The San Joaquin Delta College football season is starting, and for the first time since 2022, Delta is playing at home after the completion of field renovations funded by Measure L. For the last three seasons, the Mustangs have been playing their football home games at Ronald E. McNair High School.
Along with new fields, the Mustangs are playing in a new division, moving from the Bay 6 to the Pacific 7 of the Northern California Football Conference.
“In our situation, we’re moving into a new conference, which is exciting for us,” said Head Coach Gary Barlow. “In athletics, every time the season starts, there is new hope and excitement.”
Sophomore quarterback Ubedei McGautha is leading the Mustangs’ offense. McGautha passed for 925 yards with a 58.1 percent completion percentage, passing 100 for 172 with seven Touchdowns.
“As far as our team, we’ve been building it since spring, and everything, and we have a whole bunch of new players, and just our team chemistry is pretty good, I feel like this new field is also bringing us together,” said McGautha, “Not only is it bringing us together, but it’s bringing the people at Delta together because now it feels like we are a part of the Delta family.”
The Mustangs lost their first game of the season at De Anza 2-21, but are hoping to turn things around at their first home game versus Hartnell on Sept. 6.
“This is going on my third season, so I’ve really been here from when they had the field open right before they closed it and shut it down,” said Defensive Back Nadar Williams, a former Collegian staff writer. “Being back on campus is probably one of the best feelings, especially knowing that you have something that you can call your own, your own home.”
For local students, getting to play on a college field is a refreshing experience from playing on a field that they played on in high school.
“I went to Edison, which is up the street, but we’re playing at a high school that we’ve played at before,” said Williams. “If you live in Stockton, even if you live in Tracy, you’ve probably played at McNair before.”
