- After three straight seasons of declining wins, Golden Valley wants to change the team mindset around practice, effort, and playing for 48 minutes.
- The Cougars key returning seniors include running back Isaiah Welch, quarterback Gabe Richards, and linebacker Julian Solorio.
For Golden Valley football, the 2026-2027 season isn’t simply about improving a record. It’s about changing the identity of the program. After finishing 2-9 overall and 1-4 in league play last season, the Cougars enter this fall with a different mindset; one centered around changing the culture, increasing intensity and proving that they belong among the top teams in the league.
Head coach Rick Martinez said the biggest goal isn’t necessarily a specific number of wins. “Our biggest goal for our season for us is to kind of change the way we’ve done things in the past and to kind of change culture,” Martinez said. “Because I think that’ll carry over to the wins for us.” That change starts with the little things. According to Martinez, the Cougars have focused on altering everything from their attitudes to the amount of effort they put into practices. The players, he said, have embraced the change. “They really accepted that and they’re up to the challenge,” Martinez said. “And it’s gonna pay off in the wins, I believe.”
Senior running back Isaiah Welch shared his outlook on the upcoming season. “We went two and nine,” Welch said. “We got to show people we’re a real team; we could win despite everything.” For Welch, the changes aren’t just about proving doubters wrong. They’re about turning the work the team has put in throughout the offseason into results. His personal goal is to rush for 1,000 yards while helping Golden Valley win, but the bigger goal is reaching the postseason. “Making playoffs would mean everything,” Welch said. “It would mean all the stuff we were doing over the summer helped.”
Senior outside linebacker and tight end Julian Solorio shares that urgency. “Obviously, we want to improve our record from last year,” Solorio said. “But the main goal is winning league.” Golden Valley’s recent history gives the Cougars a clear benchmark for what they want to become. The program went 8-3 overall and 4-2 in league play in 2022, followed by a 6-5 season in 2023. The Cougars then finished 4-6 in 2024 before dropping to 2-9 last season.
This year, Solorio believes the team has something it lacked last season. “The intensity,” he said. “We have a lot more players this year that are more dedicated and ready to win.” That change is especially noticeable in the way the players describe the team chemistry. Solorio said the Cougars are coming together around a shared objective. “We have one goal, and we’re working to accomplish that goal,” he said.
Welch described his idea of success in a similar way, “Making plays, making blocks, celebrating when we score, and just having fun all together.” The Cougars’ physicality will also be an important part of their identity. Welch believes opponents may look at Golden Valley’s size and underestimate them, but he doesn’t see that as a disadvantage. “They underestimate that we’re very physical,” Welch said. “We’re smaller, but we’re still coming.”
However, there are still areas that need to improve before Golden Valley can turn its offseason confidence into wins. For Welch, tackling and finishing blocks are among the priorities. Solorio shared one of the areas he hopes to improve before the first game, “definitely, our offensive line has been a question,” he said. “So seeing if they can get a push up front. I think that’s our biggest goal for the first game.” Coach Martinez identified a different challenge: maintaining the team’s intensity for the entire game. “Our biggest challenge is gonna be kind of holding on,” Martinez said. “We have to just continue to stay [consistent], play for 48 minutes and not 40 minutes.”
That focus could become especially important once the Cougars reach league play. Golden Valley’s 2026 schedule begins at their home stadium, August 28th against Lathrop, who finished first place in the Western Athletic Conference last year. League play begins October 9th at El Capitan High’s new stadium.
For the Cougars, the 2026-2027 season represents an opportunity to change the ideas surrounding the program. They aren’t promising that last year’s struggles will disappear instantly. Instead, they’re emphasizing the things they can control such as attitude, effort, and preparation. They want to prove Golden Valley can compete. They want to prove last year’s record doesn’t define this year’s team. And most importantly, they want to prove the Cougars are a team of determined athletes who will be strong competitors this season. “I think we need to prove that we can hang with the best of the best,” Solorio said. “Last year, we couldn’t do that, and we have a lot of doubters this year.” For a team trying to change its reputation, those doubters may provide the push the players need to lead them to success.
