Rugby’s Tukker Volk, center, plays quarterback in a football practice drill at Rugby High School Aug. 3. Sue Sitter/PCT

2023 will provide a new look for the Rugby Panthers football team, as they graduated a large senior class and will have a lot of shoes and roles that need to be filled. Coming off a 4-5 season last year, the Panthers have a lot of things to iron out during fall camp and are looking forward to the opportunity of having fresh faces take on new roles.

“It’s going to be interesting because it’s a rebuilding football team. We graduated 14 seniors last year and so, you know, it’s going to be a new look. There are going to be a lot of new faces and a lot of kids who are going to have to step up and play bigger roles than they have in the past couple of years to fill some key positions,” Panthers head coach Travis Risovi said.

Although the Panthers fell short of making the playoffs last year, there were some valuable things the team learned. Most notably, they learned what good leadership looks like from their senior class and the rest of the team bought into it.

“As kids bought into leadership like that, I think that’s something our team will build on this year. More kids will take on that leadership role and it improves your climate and culture around your team. It just builds your program and I think that’s something our seniors really put into this younger group.”

While things will look a little different for Rugby in 2023, the team is keeping similar goals. Their main priority is to make sure they continue to improve and develop every week, then at the end of the season Risovi and the Panthers hope to make it back to the playoffs.

“Going into every year, the goal is to get better every single week and at the end of the year we want to get to the playoffs. Even though we lost a lot of kids, and we have a whole new group playing this year, that’s their mindset. We are going to work really hard every single week and at the end of the year we want to be in the playoffs,” Risovi said.

Among returning players who Risovi expects to make an impact, Austin Schneibel is expected to not only help on the field, but to also hold a leadership role for the Panthers. Micah Musser, Cole Anderson and Hudson Hjelden are all bringing back valuable experience on the line as well.

When discussing what could be a potential strength of Rugby this year, Risovi believes that they can be tough in the trenches, and they have some good athleticism at skill positions. They just have to make sure things come together during fall camp and when they start gaining more experience.

“We have two returning players on the line, but we have all the other positions to fill. We have a nice returning tight end as well in Dane Heidbreder, he will be a good anchor on the line too. We have some kids who have the capabilities of being very good linemen,” he said.

Risovi added, “If we can gel together and learn, I really believe they can become a strength of the team, but there’s some work to be done. At our skill positions, we have some really nice athletes who just don’t have a ton of experience.”

Looking ahead at the regular season schedule, it was hard for Risovi to pick one game that he is most excited for. He mentioned that if you asked the community, there are a couple of games that come to mind: Bottineau and Harvey.

“If you ask around the community and with the tradition of Rugby football, it’s always the Harvey game. There’s always been a great rivalry between Harvey and Rugby. They are pretty close communities, and the kids all know each other and it’s a game everyone looks forward to…it’s the Harvey game and Bottineau game that everyone is going to get pumped up for.”

Fans and community members won’t have to wait long to see one of their most anticipated games of the season. The Panthers opened the season on Aug. 18 when they went on the road to face Harvey. Their next scheduled game is Friday, Aug. 25 at home against Carrington.