Our odyssey through the 12 high school football districts involving area teams continues with a gander at Class 3A District 5.

Oskaloosa, Washington, and Fairfield are in this eight-team district that should be wide open in 2016.

Class 3A differs from Class 4A, as there are only seven districts with eight teams each. The top two teams from each district will advance to the playoffs with the top two teams who finished 3^rd in their district qualifying as wild cards to fill out the 16-team bracket.

Washington had the best record of the eight teams in District 5 in 2015, going 7-2 in the regular season before being upset by Solon in the first round of the playoffs, 17-14 in overtime. Solon is also in District 5, and after bowing out in the second round at West Delaware, 37-14, finished 6-5.

Smart money would be on these two teams to be at the top of District 5 this year, although Solon will need to replace a lot of their key playmakers from a year ago.

After that, there was no team in this district that had a winning record or made the playoffs in 2015. Oskaloosa will be a key team to watch, as all of their games will be broadcasted on 99.5 FM/740 AM KMZN, the KMZN mobile app, and radiokmzn.com.

The Indians went 2-7 last year, and are 3-15 the last two years. New Head Coach Jake Jenkins will turn a page in Osky football history with a new system and several capable returners to make the adjustment. Osky lost only 11 seniors and most of their playmaking core is back for 2016.

Osky has to feel like they can contend at the top of this district with Washington and Solon. Fairfield was a mediocre 4-5 in a weak district in 2015. That district also included Fort Madison (2-7), Keokuk (3-6), and Mount Pleasant (1-8). None of those teams will likely see much growth from their performance last season unless drastic leaps are made from key players.

West Burlington/Notre Dame rounds out District 5, and they went 4-5 last year in Class 2A, missing the playoffs. They also lost a couple of their top athletes.

As that collection of teams appears to leave a space, it should be an entertaining race for the top spot in the district.

Washington should be the prohibitive favorite, as they return quarterback Ryan Reighard from the 7-3 team last year. Solon would appear to be the #2 pick, but after losing so many top players on a team that barely made the playoffs and then pulled an overtime upset, they are far from a clear-cut contender.

Oskaloosa’s athletes could put them in a position to win enough games against their competition to put them in a spot to qualify for the playoffs.

Regardless of the lackluster record of most of the teams in this district, this will be a scintillating race in the first year of the reformatted playoff system.

While it will be hard to justify any of these teams as true state championship material, the reality is that Class 3A in general may not have the types of dominant teams we’ve seen in years past.

Expect plenty of coverage on Class 3A District 5 throughout the season as the Oskaloosa Indians look to battle alongside Washington and Fairfield for a playoff spot.

Tomorrow, we look at two-time defending state champion Pella and Class 3A District 6 as a part of our comprehensive previews of every district in our listening area.

We continue to look at the football districts that our area teams will be competing in for 2016 with a glance at the Ottumwa Bulldogs and Class 4A District 8.

Ottumwa missed out on the playoffs last year after winning just one district game, finishing the year 4-5. The loss of key players among the 16 seniors who graduated from the 2015 team will also make the transition to this season tough, but the schedule might work out in their favor.

District 8 has only one team that managed a winning record last year: state runner-up Cedar Rapids Kennedy who finished 13-1. Outside of that, Ottumwa had the highest winning percentage of the teams in this district.

Kennedy was fantastic last season, rolling to a 13-0 record before being beat by Dowling Catholic in the Class 4A State Championship, 41-10. They should be the heavy, heavy favorites to win this district behind returning quarterback Nick Duehr.

Even with the poor records, only one other team in this six-pack of teams missed out on a playoff berth last year, and that was Burlington. The Greyhounds were 1-8 and were the only team Ottumwa beat in district play in 2015. They did not manage a passing touchdown all season long, and should be considered the longshot to do damage in 2016 as well.

The Bulldogs will have three other teams they will be competing with for that second playoff position in District 8: Iowa City West, Linn-Mar, and Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Iowa City West managed to get a home playoff game at 3-6 last year since 32 of the 48 Class 4A teams qualified for the playoffs. They knocked off Cedar Rapids Prairie in the first round, 35-20, before falling in the second round to Bettendorf, 43-18. Their 4-7 record was hard fought, as most of those losses were competitive games. But the loss of 26 seniors in big positions will make it tough to expect anything more from West in 2016.

Prairie’s season came to a screeching halt against IC West in the first round, but the Hawks did win one more game in the regular season, finishing the year 4-6. Again, the games were competitive for the most part, but realistic expectations would be another near .500 season.

The final team in this district is Linn-Mar, who went 4-6 in 2015 as well. City High of Iowa City knocked the Lions out of the playoffs in the first round. Linn-Mar really seemed to struggle against top competition, and had an early season loss to Cedar Rapids Prairie.

The prognosis for this district is up in the air. It seems like a good bet that Cedar
Rapids Kennedy will be on top and Burlington will be on the bottom, but the second playoff position is totally up for grabs.

Ottumwa did face Burlington and CR Prairie last season as part of district play. The Bulldogs beat Burlington and lost to Prairie in their last two weeks of the season. They will have to string wins together against the other middle-of-the-road teams battling to get into the 16-team bracket in Class 4A.

For Ottumwa’s non-district schedule, the highlight game will be Week 1 against Newton, the first Mahaska Zone Network Game of the Week for the 2016 season. You can hear that game live on 104.9 FM KBOE, the KBOE mobile app, and kboeradio.com.

Our district previews will continue tomorrow, as we delve into Class 3A District 5, featuring Oskaloosa, Fairfield, and Washington.