This fall’s schedule for the Pella High football team features a challenging start to the season for the Little Dutch, and head coach Jay McKinstrey wouldn’t have it any other way. McKinstrey says starting off with games against Marshalltown, Washington and Grinnell – in that order – will force his team to quickly elevate their level of play.

“I really like our schedule, because we’ve got some really challenging games on our schedule, and we like that early on – because it really does help teach us where we’re at, what we need to work on, [and] helps our kids to elevate their play to the varsity level,” said McKinstrey.

“I like it because we’re going to have a lot of kids very varsity-inexperienced again. We have one starter back on offense and then maybe three, three-and-a-half back on defense, and a lot of kids that have not seen a lot of varsity time. The game is a whole different one at the varsity level. The speed is so much faster, it’s much more physical [and] you’ve got to learn how to play there.”

This season is also the first in the latest two-year District assignments, which sees Pella return to competition against several familiar foes, including Carlisle and Norwalk.