had a forfeit win over Arcata — which means they only allowed points in three games, just one more game than the incredible varsity team.
“We were pretty excited about that as a program,” Cook said. “Our defense was definitely stout.”
The success in the trenches paved the way for the skill position players, who took full advantage.
Sophomore Preston Killingsworth — one of three team captains along with Hahner and George Bibby — had an outstanding year running the ball and would have featured at the varsity level had it not been for the wealth of talent the Ferndale varsity team has.
“Preston Killingsworth is an exceptional JV back,” Cook said. “Most years he’s probably playing varsity. There’s no doubt that kid was ready to play varsity.”
Cash Mobley also had a good year running the ball for the young Wildcats and should only continue to grow in stature at the varsity level over the next two years, while quarterback Cade Renner did a good job running the offense and should also make a comfortable transition to the varsity team.
Bibby and Frank, meanwhile, helped anchor the stingy defense at the middle linebacker positions.
And remarkably, the Cats dominated their opponents despite having a small roster that finished the season with just 15 players.
“We had a lot of guys that stepped up,” Cook said.
Cook also praised the contributions of his assistant coaches, including defensive coordinator Nathan Hansen, whom he said has been a very solid addition to the program, as well as linebackers/offensive line coach Jeff Burns and newcomer Caden Rocha, who has been helping with the offensive and defensive lines.
