Dog Days: Louisiana putting in the summer work, seeking winning season

Published 12:25 pm Tuesday, August 4, 2026

LOUISIANA, Mo. — The Louisiana Bulldogs have put in a lot of hard work over the summer as the team works to build up the football program.

While the numbers aren’t as high as Louisiana would like, the Bulldogs feel like their returning players have matured with the experience gained over the past year.

“I think those sophomores have matured quite a bit going into their junior year,” said Louisiana head coach Steve Gschwender. “I wish my freshmen class was bigger, but that’s the case with small schools.”

Gschwender is entering his third season as Louisiana’s head coach in his second stint with the school, and is joined by his father, Tony Gschwender, who is an assistant coach. Jack Logan is also an assistant as well.

The Bulldogs only won one game in Gschwender’s first season in 2024 and improved by two wins last season. They are hoping to make another leap forward in 2026.

“That’s definitely the plan,” said Gschwender. “I think we can do much better than we did last year, but that depends. People have to show up and care all the time. It’s tough. You can’t just have seven or eight guys on the field that care.

What we are looking for is 11 dudes that want to show up and care.”
That’s been the main message in camp — to show up, work hard and continually improve.

“It’s going great,” said Louisiana senior middle linebacker and fullback Ben Settles. “We are a little short on people. If everyone started showing up, it would be a lot better.”

Louisiana won its first district playoff game since 2022 when it defeated Veritas 42-7 in the first round last season.

“We made a pretty good improvement towards the end of our district games,” said Louisiana senior running back and outside linebacker Troy McDaniel. “We came together as a team pretty good.”

There were some growing pains throughout last season, with Louisiana losing the opener to Scotland County by just three points.

“Last year, we lost to Scotland County in the last minute just because we were dog tired, and had a lot of young kids in there and we were facing an experienced team,” said Gschwender. “They took advantage of that when they were driving. We could have easily won four or five games last year, but inexperience seems to bit you more often than not and we had a lot of sophomores on the field last year.”

The Louisiana upperclassmen have been working with the younger players in camp.

“We got some younger guys that are stepping up and I like to see that,” said Louisiana senior center and defensive lineman Troy Miller. “Sometimes they ask questions, so it’s nice to see them asking questions and learning. I think they’re going to have a pretty good look because they are going to play up this year. I’d like to see some older guys come out, but this is what we got and we’ll make do with it.”

There has been a positive outlook on the upcoming season in summer camp.

“I’ve seen a lot of leadership and a lot of motivation,” said Settles. “Everyone just seems like they want to win this year.”

The Bulldogs will have to navigate through an Eastern Missouri Conference that was won by North Callaway last season, and includes district champion Montgomery County.

“North Callaway is going to be strong again this year,” said Gschwender. “Montgomery County always seems to reload, and I think Bowling Green will be pretty decent. Everyone else seems to be in kind of rebuilding year. Wright City and Van-Far lost a big class of seniors. I coached Van-Far’s (seniors) when I was there coaching and they finally graduated.”

Last year, Louisiana went 1-5 in the EMO Conference and they know the path to winning is improvement within conference play.

“I think if our defense is just as good as it was last season and our offense makes more plays together, then we can win more games,” said McDaniel. “We can have a winning season and maybe even be district champs.”

The Bulldogs have not had a winning season since 2005, something the players are eager to change.

“I want to be district champs,” said Settles. “Have a winning record, which would be the first one in 20 years. It would be really important because it would be the first time in decades. Everyone would celebrate that for sure. Everyone thinks that we’re not as good as we should be, but this year we are going to show them.”

The players know how important a winning season would be to the Louisiana community.

“It would mean everything to the school and the town,” said McDaniel. “I don’t know if anybody knows when the last time we had a winning record was, so it would mean everything to us.”

Getting their first win as soon as possible is a priority for Louisiana, so it doesn’t fall in an early hole.

“Getting the first win would definitely set a tone,” said Miller. “It would get us all pumped up for the rest of the season. That would be awesome to see.”

Louisiana opens up the season with a home game against Grandview (Hillsboro) on Friday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.

“I couldn’t describe how much I’m looking forward to it,” said McDaniel. “I don’t have any words to describe it. I’m ready.”

The Bulldogs will travel to face Winfield on Sept. 4 and Van-Far on Sept. 11, before returning home to host Wright City on Sept. 18. Louisiana will then travel to face Bowling Green on Sept. 25 and North Callaway on Oct. 2.

Louisiana will hold homecoming on Oct. 9 against Highland, travel to face Mark Twain on Oct. 16 and host Montgomery County on Oct. 23 in the regular season finale.

“I’m pretty excited for this season,” said Miller. “I think we have a pretty good shot. We’ve been playing together for a while. A lot of us older guys have been playing in our spots for a while, and I think we will have a pretty good season.”