School: Benton Community Bobcats

Nickname: Bobcats

Colors: Royal Blue and Gold

Conference:   WaMaC

Class:   3A

District:   District 2

Co-Head Coach:   Kal Goodchild, Jeff Zittergruen               

Assistant Coaches: Garret Albers, Dan Burke, Chris Frimml, Kyle Goodchild, Josh Hoeck, Colin Waters, Rich Fisher, Colin Buch

Last Year’s District Record:   3-2

Last Year’s Overall Record:   5-5 Playoffs 

Conference/District Champs:   11

Conference/ District Champ Years:   1980, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1996, 2002,  2004, 2006, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2024

Chief Rival:  Vinton-Shellsburg

Number of Returning Letterman:  12

Number of Returning Starters:   Offense 4 = O line- David Jones, Isaiah Franck, AJ Wilson Myles, Sage Edberg, Defense: 2 = Kaden Mitchell LB,  Isaiah Franck DL

Top Teams in District: Clear Lake should be the favored team in the district. They have very good skill kids returning with a couple of returning O line.  They have some returning D line and LB. West Delaware should be a very good team as well. They return some very good plates from last year. I would think that Independence and Iowa Falls will be improved and should have good teams. This district should be very solid. You have traditionally good teams in the district including Benton.

Our non-district will be very tough. Mount Vernon and Solon will more than likely be a playoff team in 2026.    Fairfield has a number of returning starters and will be a top team in their district.  Vinton is our top rival and returns a number of starters and will be improved from a year ago.

Overall Thoughts: We have a challenging schedule. The competition will be very good. We play five teams that were in the Class 3A playoffs last year.  We have had a good off season! Our athletes have worked very hard in the weight room to help make us competitive! We lost a very talented group but returned some very good linemen.