When Roland Rangers coach Greg Wise took over the helm at the start of last season, one of the top priorities was to “change the culture” of the program. Wise has started to see that as year two now has arrived.

“They’re hard workers,” Wise said. “They do what’s right. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to switch the culture around. It was a little bit of a struggle last year, but the expectations are there. We need to let them know what the expectations are, and our kids have bought in. We really have great kids right now. They’ve bought into our culture change. We’ve got good assistant coaches who are here preaching the same message. What we preach more than anything else around here, besides doing things right and try to lead them to be great men, is you have to sacrifice. You’ve got to be there for one another. You have to get your priorities where they need to be. The kids have bought into it. The culture is changing around Roland football. It’s been several years since I’ve seen any real positivity with the program. I saw it over the summer. We’re on the right track with the program and the kids we have to make the switch and turn to make Roland football what it should be — and that’s a good football program. We’re on the way. Will we realize that this year? I don’t know, but the point is with the coaches we have and with the buyin from the kids, we’re on the right track. That’s all I want to see right now. I don’t care what’s happened in the past. It’s a new season. It’s a fresh start for them. I’m excited for them, and I’m ready to see what they’re going to do.”

Since there are only four seniors on this year’s team, it will be the junior group, of which there are 14 players, that Wise is counting upon to help lead the Rangers to better success in 2025 after going 1-9 a season ago. The 2025 season will get underway with the traditional “Battle of 64” against the archrival Muldrow Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Friday night at Ranger Stadium.

“We’re going to be younger this year,” Wise said. “We’re going to be loaded with juniors. We have a lot of freshmen coming in, so we’re an extremely young team. Those juniors got experience last year, so that’s promising for us — and something I’m thankful for. We’re not going to be throwing a lot of kids against the wolves like we did a little bit last year. They have some experience. That’s going to be helpful for them. They’re good leaders. We’ve got some kids on our team now that are going to be juniors stepping into these leadership roles. They’re going to be fantastic leaders for these younger guys coming up. You don’t see that every day, and you don’t find them in every program. That’s going to help us out a lot. We’ve struggled the last several years, but we now have kids that are going to be stepping up into leadership roles that these other kids will listen to. These kids we’re going to have in these leadership positions, these other ones listen to — and they’re great kids. The kids are coming in hungry.”

Last fall, then true freshman quarterback Austin Benham was doing very well at leading the Rangers until his injury. Since he is not expected back until the start of, if not into, District 2AI-3 play, Wise is counting on Kayden Hartt and Alex Brant to do the bulk of the quarterbacking duties.

There’s also a chance Roland fans could see Hartt and Brant in the offensive backfield, along with Paul Johnson and Bryson Gunter.

Brant, Johnson, Uriah Phillips and Talen Reese will spearhead the wide receivers group.

If Reese isn’t playing tight end, he likely will play as a tackle.

John Allen will head up the defensive line for the Rangers.

Brant, Cason Perryman and Caden Davidson will be counted upon to spearhead the group of linebackers.

The defensive secondary will see Johnson, Phillips and Derrick Allen leading the way.