YUBA CITY, CA (MPG) - The 2023 Yuba City Honkers football team lost a lot of speed from last year’s roster, but gained a ton of strength all throughout the program as they enter their final season in the Capital Valley Conference.

Yuba City will move to the Foothill Valley League beginning in the 2024 sports season due to realignment, but that isn’t going to stop Honkers head coach Willie Burns and his staff from making one last splash in the CVC. Burns expressed to the Dispatch that the “Yuba Tough” mentality will be put on full display this season.

Burns told the Dispatch the “Yuba Tough” mentality is being able to handle adversity both physically and mentally.

“When things are at their worst, we should be at our best,” Burns said. He added they should be able to drive and push through everything.

In their post season win over Vista Del Lago last season, it was a surprise for the people who had never been around the program and based them off their 4-6 regular season record last year. Brown expressed that those people don’t realize how much each team in the CVC beat up on another.

An example of how tough the CVC is even though Antelope won the division with a perfect 6-0 league record, four of their wins were by one possession. Every other team in the CVC had at least two losses throughout league play.

There is no question the Honkers lost big talents with the likes of 2023 alumni Nick Afato (UC Davis) and Noah Dunham (Washington State) but Burns said they are going to be better overall than last season.

2024 quarterback DJ Atwal will be taking the snaps full time as he shared some of the duties last season with Afato.  Atwal expressed to the Dispatch that he did a lot of work in the weightroom, and they were consistently getting a ton of reps in to get ready for the season.

“We brought in some team culture this season and the work we did with the seven-on-seven went well,” Atwal said.

Atwal added that the goal of winning a league title and a section are obvious goals, but everyone has to be locked in from the top to bottom for those to be entertained.

Atwal completed 30 passes for 313 passing yards last season.

Burns bragged about his defense being better than it was last season in excitement, but you can’t blame him. Burns expressed to the Dispatch that last season most of their defensive flaws consisted of being beaten over the top in the secondary.

With one of the many additions to this Honkers’ squad, the 2024 wide receiver/defensive back is exactly what Burns needed in the secondary.

The 6-foot, 4 inch athlete is going to give opposing receivers issues and is able to get any ball going up top whether it’s on the offensive or defensive side of the ball.

Butler is excited for a fresh start as he is a transfer from another school in the district. Butler expressed that he likes the environment better and adjusting to his teammates isn’t an issue, as he is familiar with a lot of the defensive guys playing rugby with one another.

The defensive anchor for Yuba City is 2024 middle linebacker James Garceau. Garceau said that a lot of the Honkers’ benefited from the summer weight training program to increase their strength and speed.

As Burns previously told the Dispatch about the Yuba City defense being better than last season, Garceau agreed and explained that they got better in every way.

“We have seven returners from last season, we got better in the DB room and the experience of all of that put together makes us better as a group,” Garceau said.

Garceau had 70 tackles and 8.0 tackles for loss last season.

Yuba City schedule presents another tough competitive road towards the postseason as they look to make it back-to-back years.

The Honkers will have eight games this season against playoff teams from last season and continue that “Yuba Tough” mentality of playing whomever anytime and anywhere.

The newcomers in the preseason schedule for Yuba City welcome Natomas (Sacramento) and Galena (Reno) in the first couple weeks of the season. The Honkers end the preseason on the road playing two decent Northern Section teams in Pleasant Valley (Chico) and Chico before starting their last year in the CVC conference.

The Mayor’s Cup returns this year after a brief absence in 2022 due to River Valley having to forfeit their season. All eyes in Yuba City will be set on the Falcons and Honkers look to hold onto the trophy as they have since 2016 the teams meet up on Friday, October 27 at Yuba City.