Spirited Golden Hawks compete with enthusiasm

By Paul D. Bowker
Posted 6/22/21

The noise coming from Mid-Prairie’s softball dugout was sweet-sounding music to the coach’s ears.

No kidding.

The Golden Hawks, a youthful team with 8th-graders in the starting …

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Spirited Golden Hawks compete with enthusiasm

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The noise coming from Mid-Prairie’s softball dugout was sweet-sounding music to the coach’s ears.

No kidding.

The Golden Hawks, a youthful team with 8th-graders in the starting lineup, were entering the final moments of doubleheader losses at Davenport West, a rising team in Class 5A.

Mosquitoes and bugs were flying all over the place, adding to the misery.

Time to pack the bats and say goodbye? Not for this Mid-Prairie team.

“It’s all about competing. They’re continuing to do it. They never get down. We’re down 12-0, and they’re in there chanting,” Golden Hawks head coach Matt Hoeppner said. “They could have just sat down on the bench, when do we get food? They don’t, and I love it. I just love it.”

The youthful enthusiasm is simply contagious with this squad.

Myah Lugar, a four-sport athlete, is the only senior in the team’s starting lineup and is the starting pitcher most games.

The rest of the lineup is packed with sophomores, freshmen, eighth-graders, along with a junior class that includes Katelyn Schneider, an infielder with a slugging percentage of .464.

Go ahead. Line them up against Davenport West, a rising team in Class 5A. Or Cedar Rapids Prairie and Davenport North, teams that are ranked in 5A. Or Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont and West Liberty, the No. 5 and No. 9 teams in Class 3A.

They don’t care. Bring ‘em on.

Hoeppner looks across the diamond and sees a ranked team that the Golden Hawks will one day become.

“That’s why we’re scheduling games like tonight,” Hoeppner said after the double losses of 11-1 and 13-1 at Davenport West. “This is the level we want you to play at. … Our schedule is littered with ranked teams, but it’s only to get these kids to play at a higher level and see where that level is. That’s where we’re at right now.”

The Golden Hawks are already seeing the fruits of their labor pop up.

A 16-0 win over Bellevue last week produced the most runs scored by the Golden Hawks since 2015. They have already doubled their wins from a year ago.

Dakota Mitchell, an eighth-grader, has a .429 on-base percentage and is tied with freshman Gabi Robertson for the team lead in stolen bases with 14. Madeline Schrader, a sophomore, has a .618 slugging percentage. Landry Pacha, another sophomore, has a .492 slugging percentage and backs up Lugar as pitcher. Freshman catcher Hannah Sellers has started 23 of 24 games, and is one of eight Golden Hawks hitting .300 or better.

But beyond all those numbers is the enthusiasm. All that screaming from the dugout? There’s a reason. They love what they’re doing.

“The biggest thing that these girls do day in and day out, is compete,” Hoeppner said. “They don’t want a day off.”

Eventually, the wins will follow.

“The wins aren’t where we want them,” Hoeppner said. We want more wins, and who wouldn’t? But we’re always competing. We could have given up when it was 12 to nothing. What did we do? We found a way to scratch a run. Then, we were one out away from getting to bat another time.”

Little steps.

And these Golden Hawks are on the way to taking much bigger steps.

 

Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com.  Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul.