High School Football Preview 2023: Wamego Red Raiders

WAMEGO, KS. (KSNT) - The question for the 2023 Wamego football team is a simple one: how do you replace the production of an incredible senior class?

Especially while riding the high of its first-ever state title game appearance.

With a roster full of college athletes last year - including Army quarterback Hayden Oviatt - it would be easy to count the Red Raiders out. Make no mistake, though, the returners are pretty good themselves.

"We had a lot of guys that could've played last year on our team, we just had a lot of depth," senior quarterback Pruitt Nowlin said. "A lot of young guys that will get the spotlight this year."

"I think these guys are hungry and I think they're going to shock a lot of people," Head Coach Weston Moody said.

With a defense that, excluding the state championship game, gave up less than seven points a contest last year, Wamego will still be ferocious on that side of the ball.

"They're just a bunch of misfits, that's what they try to talk themselves up as. Out here, going against them every day, they're tough," Moody said.

"We're just scrappy," senior linebacker Aidan Hefley said. "Coach Good, shoutout Coach Good, he's probably one of the best we'll ever have. He's bred us since we were freshmen to be like sharks in the water."

Iron sharpens iron, and playing against that defense will make the offense rather dangerous.

"They're the hardest team we'll play, we just got to beat ourselves really. They make us better, shows us what a good defense looks like upfront," Nowlin said.

Boom Town is ready to show last year wasn't a fluke.

"Come back and take what should have been ours. Nothing else is acceptable," Hefley said.