Raiders will play new, old foes in new football districts
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Less than two weeks after finding out they would play in Class A for the next cycle of district football in Iowa, the Mount Ayr Raiders football program found out last week who they will play for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
There will be eight districts of seven teams for 56 teams in Class A.
The Raiders will play in Class A District 7. Opponents for Mount Ayr in the 2025-2026 seasons will be AC/GC, AHSTW (Avoca), Central Decatur, Nodaway Valley, Riverside (Oakland), and SW Valley.
Football schedules for district teams and non-conference games will be released later.
The Raiders will play two non-district games for eight regular season games. The top-4 teams in the district will advance to the Class A playoffs.
Non-district games will be announced soon as well as the full district games with dates of play.
In the last two seasons, the Raiders were in Class A and made the playoffs both years.
Looking at the upcoming district, three of the seven schools will have a new quarterback due to graduation. AC/GC, Nodaway Valley, and AHSTW all graduate quarterbacks.
Teams with quarterbacks back are Mount Ayr, Riverside, Central Decatur, and SW Valley. Of those Jackson Ruggles from Mount Ayr passed for 975 yards and 10 touchdowns followed by Asher Norman from Central Decatur with 822 yards and 7 touchdowns, Landyn Schoenrock from Riverside with 794 yards and 8 touchdowns, and Wyatt Mendenhall from SW Valley with 412 yards and two touchdowns.
There is only one running back with over 1,000 yards coming back. That is Riverside’s Jaxon Gordon who rushed for 1,932 yards and 31 touchdowns.
Others back are AC/GC’s Joe Crawford who rushed for 991 yards and nine touchdowns, Dyson Thompson from Mount Ayr with 993 yards and 8 touchdowns, and Wyatt Mendenhall from SW Valley with 604 yards and 4 touchdowns.
AHSTW and Nodaway Valley also have running backs back that were considered their second and third ball carriers.
The Raiders will say goodbye to 2024 seniors Trevin Victor, Tyler Martin, Jaize Frost, Garret Walter, Louden Main, Dylan Graham, Tucker Larson, Ethan Johns, and Kash Wasteney.
The Raiders will return 8 juniors as seniors and 8 sophomores that will be juniors next season. 18 freshmen are suited up for the varsity team this year, and a good group of eighth graders will be coming up next year to help build the program.
