The high school football season is now less than three months away.
The three Redlands Unified comprehensive high schools have released their schedules and two of them – Redlands High and Redlands East Valley – open their seasons the third weekend of August. Private school Arrowhead Christian begins its season the same week.
Redlands hosts Citrus Hill of Perris on Thursday, Aug. 21. REV hosts the California Military Institute of Perris the following night.
Arrowhead Christian travels to Yucca Valley on Thursday, Aug. 21.
Citrus Valley does not open its season until Friday, Aug. 29 when it hosts Etiwanda. The Blackhawks have another interesting non-league game on Sept. 26 when they host Shadow Ridge of Las Vegas. The Mustangs defeated Citrus Valley 48-21 last season in Las Vegas.
Citrus Valley had a losing season last year but still plays the most difficult non-league schedule of any Redlands team. (Photo: John Murphy)
Among Redlands teams, Citrus Valley has the most difficult non-league schedule, though its 2024 opponents only went a combined 26-27-1 last season.
“Our program’s past success really determines who will play (us),” Citrus Valley coach Kurt Bruich said. “Teams in lower divisions will usually only play teams in lower divisions and the same is true for higher division teams. We are in a unique situation because we had a down year last season, but most teams who finished in similar divisions still said no to playing.”
Redlands High, after opening the season by hosting Citrus Hill, has an interesting game at resurgent Banning on Thursday, Aug. 28.
A new season spurs new hope for Redlands High.(Photo: John Murphy)l
The Terriers will try to avenge last season’s 31-21 Smudge Game defeat to REV, when it hosts the Wildcats on Friday, Oct. 10.
A quirk of REV’s non-league schedule is that it opens the season against two Perris teams, CMI on Friday, Aug. 22 and at Perris High on Friday, Aug. 29.
REV’s refurbished stadium now has bleachers on both sides, so the Wildcats will no longer have to host some games at neighboring schools.
When it comes to non-league games involving CBL teams, Cajon of San Bernardino has the most interesting one – at Permian High of Odessa, Texas on Friday, Sept. 24.
The Permian High football team was the focal point of Buzz Bissinger’s classic 1990 book, “Friday Night Lights.” It later morphed into a movie and then a television show.
Arrowhead Christian has a difficult game Thursday, Sept. 4 when it hosts Colton and its outstanding junior quarterback Koa Regalado.
Arrowhead Christian Academy takes the field. (Photo: John Murphy)
A third-generation San Francisco native. His first job was in Watsonville, where he wrote stories on a typewriter and people smoked in the office. He's covered Redlands, San Bernardino and Riverside.
