This preview is the second in a series of articles highlighting the local 11-man high school football teams ahead of the 2026 season, which begins with Week Zero on Friday, Aug. 21.
The Dos Pueblos football team will head into the 2026 season with revamped personnel and a chip on its shoulder.
After falling one game short of the playoffs last season and suffering a heartbreaking loss in the CIF-SS Quarterfinals in 2024, the Chargers will look to build off their experience with a bit of a new-look squad this fall.
“I think the benefit of me being here for 6 years and the way our program’s grown is we’re getting to assess kids a couple years out,” Dos Pueblos head coach AJ Pateras said. “I think that’s been the luxury going into this year.
“You’re getting to develop kids appropriately and give them time to learn from older players, and then you can put them into that starting role next year when they’re ready.”
A New Look Squad
Junior Grady Felix (6-3, 210) headlines the team’s retooling, taking over the full-time quarterback role after starting half of the game last season and being used mainly as a change-of-pace QB who can make things happen with his legs.
Pateras is encouraged by Felix’s signs of growth as he steps into the biggest leadership role on the team.
“[Felix] has owned the position,” Pateras said. “Everything we do is around that position. His skills last year and his strengths were already highlighted: he ran the ball really well and effectively.
“This year was about getting better in the passing game and understanding progressions quicker. Now he’s a change in protection at the line of scrimmage. When you start commanding things, you start commanding outcomes. It’s just taking control and ownership of the offense, and he’s done a really good job.”
Felix, a pitcher for the Dos Pueblos baseball team, will now have a chance to showcase his strong arm along with another year of mental and physical development from the offseason.
“Last offseason, I had never played quarterback before, but this offseason I have a season under my belt,” Felix said. “It’s more like building upon things that I’ve learned last year. I’m still learning every day… Everything that I see and hear, I take it and try to build upon it.”
The offense around Felix will have a much different look to it this season, as last year’s leading rusher, Callan Lee, and receiver, Micah Barnhart, graduated in the spring.
The team will now turn to senior receivers Baruc Rios-Guendulain (5-10, 180) and Soren Smedley (6-0, 190), senior running back Chase Johnson (5-11, 200) and junior tight end Holden Brey (5-10, 185) to provide some offensive production.
“We’re going to have a lot of guys, a lot of complementary pieces,” Pateras said. “I think we have a lot of opportunities on offense to force defenses to defend the whole field, and then Grady’s maturation, I think, is going to be the biggest part of that.”
Felix is also excited about the prospect of quarterbacking the offense, and praised the fellow skill position players on their dedication this offseason.
“Guys are reaching out to me to throw on the weekends. Guys are asking me questions, which I love,” Felix said. “We have a lot of really athletic guys at receiver and running back, so this offense is kind of based around me getting the ball to those guys and letting them make plays.”
On the defensive end, the Chargers will be led by the senior duo of linebacker Max Hernandez (5-10, 200) and safety Patrick Sullivan (5-9, 170), with Marcus Carbajal (6-2, 225) and Wyatt Mitchell (6-2, 215) also stepping into larger roles on that side of the ball.
League Title in Sight
The Chargers find themselves in a potentially wide-open Tri-County League, which has qualified four of its six teams for the CIF-SS playoffs in both years of its existence.
What makes this year’s league more of a wildcard is that two-time defending champion Agoura has been replaced by Royal, which Dos Pueblos defeated 19-0 in a non-league game last season.
“Every week, you know you’re gonna get a battle,” Pateras said of the league competition. “From our perspective, we’re thinking league championship. Every year we want to compete for that.
“We’ve seen these teams from lower levels to varsity, and we feel we have a roster and a program that is built to play in this league, and we want to have success and we’re expecting it.”
The Chargers are no stranger to the hard-fought games that the Tri-County League has produced in the past, including back-to-back heartbreaking season-ending losses the last two years.
Last season came to an end on a 16-10 double-overtime loss to San Marcos in the regular-season finale, and Dos Pueblos’ 2024 season ended with less than a minute left on the clock in the CIF-SS Div. 12 Quarterfinals.
While those games ended in defeat, Pateras has seen his program learn from the results and take away as many positives as possible.
“From a motivation standpoint, you don’t have to motivate kids when they can taste a victory or want a victory, and then they don’t get it,” Pateras said. “We have guys in every sport pretty much; like almost 90% of the program does something else, and we have 85% attendance every morning at 6 a.m., coming in, getting a workout.
“That’s been the biggest motivation for me, is seeing the investment of the boys.”
The increased motivation has led to a sense of confidence heading into the season, with Mitchell, a senior offensive lineman and defensive standout, seeing the impact of the end of the last two seasons.
“I think with this senior class coming up, we’ve developed this pretty big chip on our shoulder and we’re all pretty excited to prove people wrong,” Mitchell said. “Agoura is out. There’s no clear favorite as far as I’ve seen, and the championship is there for the taking.”
Dos Pueblos Football Schedule
- Aug. 21 – Dos Pueblos @ Santa Ynez
- Aug. 28 – Buena @ Dos Pueblos
- Sept. 4 – Dos Pueblos @ Santa Barbara
- Sept. 11 – Dos Pueblos @ Village Christian
- Sept. 18 – Crescenta Valley @ Dos Pueblos
- Oct. 2 – Dos Pueblos @ Hueneme*
- Oct. 9 – Dos Pueblos @ Royal*
- Oct. 16 – Santa Paula @ Dos Pueblos*
- Oct. 23 – Fillmore @ Dos Pueblos*
- Oct. 30 – San Marcos @ Dos Pueblos*
* – Tri-County League game
All games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
