Mid-Prairie brings mix of new faces and veterans

There will be multiple new faces leading the charge for the Mid-Prairie football team this year, as the Golden Hawks  look to build on an 8-3 2015 campaign.

The Golden Hawks lose numerous contributing seniors from last year?s squad that moved on to the second round of the playoffs, but head coach Pete Cavanaugh isn?t discouraged about his team?s prospects.

?Graduating those kids was a concern, but we?ve had some younger guys who are stepping up into a new role and they?ve had a good offseason,? Cavanaugh said. ?They?ve stepped up leadership-wise. We?ve had a really smooth first week of practice.?

One of the offensive leaders for the Golden Hawks will be Ricky Vargas, who was the team?s leading rusher last season, after averaging 7.7 yards per carry and scoring 11 touchdowns as a junior.

?(The running game is) going to be important,? Cavanaugh said. ?Ricky has played good varsity minutes, so from that standpoint and our receiving corps, we have some good experience coming. Ricky coming back will give us some great leadership and he?s been great for us so far.?

One area that will be a question mark until the beginning of the year is under center, where the Golden Hawks are trying out new signal callers for 2016.

Ryan Cortum, who held the job for two years before graduating, threw for 1,035 yards and nine touchdowns last year, and the Golden Hawks have a pair of athletes they may turn to throughout the year.

?I think the two guys stepping in are doing a great job,? Cavanaugh said. ?Karson Gingerich, who was our backup last year as a sophomore, is a good athlete and he?s done a good job early on. Tom Butters is competing with him and is athletically gifted and coming along as well. It?s scary when you switch quarterbacks, but both have good heads on their shoulders, so it?ll be all right.?

Helping protect and lead the offensive charge will be a revamped offensive line that Cavanaugh admits might not be the biggest, but he notes they will work just as hard.

?We aren?t super big, but we have kids that want to play well and get after it,? Cavanaugh said. ?We aren?t big but quick, and we have a little bit of depth with seven or eight guys who can play. It looks good right now.?

Defensively, senior Levi Duwa will be the player to keep an eye on. The Iowa football commit had 37 tackles from his defensive end position, with 23 going for a loss, including 13 sacks on the season.

He?s the top returning tackler in front of junior Jason Tew, who notched 34 tackles last year, and Vargas who notched 28.5.

?We are placing a lot of kids at different positions, but our defensive ends with Levi (Duwa) and Jared Miller will be solid,? Cavanaugh said. ?Our linebackers will be solid this year and we?ll be OK. It will all come together.?

With a new district alignment, Mid-Prairie will have a much different schedule this year, with teams like Mount Vernon, Camanche and Northeast in their district, while the rivalry game with Washington will be renewed.

Those challenges, plus a tighter playoff field with only two teams per district qualifying for the postseason, will make things different this year.

?It?s a really tough district we are in,? Cavanaugh said. ?Five of the teams on our schedule were in the playoffs last year and it?s challenging. There are some new teams we haven?t played in years, and Washington?s back on the schedule. It?ll be a good atmosphere.?

The Golden Hawks will take on Highland on Friday night in a scrimmage, before taking on Louisa-Muscatine in the season opener on Aug. 26.