If you get to a Mid-Prairie boys basketball game early, you’ll notice that the warm-up shirts the Golden Hawks wear before tip-off have a simple but poignant message; “Make History”.
So far this season, the Hawks are making those words a reality in Wellman and Kalona. Mid-Prairie enters the Christmas break with a 7-0 overall record. It is the sixth time in program history the Hawks have gotten to the holidays unscathed and the first time since 2003-04. Their current seven game winning streak is the longest for the program since a string of nine straight victories during the 2009-10 season that led Mid-Prairie to the state tournament, their most recent trip to Des Moines.
Historically, game eight of the season has been a stumbling block for the Golden Hawks, with three of those undefeated campaigns ending in the eighth contest of the year. If Mid-Prairie were to get the victory in their next game, January 4th against Wilton, it would be the second best start to a season in Golden Hawk history, and their best in 31 years…another step toward “Making History”. This week, senior guard Will Cavanagh talked about the team’s focus, what has them playing so well, and what it means to make history. “We’ve got a little bit more experience from last year. We have a lot of guys back. We’re pretty confident. We’re rolling right now. We all trust each other and we’re playing as a group. If we can continue to play defense like we have that’s a big goal of ours. This is a great group. We’re all super competitive. I don’t have to worry about other guys not going 100% in games or in practice. It just raises everyone’s level. There’s kind of an edge, an expectation that’s been set. I’ve really enjoyed this team. I’m excited for the rest of the year. I think the Kansas City trip really helped us. In the game, the other team went on a run and we had to bunker down and hold them off and we did that. I think it was really a big moment for us to see how tough we are. When we were growing up there were some good Mid-Prairie teams when we were younger, but there had been teams that hadn’t won a lot of games. This year we have the group of guys that can do it. It’s been a spoken and unspoken mindset. We had a team meeting at the beginning of the year about what we wanted to accomplish. We have a job to do. We want to go get it done. We want to make history. We want to win a conference championship, we want to go to state.”
You can hear the Golden Hawks try to take that next step against the Beavers Tuesday live on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com from Tim Grady Gymnasium in Wellman beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 5:30, tip of the girls game at 6p.m. and the boys to follow.