The Iowa High School Athletic Association has released the 2020 football schedule for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks. Mid-Prairie will see some longtime rivals in the non-district portion of the slate, and a similar district schedule to 2019. They open the season with Sigourney-Keota at Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman on August 28th. This will be the first meeting between the two programs since 2015 but the 15th all-time. The series started in 1994 with a 40-8 win by the Cobras. SK leads the all-time series eight wins to six losses, but Mid-Prairie has won the last three meetings and five of the last six.

Week two sees the Hawks still at home, this time hosting rival Iowa City Regina. The Hawks have seen the Regals for the last handful of years in the preseason scrimmage during the Golden Hawk football tailgater that kicks off the fall sports season, but have not met them in an official game since 2008 when Mid-Prairie beat the Regals in the playoffs. These two teams first played in 1960 with Regina scoring a 27-20 victory. The Regals hold the lead in the all-time series 11 wins to nine losses.

In week three, Mid-Prairie hits the road for the first time when they make the trip to Mediapolis. This is the first time the Hawks and Bulldogs will square off since a 39-28 MEPO win in Wellman in 2017. The Golden Hawks lead the all-time series with nine wins to just four losses, and took the first game the schools played in 1994 by a 20-14 score.

Week four wraps up non-district play with another road trip and familiar opponent. The Hawks will meet former Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference rival Mount Vernon. These two teams last met in 2017 with the Mustangs rolling through the Hawks 49-0. This year will be their 35th all-time meeting with the Mustangs leading the series 21 wins to Mid-Prairie’s 13. Mount Vernon took the first contest between the two schools with a 19-0 win in 1963. Mid-Prairie head coach Pete Cavanagh spoke with KCII Sports this week about the process of creating a non-district schedule, and the teams his squad will meet in 2020. “We have a date that we have to submit to the state the teams that we would like to see on our schedule. Then the state takes all of that information and generates a schedule. More often than not, you are going to get the teams you put down there but sometimes scheduling dates don’t work out and you end up with some surprises. I contacted some coaches that I knew from the area that we have played in the past. Teams that are maybe a little closer than we have had to travel to in the past. We got what we wanted. I’m pretty excited about it. I think we got some really great opponents and rivalries. We start off with two games at home, the first is Sigourney-Keota, which of course we have a long history with them. After that we host Iowa City Regina, we have not played them in a game in a number of years although they have done a good job the last few seasons coming down and scrimmaging us. From there we go to Mediapolis who was really good last year, then we’re at Mt. Vernon who we played a couple of years ago in district and had one competitive game and another that got away from us a little bit. All good games, all good rivalries. Some old conference foes. With the playoffs now, your strength of schedule is important and all of those teams are coming off of great seasons and have great programs.

While the season officially kicks off on August 28th, Mid-Prairie will host West Liberty on August 21st for their annual scrimmage, tailgater and player auction at Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman.