It’s been a few years since the Badgers faced Gatesville in the regular season. The last time Lampasas took on the Hornets was in 2021. The Badgers managed to come out on top, 41-33, thanks to a strong 27-point showing in the first half.
Five years later, the Badgers are coming off one of their best stretches in the school’s recent history. Last season, Lampasas alumnus and head football coach Troy Rogers in his 10th season at LHS coached the Badgers to another ninewin season. “Quite honestly, this last three-year stretch is the most successful Lampasas has been in a three-year stretch,” Rogers said.
In spite of the success, it has been many years since the Badgers took home a district championship. After the 2025 season, Lampasas was realigned into Region III District 12-4A alongside familiar foes Burnet, Marble Falls and China Spring. In recent years, reigning state champion Stephenville and Jarrell also have become familiar with the Badgers.
Even with the changes in district alignment, the goal for the Badgers remains the same as it has been for the last 11 seasons under Rogers: earn the right to win.
For the coach, that means holding his players accountable to getting at least 1% better each and every day, whether during the season or in the offseason.
“It’s about going out onto the field and winning,” Rogers said. “It’s about what are you doing today? It’s about what are you doing tomorrow? What did you do over the summer? What did you do over the weekend? To me, it’s about being a great teammate. You’ve got to earn it every day.”
Rogers and his coaches like to further that effort with character lessons each week, which are given to all athletes from seventh-graders to seniors.
“If I have a seventhgrade girl and her brother’s a 12th grade football player, they’re getting the same message, and they can go home and talk about it,” Rogers said. “It really helps kind of unite all of that.
“The character side of things is huge, because I mean this is a small snippet of our life,” he said. “What you are as a football player is not who you are. If you’re putting all your eggs in this basket, your whole being is based on football or sports, then you’re missing the big picture.”
That is one of the many reasons why Friday night’s seasonopener is not about Gatesville as much as it is about the Badgers. More specifically, how they are applying the lessons learned and effort applied through the offseason. This is true of all five offensive linemen who return as starters from last season to the new quarterback, sophomore Ross Kothmann, to the new linebackers, even to the long snapper and special teams unit.
The Badgers have played in two scrimmages over the last few weeks, but Rogers doesn’t put any stock in those.
“Scrimmages are practices,” he said. “The kids all know that. It’s literally we’re gonna go and get to practice against somebody else, and that’s what it is.”
That means Friday night’s game presents a completely clean slate for the Badgers, their first test of many throughout the long season. Rogers hesitated to name who he thinks may be the key impact players for Lampasas this season.
“We’ll find out [on Friday],” he said.
At this point last season, Rogers had only six starters returning to his squad. This year, he’s got six returning to the defense and six returning to the offense. Although it is not exactly an indicator of future success, it does lend confidence and experience to the roster as a whole, which has a strong foundation of leadership in those returning players.
Against Gatesville, Rogers expects to see his team play harder than the Hornets.
“We’ve got to be the most physical team on the field,” he said. “I don’t care what’s on the scoreboard. If we fly around and we’re physical for four quarters of football, that’s all I want to see.
“I want to see guys being great teammates, hustling on and off the field,” Rogers said. “That discipline is important because it’ll carry over into that fourth quarter.”
The Badgers will take the field at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Gatesville for their season-opener.