Prairie shooting for state

Editor's note: Mike Gunn is a junior at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School serving an internship at The Gazette through Kirkwood's Workplace Learning Connection.

By Mike Gunn, Prairie junior

CEDAR RAPIDS - This could be Cedar Rapids Prairie's year.

After losing in the substate finals two of the last three years, the Hawks boys' soccer team is a team to watch this year.

Many key players return from a team that lost to Class 3A state champion Iowa City West in the substate final, including Logan Rinderknecht, Sam Mineck, Seth Rinderknecht and Alec Balta.

The state tournament is the goal this year.

'Last year was pretty good, but we didn't want it to end that way.” said junior Sam Mineck.

Leadership from those returning players will be one of the biggest differences for this year's team, according to Coach Curt Lewis.

Through 7-vs.-7 leagues, a UNI tournament, Prairie Performance Agility Program, plus open gyms and running workouts, Lewis believes this team is more prepared for the 2015 season.

These additional team workouts help build a higher fitness level for the team, which Lewis said was one of the team's main goals.

The team plans on winning 10 games, capture a conference title and be ranked all season. Prairie is good enough to receive a first-round substate bye, and finally qualify for state.

'I think we'll be pretty good this year,” Mineck said. 'We have a decent amount of underclassmen coming up and a solid back line.

'We'll be set to go this year all around.”