We begin our countdown of top 10 sports stories from the last school year at Mid-Prairie with a look at facilities improvements for the athletic department.

In April, Mid-Prairie opened the new activities center just behind the press box at Dwight G. Sattler Field. The building has several different functions including serving as the new weight room for the high school, with a focus on efficiency. The design, based on similar buildings at Iowa City High, Decorah, West Delaware and Dallas-Center-Grimes, features six double-racks with a station on each side, allowing for as many as 48 athletes to use the racks at a time. Alongside new equipment bought for the facility, equipment from the old weight room was either sold or refurbished.

The facility also includes a new wrestling room with an open plan layout to accommodate three full size mats at once. Along with the competition space, there are restrooms, coaches offices and an automatic UV sanitizing light system. The new area allows the district to have all levels of its wrestling program practicing at the same place. The wrestling room can also be used as an extra space for training exercises.

The third phase the new building allows is for a fully-functional concession stand, storage and bathrooms behind the home bleachers for events at Dwight G. Sattler Field including football and track. The area between the press box and the building has been paved for accessibility. 

Construction began at the end of the 2024-25 school year and was funded by an $8.7 million bond the community passed in 2023. Our top 10 countdown of sports stories at Mid-Prairie continues Tuesday when our #9 story takes us to the soccer pitch.