For most people around Lampasas, Homecoming is a week to celebrate pride for the town and celebrate the students who will experience it for the last time before starting on their journeys of life.
The football game is just the incidental, one more way to celebrate.
For Lampasas football coach Troy Rogers, Homecoming is a week where he can test his athletes’ focus and their metal.
“The point of Homecoming is for people to celebrate your hometown and your school and all that,” Rogers said. “It’s really for everybody; it’s not about the football team.
But (the football team), we have work to do, so we’ve got to stay locked in. Our homecoming is not going to be real fun if the guys don’t take care of business. I think our guys understand that.”
Rogers wants his players to enjoy Homecoming of course but also work hard to give the community a show on Friday night that they can be proud of.
“When people are going out of their way to have a parade for you and do pep rallies and all of that, you say thank you and appreciate it,” Rogers said. “There is a time and a place, but when it’s time to be here, it’s time to go and play a football game. We can’t be worried about the outside things. Homecoming brings a lot of distractions, but it’s a great opportunity for our kids to learn how to focus up.”
With this week’s matchup, focus will be required if the Badgers are hoping to extend their wins. The Wimberley Texans are notoriously consistent when they come onto the gridiron. Year after year they are ranked within the top 10 teams of Class 4A, Division 2. They are a hardnosed, physical, blue-collar team, with plenty of athletes who know how to play the game the right way, with equal parts sportsmanship and competitive grit.
Wimberley is 2-0 on the season so far, having beaten Fredericksburg, 28-3, in Week 2 and Long Creek, 56-29, in Week 3. The Texans have returned a near-full slate of starters from last season, including their 15 players to watch in Dave Campbell’s 2026 High School Football preview. From what the Texans have accomplished in those two previous games, they seem to heavily favor running the football over passing. Their MaxPreps page has them with eight players recording rushing yards, with sophomore running back Jakari Washington leading the pack with 84 yards per game. Senior Joshua Belanger has also recorded 80 yards per game in the Texans’ two competitions. Like Lampasas, Wimberley is also bringing a fresh-faced starting quarterback into the mix this season.
Jackson Ketter seems to be making his varsity and starting lineup debut this season, and his performances are drawing some attention. He’s thrown for over 350 yards in two games and five touchdowns, giving the Texans another dimension of offensive threat for opponents like Lampasas to manage.
“It’s gonna be a little different,” Rogers said of the matchup. “I mean, they can throw the ball, but they really like to run it, and we haven’t got to see anyone like that year.
Especially the last two weeks, those teams want to throw the football around, and those have been challenges for us, because we’re going to see people like that in district. I think this team is going to be very similar (to us) in the fact that they want to establish the run. We have to be physical.”
Physicality is one of the several points of emphasis Rogers is making this week, along with playing a complete game. After last week’s game was canceled halfway through the third quarter, it’s not a stretch to think that the Badgers were bailed out of witnessing another second-half comeback from their opponents.
The question of whether or not the Badgers can play good football and take an early lead when they control the pace of the game has been answered, but the question of whether they can hold off their opponents and finish a game is still yet to be seen.
“Can we hold up four quarters?”
Rogers said. “They got big linemen, they’ve got big kids and they’re going to pound on you. It’s going to be a fourquarter fight. That’s what I’m excited to see, is how we’re going to handle that. We’ve dealt with adversity.
We dealt with adversity against Pflugerville Connally, and we didn’t respond real well, we didn’t finish that game. We kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter. We didn’t get a chance to finish the game last week, but we didn’t start out real well in the third quarter. So I think this week is going to be a great opportunity to see if we can play four quarters of football and actually finish the football game.”
With Wimberley’s high-powered, high-scoring offense and its big, athletic and physical defense matching up with the Badgers this week, truly anything could happen at Badger Field under those big, bright lights. One thing is for certain however, it will be a showdown that promises nail-biting excitement for the home crowd on Homecoming.
“We use the term getting punched in the mouth,” Rogers said. “What are you gonna do when you taste your own blood? Are you gonna get scared? Or is git gonna get your fire going? Everyone’s got big talk until it happens to you, and you got to figure out what you’re all about. There is no doubt that Wimberley will be punching us in the mouth, and we’re gonna punch back. We’ve just got to be able to last four quarters, and this is our chance to do that.”