New Season Starts for Laramie Plainsmen Football [VIDEOS]

Football season is here! The Laramie Plainsmen make their 2023 debut on Friday in Casper against No. 3 Natrona County.

The game starts at 7 p.m. from Cheney Alumni Field. KOWB Radio (AM 1290) will have live coverage starting at 6 p.m.

The Plainsmen are under third-year head coach Paul Ronga. They went 2-8 in 2022 and fell to eventual state champion Sheridan in the first round of the 4A football playoffs.

Laramie returns two starters on offense and three on defense from a year ago. At least 22 players on this year’s roster saw playing time last season.

LHS went through a dress rehearsal with an intra-squad scrimmage at old Deti Stadium last Friday night. The Plainsmen went through several different scenarios over the 2.5-hour scrimmage session.

Juniors Fisher Frude and Max Alexander spoke to KOWB’s David Settle after the scrimmage about how things went and getting ready for their first game in the video at the top of this story.

Last Friday night, Coach Ronga stressed the importance of getting all their players repetitions, and that was accomplished.

“Everyone played, everyone got on the field, offensively, defensively, (and) special teams. It was a great warm-up and a great prelude for next week’s game (at Natrona). (The) overall performance was good. Seeing everybody playing and going against each other in a competitive format (was key), and one of the most important things, if not the most important, was everyone’s healthy.”

Ronga pointed out the seniors play in the scrimmage and something special guest Travis Deti said to the team at halftime of the scrimmage.

“He called the seniors out. He said you have to be the leaders. This is your team. This is your season. We saw that in Porter Trabing. We saw that in Dakota Ledford, Bodie Livingston, and Levi Crane, an offensive lineman. Very proud of them and their leadership, which is so critical to us.”

The Plainsmen have been using this week to get ready for the third-ranked Mustangs, a team that has won 18 in a row against Laramie.

Ronga felt one area the team needed to really improve in was their acumen.

“It’s film study. We watched the scrimmage, made corrections, and put our plan in for our opponent on Friday (Natrona). There will be more assessment of our players and more scrutiny because the guys that were out there are the ones that will be there. We are no longer in camp mode or try-out mode, we are in season mode.”

Laramie starts the 2023 season with two road games. Their first home game is not until September 8 versus two-time defending state champion Sheridan.

KOWB Radio will broadcast each Laramie Plainsmen game throughout the 2023 season. David Settle returns as the play-by-play, voice of the Plainsmen. He will be joined by Aaron Lozano.