- Since losing to Patterson in 2022, Merced is 20-0 against CCC opponents.
- Key contributors for the Bears this season include Brandon Peele, Tyson Espinosa, Douglas Andrews, and Anthony Tacheira.
After putting together a perfect regular season in 2025, the Merced High Bears enter the 2026 football season with high expectations and standards. The Bears have won the CCC each of the past three seasons. However, these Bears are not focused on the past. These Bears are focused on figuring out exactly what this year’s team can become. “Right now, we’re trying to figure out what kind of team we are,” head coach Rob Scheidt said. “It’s just one day at a time, and then we’ll take one game at a time.”
Last season, the Bears went 10-0 during the regular season and finished 5-0 in league play before their season ended with a narrow 26-25 loss to Vanden in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs. The loss brought a tough end to a Bears team with high expectations.
Now, much of that team is gone as the Bears lost 21 seniors. Scheidt acknowledged that replacing players who graduate is part of the challenge every season. “Every year, you got to replace guys,” Scheidt said. “And this year is no exception.” That turnover means the 2026 Bears will have to develop new contributors quickly, but Scheidt said he is encouraged by what he has seen from the group so far, particularly in terms of work ethic and chemistry. “I like their effort,” Scheidt said. “They give me great effort. They show up ready to work, and I think they care about each other.”
That chemistry is something senior middle linebacker Brandon Peel believes could become one of the team’s biggest strengths. “Success is just us all working together and playing together like we’re having fun,” Peel said. Peel is also approaching the season with a personal goal: Winning Defensive Player of the Year again while helping the Bears remain atop the conference. But he knows the team cannot simply rely on what was accomplished last season. “I feel like we do have a lot to prove,” Peel said. “…we did prove a lot last year, and now we need to prove it this year.”
One of the biggest storylines entering the season will be at quarterback. Senior Derek Guirao, who transferred to Merced High after previously playing for El Capitan High, is competing with two other senior quarterbacks for the starting job, Dominick Duran and Raul Diaz Moreno. Rather than viewing the competition as a problem, Guirao said he sees it as an opportunity for all three players to push one another. “It’s really a quarterback battle,” Guirao said. “We got three senior quarterbacks right now, and I just love every single one of my guys.” Guirao said his biggest priority is competing and finding a way to add to the team regardless of who ultimately takes the spot. “Whoever wins, wins, and if I don’t win, I’ll find a way to contribute to the team,” he said.
The Bears program has been building toward this point for several seasons. Merced finished 8-4 overall and 6-0 in CCC play in the 2023 season. They followed that with a similar 8-4 overall, 5-0 CCC record in 2024 before going 10-1 last season. That recent success has raised the standard inside the program. For Scheidt, the objective remains simple: continue the tradition of Merced Football and compete for a conference championship. “We want to win our conference title and hopefully make a deep run in the playoffs,” Scheidt said.
Peel’s goal is even more straightforward. “My biggest goal is for us to go undefeated,” he said. Guirao echoed that ambition, saying the Bears want to return to the top of the CCC and make a deeper postseason run.
The 2026 season begins with Merced scheduled to travel to Patterson High on August 28th in a non-league matchup. Their first home game will be September 11th against Downey High. This season, the Bears will travel to Golden Valley for the Mayor’s Cup on October 16th and later Atwater High for the Sante Fe Bowl on November 6th, the final game of the regular season.
The Bears don’t appear interested in simply repeating last year’s success. They want to build on it. With a new group of players stepping into bigger roles, embracing the Bears tradition of success, this upcoming season may come down to how well the new class adapts to the biggest roles in the biggest moments.
