Varsity season had its ups and downs throughout this 2023 season. Their season was full of injuries, but they prevailed from the snap of the ball to the whistle being blown. “We persevered… we made changes and we kept fighting as hard as we could,” says Owen Wilbur. Offensively, they worked through the clock and fought through each drive swiftly as they could. “I think we did fine. We did what we could. We definitely had some struggles, and [we were] missing people that were key parts of our offense, but I think with what we had, we performed well.”

Defense wise, they executed their plays on track and kept the opposing offense on their feet. With people being out due to recurring injuries Varsity still found ways to improve on both sides of the ball. “We weren’t as confident through the middle of the season, but as people started to get healthy again we started to gain confidence again and started to play better.”

They finished the season 3-7 and aside from the struggles with missing and hard work Varsity made memories that’ll last forever.

The JV Football team tried to build up from how they performed last year and focus on improving. From the first game of this season to the last, the team never quit fighting. “We definitely got a lot better down the road offensively,” stated JJ Brawling. There were some changes that we made probably around halfway through the season going under center.” Defensive wise, the team had good coverage throughout the season and worked together well. Brawling stated, “Our guys kept us in many games that we should’ve helped them out on. On offense, they did a really good job this year, kept a lot of teams scoreless and it’s great when you have a good defense because it makes your job a little bit easier.” JV finished out the season 6-3 on the way to improvement going into next years varsity. 

With this season ending, a new chapter begins for Ripon High as football players work this off-season to improve their craft to the best of their abilities. Their dedication and determination promise an exciting future for the team, as they aim to be better than before as well as achieve even greater success in the seasons to come.