Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie CSD Social Media
The Mid-Prairie athletic department is looking to give Dwight G. Sattler Field a literal glow-up. The district and boosters have started a campaign to replace the current scoreboard, which was installed more than 20 years ago and has a non-functioning videoboard, with a new scoreboard/videoboard combo.
According to the district, total cost for the project is roughly $160,000. The athletic boosters are planning a $50,000 donation, the school is donating $15,000 and the district is applying for a $60,000 Washington County Riverboat Foundation grant, leaving the fundraising drive to cover the final $35,000 to reach the goal. Recently, Mid-Prairie athletic director Pete Cavanagh spoke with KCII Sports about the need, the programs that would benefit and how the addition would be installed and useful to the district, “We’re to the point now where, we need an upgrade. We were also looking at getting a video board on top of that. Which would be great for gameday experience, player introductions, advertisements, short videos. All levels of football and track would benefit. One of the things is, when you get a timer to use at track meets, it’s nice to have the live results, right away on the board and this would have the capabilities of doing that. Then of course any other programs that use that area, the dance program, youth sports. It’s something that’s needed, a videoboard would make it that much better. The original polls in the ground from the current board that was installed in the early 2000s would be able to stay, which would actually save us some money on the installation. So they would simply take down the old one and put up a new. A new one would have a slightly bigger footprint. It would have a fixed scoreboard on the bottom with a videoboard on top. It will look very similar to what we currently have, but it will be a better version of it.”
So far, more than $12,000 has been donated for the project. Community members can donate by sending a check made out to the Mid-Prairie Athletic Boosters to:
Mid-Prairie High School
1634 Highway 22
Wellman, Iowa 52356
The goal is to have the total amount raised by May 1st, so construction and installation can be completed before the 2025 football season. To hear the full conversation with Cavanagh check out the March 12th edition of the KCII PM Sports Page available free online at KCIIradio.com. Find out more information about donating by visiting the MP Athletic Boosters Facebook page.