The Warrenton Warriors bring a strong contingent of varsity contributors back this season as they look to improve on last season’s three-win campaign. 

Twenty Warriors who started on the varsity squad last season return this season, as Warrenton looks to build on their strong ending to last season. After dropping five of their first six games to start the season, Warrenton won two of their last three regular season games and finished 3-1 in the GAC North.They earned a district win over North Point before falling to Hannibal in the district semifinals. 

Warrenton held two weeks of high school camp in July and opened fall practice earlier this month. 

“We’ve been working pretty hard this summer, working towards that 1-0 start,” Warrenton linebacker Kadin Stroer said. “Having a good season this season, I think it’s going to come.”

Warrenton head coach Jason Koper thought the Warriors had a good summer in preparation for the upcoming season. He said the Warriors did some good things in scrimmages over the summer. 

While there are changes this season compared to last season, Koper thinks the Warriors were in midseason form in the summer. 

“We’ve retooled our playbook a little bit,” Koper said. “We’ve changed some things up with our returning skill guys. So, we’ve kind of got to work out some kinks yet. We’re doing a new style of offense in some respects this year. That’s new to us, not really new to anybody else, but new to us. So we got to work out the timing of that and we’re getting better every day.” 

With Warrenton returning a high number of contributors from previous years, Koper said the Warriors are able to be more advanced in what they do. It will be easier for the Warriors to communicate on and off the field and make in game adjustments throughout the game. 

Junior Austin Haas brings two years of varsity experience to Warrenton this season. Haas logged 1,388 yards from scrimmage and seven touchdowns last season at the running back position. Haas stressed gaining varsity experience last season will help this season. 

“Having two years of experience under my belt for sure helps us know where we’re at and where we need to be,” Haas said. 

Koper and the Warrenton coaching staff plan to play the best 11 players on offense, defense and special teams. They will have some players that play both offense and defense, especially on the offensive and defensive lines, but will try to keep as many of their players playing one side of the ball as possible. 

Koper harped on the strength of Warrenton’s skill position players. 

“We’ve got some of the best skill that maybe Warrenton has ever seen,” Koper said. “I put a challenge on our line because we know we can make plays on the outside as long as our line does their job on the inside.” 

One of Warrenton’s main goals for the upcoming season is to earn a win in the season opener for the first time since 2017. Warrenton will open the season at Ft. Zumwalt South. Warrenton fell to Ft. Zumwalt South 41-12 last season in their opener. 

“We really were reflective upon last year,” Koper said. “We didn’t execute. We didn’t block well, we weren’t great on our assignments. We weren’t able to move the ball consistently defensively. We didn’t tackle and we played scared to be honest. So we’re really trying to reflect on that. Make those adjustments, get our guys more confident and ready to be in position.”