The high school football season is still nearly six months away, but already the excitement is building for the upcoming season.
Keokuk and Central Lee will have new teams in their districts when the season kicks off on August 29.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association released its district assignments for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, and there were some pleasant surprises. The association groups new districts every two years.
Two of Keokukapp Class 3A District 4 opponents will change and the Chiefs went 0-4 against the two teams, losing by a combined score of 118-14 to Mount Vernon and 83-14 to Davenport Assumption.
appAbsolutely a good thing to lose Mount Vernon, but at the same time we want to test ourselves against the best teams,app Keokuk head coach Marvin McNutt said. appThose teams were part of our (district) so they represented us. We want to play good teams.app
With Keokukapp fellow Southeast Conference members Fort Madison, Mount Pleasant and Washington in the district the last two seasons, another SEC member comes back to the district in Fairfield.
McNutt will point out one thing in particular to his team.
appThere is no defending champion now,app McNutt said. appWe need to go do everything we can to put ourselves into that hat of a champion.app
Mount Vernon won the district title both of the last two years after making it to the Class 3A state title game in 2022, it went 9-2 in 2023 and 10-2 in 2024, making it to the final four last season.
With Mount Vernon and Davenport Assumption gone, Fort Madison coach Derek Doherty is anxious to get going.
appAny time you shake up the districts, itapp exciting, especially coming from a really rough district the last two years with Mount Vernon and Assumption,app Doherty said. appItapp not going to be easy any year.app
With Fairfield moving to District 4, it reunites Southeast Conference members that all have a long history with their rivals.
There is a lot more excitement when rivalries are posting a new chapter.
The public is more excited, students get pumped and the people that remember this decade or that one get hype. McNutt may not know the history with each member school but he got a taste of a stigma the Chiefs carry.
appI saw what Keokuk means to a lot of other towns and saw how my guys are treated across the area,app McNutt said.
He was given a heads-up about this stigma when he was hired.
appI saw how it was in real time and I was a member of that and it needs to be a new chapter,app McNutt said. appFootball is football. Thereapp always gonna be a lot of that everywhere you go whether you are in the majors or the Pee-wee leagues.app
Southeast Conference clashes with sportsmanship and respect make the games more exciting and that amps up the atmosphere and the environment.
Perennial power Solon is the other appnewapp team in the district, but the Spartans have won the district multiple times.
appThey have fantastic facility, a great program and great history,app Doherty said. app(Head coach) Lucas Stanton will pick up right where they left off. Solon doesnappt rebuild. They reload.app
CENTRAL LEE
Instead of heading west the next two years, the Hawks will be traveling north in a newly configured Class 2A District 6.
Gone are Albia and Davis County, each of whom will head way west to District 7.
Replacing Albia and Davis County will be West Liberty and Wilton, two teams who havenappt been on the Hawksapp schedule for years.
Wilton moves up from Class 1A, where the Beavers went 10-2 and played in the state semifinals.
West Liberty is coming off a 3-6 season and plays on a new turf field.
appThe travel will be a lot better,app Central Lee coach Doug Dodds said. appWe went to Durant two years ago and and we went right past Wilton and West Liberty to get there.app
Joining that trio of teams are West Burlington-Notre Dame, Mediapolis and Mid-Prairie, each was in the Hawksapp district the last two years.
West Burlington-Notre Dame is coming off a season in which it won the first playoff game in program history, while Mediapolis and Mid-Prairie are perennial powers.