Believe it or not, football season is right around the corner.
The softball playoffs have begun and high school baseball’s postseason begins this weekend. That leaves us with a little more than a month before high school football kicks off.
Folks at the Iowa Preps have already begun publishing online information about this upcoming season.
Writers at the website have started to post their preseason all-state teams.
Not every team is done. They have no first-teamers posted yet, and the second-team defense is still not online.
Several area athletes are listed in the other teams.
In Class 2A, Collins-Maxwell/Baxter and Prairie City-Monroe have a total of five honorees so far.
Each school has a second-team offensive selection. CMB senior Archer McFadden is a preseason second-teamer on the offensive line, while PCM senior Noah Clark got second-team recognition as a wide receiver.
PCM’s Clayton Welch and CMB’s Jason Hillgren were both named to the preseason third team as defensive linemen.
Earning a spot on the 2A third-team offense was CMB tailback Blake Coughenour. Roland-Story’s Brett Staton also was a third-team quarterback.
You can bet PCM’s Luke Greiner and Ethan Thomas will be honored somewhere. I’d bet they are both first-team selections.
Lynnville-Sully should get a lot of honorees when the entire Class A list is released. Right now, the only member of the Hawks squad to be honored is quarterback Tyler Van Zante, who was picked to the second-team offense.
Colfax-Mingo’s Wyatt Owens also is a second-team selection as an offensive lineman, while Jimmy Camp was chosen as a third-team defensive lineman.
Montezuma, BGM, Belle Plaine and North Mahaska all have players who have been named to one of the teams that has been released, too.
BGM (LB Eric Weiss and DL Christian Sourley) and Montezuma (QB Logan Price and RB Carson Losure) both have two selections.
BGM wide receiver Jayce Knight has been selected to the Iowa Preps Elite Third Team offense. That’s an all classes, statewide list of the best players in the state.
Iowa Preps also may have given the Newton Cardinal football team some offseason motivation.
The website also previews every district in every class, and Newton’s Class 4A District 4 has been completed.
The site has picked Newton to finish last with Marshalltown selected as the team directly above the Cardinals.
In a surprise to no one, Iowa Preps predicts West Des Moines Valley as the District 4 champion.
Valley quarterback and Michigan State commit Rocky Lombardi as the district’s offensive MVP and Valley’s Ben Campos is the predicted defensive MVP.
Iowa Preps predicted order of finish in the district is as follows: 1. Valley. 2. Southeast Polk. 3. Fort Dodge. 4. Indianola. 5. Marshalltown. 6. Newton.
The popular opinion outside the town of Newton, and maybe even from some in Newton, will be that the Cardinals will struggle in 4A.
But that doesn’t mean Newton has to struggle. Nothing is a guarantee, and a lot of coaches love being in the underdog role.
Newton will definitely be an underdog. Someone has to be.
Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com