After a long stretch of missing the playoffs, Hiawatha qualified for six of the seven postseasons held from 2016 until 2023.

Last year, the Hawks went 2-7, their lowest win total since a winless 2011. When the season starts at noon Aug. 30 in Galva, they’re looking to get back to the postseason.

“I think we’re more of a team than we were last year,” junior running back Tim Pruitt said. “We’re kind of getting stuff earlier than we did last year. It’s kind of sticking more than it did.

“So I think we’ll be more ready than we were last year.”

The Hawks snapped a 29-year playoff drought with a 7-3 showing in 2016, making the 1A playoffs. They qualified again in 2018, then won a postseason game en route to finishing 9-2 in 2019.

They moved to eight-man in the COVID-19 shortened 2021 spring season, then in the fall went 4-5 but earned an eight-man playoff spot. They also qualified in 2022 and 2023 for the postseason, losing in the first round each time.

Kenny McPeek, entering his third year as head coach, has tweaked some things schematically for the club. Senior quarterback Aiden Cooper said he’s excited for the new system.

“These players are very positive and willing to learn and expand upon what they know,” Cooper said. “It’s fuel for the fire, putting the work in, improve, improve, improve.”

McPeek said most of the changes are minor. One of the biggest is usage, as McPeek is focused on keeping players healthier. He also said offensively the team will operate out of the shotgun a little more than in the past.

But what’s impressed him, he said, is how well the players are adjusting. And the main reason is that turnout at offseason workouts has been very high.

“They already know twice as much as a lot of kids knew going into this point of the season,” McPeek said. “It’s real positive knowing they know more. Are we where I want to be? Are you ever?”

McPeek said the team drew about 17 to 20 players for most of its summer workouts. That’s a credit to a leadership group of not just seniors, but juniors like Pruitt.

“It makes things easier, especially for the younger kids,” McPeek said. “They know who to look to. When you’re looking to a guy, go out to practice, and he’s not there it makes it harder to look to that guy if he’s not around.”

Five starters are back for the Hawks on defense, including cornerbacks Pruitt and senior Isaac Ramangkoun. Senior Michael Hobson is back at linebacker, and sophomore Kamden Rasmus – who saw a lot of playing time at different positions – will take over at middle linebacker for the graduated Tommy Butler, who had 120 tackles in eight games last year.

On offense, sophomore Colby Wylde has grown three inches, McPeek said, and is now 6-1, a solid target for Cooper. Junior Sam Gomoll and senior center Alex Panzer return on the offensive line.

Pruitt said the team has already made strides compared to last year.

“We kind of started earlier,” Pruitt said. “New offense, kind of fix some things we had problems with last year. I think that’s why we struggled a lot last year.”

Just as practices were starting in early August, both Danville Schlarman and Rockford Christian announced they would not be playing varsity games this year, leaving the Hawks with holes in Weeks 6 and 7.

In theory, the team Schlarman had scheduled could play the team Rockford Christian had scheduled to fill in any holes. However, that’s Rockford Christian Life in both weeks. The teams are scheduled to play in Week 4 this year.

Hiawatha beat Christian Life 6-0 in Week 1 last year.

“I think we got nailed a little harder to the wall because of the back-to-back and the same opponent,” McPeek said. “Hopefully we can at least get one of them reconciled and have at least one game of the two, if not both.”