The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk girls soccer program enjoyed a resurgent season in 2019. The Hawks were 10-4 a year ago, their first winning record since 2013. Mid-Prairie started slowly, sitting at 2-3 through their first handful of games but turned it on in the middle of the year, stringing together eight consecutive victories, scoring more than six goals per match on average during that stretch. Mid-Prairie saw their tournament run come to an end in strange fashion when weather forced the early stoppage of their playoff game against Holy Trinity.

Last year’s edition of the Hawks was led by Julia Boller who stormed on the scene as a freshman with 19 goals, second most in the River Valley Conference. She also led Mid-Prairie and the RVC with 10 assists. Esther Hughes led the Golden Hawks in opportunities with 59 total shots on goal. Sophomore Emily Swartzentruber and freshman Ainsley Lueck each spent time in goal last year. Swartzentruber accounted for 765 minutes of game action, 57 saves and a 71% save percentage. Lueck was on the line for 342 minutes with 27 saves and a 68% save percentage. Another advantage for Mid-Prairie this year will be depth and experience. While still young, with the majority of their team sophomores and juniors, the Hawks lost just one player off of the entire roster from a season ago due to graduation. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Justin Barthelman talked about the 2020 edition of Golden Hawk girls soccer. “We’re sitting around 22 to 26 girls in the program this year. Julia Boller is a forward for us. She had a big year last year with 19 goals and 10 assists. Esther Hughes was an all-district selection for us last year as a midfielder/forward. Kaitlin Martin, Evelyn Gerber, and the rest of that freshman class were all big contributors for us. Gerber runs the defense and controls the middle. We also have some important seniors this year in Libby Baker, Aubrey Fay and Ingrid Gingerich. They have put in their time with program, started a lot of matches and are great leaders.”

The state athletic organizations have set a tentative date of May 1st for a return to practice and May 4th for competition following the COVID-19 activities shut down.