2026 Football Week 0: Six Teams in Max Preps’ State Preseason Top 25

Clear the decks! Football is Back.

A few late schedules have drifted in but most teams, with schools in session, have wrapped “training camp” modes after toiling under hot August skies and gearing for the 67th season of the San Diego Section, which started in 1960.

First games are this week, most on Aug. 21 or 22, although some teams won’t play before Aug. 28 or Sept. 4.

Notes to You:

—Cathedral (11^th), Lincoln (14), La Costa (17), Carlsbad (18), Mission Hills (22), and Granite Hills (25) are in Max Preps’ preseason State top 25.

—Carlsbad is at home vs. Nevada preseason No. 4 Las Vegas Arbor View, which lost its opener, 20-14, to Salt Lake City West.  Arbor View won on road, 45-44, at Lincoln in 2024.

—Lincoln begins at home versus Los Angeles Carson, preseason No. 1 in the L.A. City Section.

—Cathedral’s opener is in Week 2 against Southern Section Trinity League power Orange Lutheran, Max Preps’ preseason No. 9.  Sean Doyle’s Cathedral Dons beat OLu, as it is known by insiders, 71-62, in the 2021 Southern California regional playoff before a 33-21 win over Folsom for the State Division 1 championship.

—El Capitan, seeking a bounce from 2025’s 4-7 season, opens at Hawaii’s Oahu Pearl City, 7-6 last season.  The Vaqueros have a hsratings.com grade of -14.6 to the purple-and-white-clad Chargers’ -32.7.

—Mira Mesa (-29.4) will play the same evening 17 miles east of El Capitan-Pearl City against Kaneohe James Castle (-35.7), a 44-20 loser in its opener to Honolulu Admiral Radford and a 67-0 loser to San Juan Capistrano San Juan Hills in Hawaii Week 2.

—Torrey Pines’ first game is Thursday, Aug., 20, at Radford.

—Army-Navy, 58-52 since 2015 under Nehemiah Brunson but 34-11 from 2022, opens at home against North Las Vegas Career and Collegiate.

The Warriors are ranked 32^nd in the San Diego Section by Max Preps.  The Wolves, 73^rd in Nevada ratings, were 2-6 in 2025, but opened the  season last week with a 26-0 win over Judge Memorial of Salt Lake City.

—Santa Fe Christian, 103-44 (.701) from 2013, when Jon Wallace became head coach, faces Army-Navy in its first league test in Week 5 Sept. 18.

Wallace is tied at 52^nd with Chula Vista’s George Ohnesorgen in all-time wins after joining 54 other coaches with at least 100 career victories.  Sean Sovacool of La Costa Canyon (108-68, .614) is 47^th following the Mavericks’ 9-2 season in 2025.

—Cathedral’s Sean Doyle (251-116-0, .684), whistling in his 31st season, sits No. 2 in all-time victories, with only Herb Meyer (339-148-15, .690) in front. Doyle can catch the late Oceanside and El Camino coach by averaging 11 wins for eight more seasons. Meyer coached 45 years, 1959-2004.

–After 68 years as Chieftains, Clairemont now is known as the Captains.

—At last count there were 20 coaching changes since the 2025 campaign, including a familial connection:

Tim White, after 10 seasons at Borrego Springs and earlier tenures at Julian and Westview, moved to Francis Parker, and Ty White, Tim’s son, takes over at Borrego Springs.  Watching closely is Big Ed White, the proud father and grandfather and should-be Hall of Famer who played 17 seasons in the NFL, the last nine as the right guard in the San Diego Chargers’ Air Coryell attack.

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