Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — With two co-conference championships in the past three years, the St. Bernard’s Crusaders will be hoping to secure this year’s Big 4 outright.

And head coach Matt Tomlin may just have the players to do that this fall.

The Crusaders have graduated two All-League defensive ends from last year — a duo of Kolton Hall and Jahseree Bailey that combined for 35.5 sacks in 2025 — but there’s plenty of returning talent on this year’s roster, and that might be enough to secure a first-ever Big 4 title outright for there program.

Avoiding a lot of injuries, however, will be key if they are to achieve that.

“We lost two good defensive ends, but we’re returning a lot of players,” Tomlin said. “We have a very talented team coming back. We just don’t have a lot of depth, so we need to stay healthy.”

While many of their peers around the North Coast have been busy preparing for the upcoming season this summer, the Crusaders had eight nights of seven-on-seven passing league but opted not to overburden the players in order to keep them fresh for the fall.

That’s a policy Tomlin believes in, especially at a small school where most of the players are three-sport athletes.

However, they will be back together on the first mandatory day of practice on Aug. 10, and with an opening weekend bye that will give Tomlin and his coaching staff plenty of time to prepare for their season opener on Sept. 5.

And it should be a fun season opener, going up against perennial North Coast Section powerhouse St. Vincent de Paul, a team that finished 11-2 last year, losing to Ferndale in the section championship game.

The Crusaders will then host Heritage the following weekend, before closing out their pre-league schedule at Sacred Heart on Sept. 18.

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.

And the Crusaders expect to be in the mix on the final weekend of the Big 4, when they travel to play crosstown rivals Eureka at the newly renovated Albee Stadium which has a new all-weather field.

The Crusaders will also scrimmage at the new Albee Stadium, along with the rest of the league’s teams, on Aug. 22, providing the new field is ready by then.

If not, the scrimmage will be moved to McKinleyvlle.

Either way, Tomlin is expecting a battle in the race for this year’s Big 4 championship.

Perennial contenders Fortuna should be strong, while Del Norte welcomes back head coach Nick White, who returns to the sideline for the first time since 2022.

The Eureka Loggers, despite their struggles in recent years, also should be in the mix after fielding a competitive JV team in 2025.

“I think there’s great parity in the Big 4,” Tomlin said. “And I do believe anybody can win it this year.”