'Find A Way': Plainsmen host Natrona County to begin season

Aug. 26—LARAMIE — Last season it was "Build."

This season it's "Find A Way."

The team slogan, branding and theme for Laramie High football is a continuation from the first season to the second with coach Paul Ronga at the helm of the Plainsmen.

"Find A Way" in maroon and gold appears on just about anything and everything — wristbands, T-shirts, stickers and much more.

Ronga came to Laramie shortly before the start of last season after an extensive coaching career throughout the state of New York. Last year's Plainsmen sported a new look with a lot of changes, including jerseys and helmet designs. This season will be less about newness and more about improvement, starting with the slogan.

"It's off of the premise of last year, which was 'build,'" Ronga said. "We put the structure down where we were looking to build a program, build a foundation. Now we're looking to 'find a way' to get better with what we built and to improve where we are in everything that we are doing."

One of the major differences from the two seasons is instead of Ronga having about five weeks to prepare for the start of football, he had an entire offseason of thinking solely about the program and preparing for the future.

"(It was) an opportunity to assess the entire program as a whole — to analyze it, spend more time on it and find ways to make it better," he said. "A lot of it was done in the weight room, offseason workouts, conditioning, hiring a strength coach and also tweaking what we do with football itself. Most notably, an entire new defense has been put in and half of the offense has been changed.

"It is year two, but it is still kind of year 1.5 so to speak because we are still growing and still learning. Having a year to do this made it simpler for us because of the time. Last year, there was no time."

The more important time has arrived as the Wyoming Class 4A football schedule begins, and Laramie hosts Natrona County at 6 p.m. today in Deti Stadium.

It will be the first look at this season's Plainsmen after an offseason spent like no other in the recent history of the program.

"Some of this stuff, it's the first time this has ever been done — first time anyone has ever seen this, heard this or went through this," Ronga said. "We had a 7-on-7 scrimmage against Poudre High School in Fort Collins (in May) and a 7-on-7 team scrimmage at the University of Wyoming, getting us on that field."

Other offseason voluntary preparations included weight training, strength tests, conditioning tests, camps and clinics.

Laramie was 1-8 last year with its win being a 42-19 contest at Cheyenne South in the second to last game of the season. It snapped a nine-game losing skid that dated back to 2020.

The four Plainsmen co-captains are seniors Mahlon Morris, Abraham Bangoura, Jessie Cruz and Reese McIntyre.

"It's fun, and been a longtime coming," McIntyre said about being a senior captain. "We've waited to be able to be the team leaders for a while. It's also surreal because it went so fast, so we can't take it for granted this year.

"We've got a good group of senior guys," the outside linebacker said. "We communicate well, work well together as a team and have fun. I think we can be something special this year on the defensive side."

Cruz plays right tackle on offense, and mentioned "we are really coming out strong this year — better than last year for sure with a better run game."

It was no secret significant injuries hampered the Plainsmen last year, starting from day one of fall camp and lasting to the end of the season with just enough players to field a team. Ronga and his staff are already pleased with how the offseason workouts already are showing signs of preventing that issue since official practices began Aug. 8 without pads and Aug. 11 with pads.

"The biggest thing we found out and discovered versus where we were a year ago is that the attrition rate has dropped dramatically," Ronga said. "Last year, we dropped daily and weekly, and our numbers were so thin. This year we are exactly where we are since the first day.

"One of the reasons behind that was the emphasis on offseason conditioning and working out — getting our players bigger, faster and stronger. They've come in better shape and more prepared for the rigors of football. As a result, they are less prone to injury and it's a huge difference."

Without giving away specific game plans or diving into x's and o's, Ronga said the following for what to expect from the Plainsmen in all three phases of the game — offense, defense and special teams.

Offense

"Offensively, what we are looking for is to improve upon something we were worst in the league last year, which was running the ball," Ronga said. "That is difficult because it involves patience, execution and players who are versed and skilled in terms of dominating the line of scrimmage. With that said, we are going to make an effort to do that.

"Other than that, we have skilled players who are good athletes and can do different things. We are pretty much a hybrid offensive unit."

Last season, the Plainsmen were ninth in the 10-team 4A with 234 yards of total offense, and 10th with 75 of those rushing. Passing was fourth at 159 yards.

Defense

"Again, better athletes who are skilled and conditioned to run the defense we are running, which is now linebacker orientated — less linemen, more linebackers to be more in-tune with the Laramie-type athlete for football," Ronga continued.

"We are looking to have more improvement there with the main thing of giving up less big chunks of yardage. Many times last year we gave up home runs and huge gains. We are looking to minimize and stop that with our linebackers chasing ball carries down."

Last season, the Plainsmen were ninth in overall defense, giving up 391 yards — 258 on the ground (ninth) and 133 through the air (fifth).

Special teams

"We lost our kicker and all-state punter Talon Luckie (graduation), but we have a soccer kicker (junior Tyler Ennist) in place of him we feel very comfortable with and he is like Talon. We are looking forward to having Tyler as part of our program full-time.

"We also look to be smarter with special teams and be more skilled to execute our assignments better. Last year, there were some positive signs, but also some very negative signs we definitely need to change."

The Mustangs

Natrona County finished at 7-4 last season and advanced to the 4A state playoff semifinals before a 38-24 loss to eventual champion Sheridan. The Mustangs have long been considered part of the "big four" in 4A along with Sheridan, Cheyenne East and Thunder Basin/Campbell County (before Gillette added Thunder Basin as a second high school in 2017). Rock Springs also cracked the "big four" by playing in the championship game last season, losing to Sheridan 45-27.

Natrona recently won state titles in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2018.

"We know they are (known as) a powerhouse," Ronga said. "Our mission and goal is for us. It's a home game and we had no success last year at home. So we want to have a better product on the field for our home fans and give them something to feel good about and for ourselves something to feel good about.

"Natrona is just a means to an end. They are a powerhouse and always will be ... our concern is making ourselves the best that we can be and put the best product we can on the field."

David Watson is the WyoSports assistant editor. He can be reached at dwatson@wyosports.net or 307-755-3327. Follow him on Twitter at @dwatsonsports.