Photo courtesy of Eureka High School

By Ray Hamill — The Eureka Loggers are returning home.

This fall, the Eureka football team will play its home games at the newly refurbished Albee Stadium after hosting games at the Redwood Bowl the past couple of years during construction.

The new all-weather field looks fantastic and head coach Sam Edmonds and his players are hoping the field will be ready for opening day later this month.

“We’re hoping and praying it’ll be ready for Aug. 29,” Edmonds said. “The field looks amazing. They’re putting the final touches on it.”

The plan right now is to host the H-DNL’s preseason scrimmage at the new facility on Aug. 22, although if the field is not ready by then the scrimmage will switch to McKinleyville.

If the new field is still not ready a week later, then the Loggers will open the season against Windsor at the Redwood Bowl.

Another change in store for the Loggers this fall is the return to Friday night home games.

The Loggers have played mostly on Saturday nights the past couple of seasons, but after the 2026 opener against Windsor the remaining home games are scheduled for Fridays.

A new look H-DNL schedule this year sees all eight of the league’s 11-player programs face off against each other once each, although only games against conference teams will count in the race for the Big 4 and Little 4 championships.

After hosting Windsor, the Loggers will hit the road to play Shasta before hosting Marshfield in their final pre-HDN game.

The Loggers will also play home games against Ferndale, McKinleyville, Fortuna and St. Bernard’s.

The always popular matchup against their crosstown rivals will take place on the final weekend of the regular season on Nov. 7.