RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — After winning back-to-back state championships in 2021 and 2022, every member of those two East-Buchanan teams has now graduated as head coach Dan Ritter enters a new era of Bulldogs football.
“I think we’re a better team than we were last year,” Ritter said. “A lot of people would disagree with that because we had a few seniors that were really good that left. … I think all around, if we can avoid the injury bug this is going to be a better team.”
Last year’s 4-6 record was the first losing season in Gower since 2019. Mid-Buchanan is the favorite in the KCI Conference, but rival East-Buchanan is a close second and could give the Dragons fits in a strong matchup of the longstanding rivalry.
“We start out with Mid-Buchanan our very first week (of conference play),” Ritter said. “Teams like West Platte, a semifinal team last year and Lawson had some dominant football last year. So there’s just really good teams all around. If we’re going to compete, we have to do the little things right.”
There won’t be much time for East-Buchanan to figure things out once conference play begins. The Bulldogs host rival Mid-Buchanan on Sept. 11 before traveling to Lawson the following week, giving the young roster two early tests against teams expected to compete near the top of the KCI.
First-team All-KCI senior linebacker Landon Smith leads the way for the returners, while multiple Bulldogs step into new roles. Junior Remington Musser takes over at quarterback and brings back KCI honorable mention and all-around athlete Kohen Brown.
“It’s fun, me and Remi have been playing for a long time now,” Brown said. “Youth football, we’ve been playing together. It’s fun now to get to run routes for him.”
Ritter, entering his seventh year, runs a tight ship at East-Buchanan. The Bulldogs have seen plenty of success under him and expect players to rise to the occasion this year as they look to get back to a winning record.
For Ritter and the Bulldogs, getting back to winning also means living up to a standard that was set not long ago. East-Buchanan went 14-1 in both 2021 and 2022, winning consecutive Class 1 state championships. Those players may be gone, but the expectation they created remains as a new group looks to begin their own run.
“We have a couple upperclassmen that are going to step up this year,” Ritter said. “I think Kohen Brown and Landon Smith are going to have to be dogs for us if we’re going to be good. And we have a bunch of underclassmen I just don’t want to mention them right now, I want them to earn it.”
East-Buchanan hasn’t beaten a team over .500 since defeating Penney on Oct. 4, 2024. The Bulldogs will look for that to change this year, with KCI play starting in Week 3 and continuing through the end of the season.
“Playing against these better teams, they’re going to come at us, we got to come back,” Smith said. “We’re going to have to do what we can to beat them and keep moving on.”
On the offensive side of the ball, East Buchanan has weapons. Musser, Smith and Brown lead the way, while senior Cavin Stephens anchors the offensive line. The Bulldogs could look to get more involved in the passing game this season with the influx of young, versatile athletes. However, with Smith receiving conference honors at running back last year and an offensive line to clear the way, Ritter has options for how he wants to attack defenses.
“I think we can do a little bit of both,” Ritter said of the run and pass. “The offense that we have is dynamic to where we can run and we can pass. So, we don’t have to be set in stone one way or another. Obviously the run opens up the pass and vice versa so we got to develop both of those aspects if we’re going to be good.”
For East-Buchanan, this season is less about recreating the teams that won back-to-back state titles and more about establishing what the next era of Bulldogs football can become. With new faces stepping into bigger roles and a difficult conference schedule ahead, Ritter’s group will have an early opportunity to show that last year’s losing season wasn’t a setback but instead the start of something new.
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