A trio of Tulip City athletes will provide a local infusion of talent not seen in a long time at their hometown college.
This week, John Oltman from Pella High School and Josh Van Gorp from Pella Christian both announced their commitment to join the Central College basketball team, while Pella’s Logan Shetterly switched his commitment from the Dutch football team to the hardwood.
Shetterly says while he greatly appreciates the effort and time the football program spent in recruiting him, he re-found his love and passion for basketball this past winter, when he led Pella back to the state tournament.
“I had a couple of injuries carry over from football that I could never really get healthy [this winter],” he says. “And I think too, it was just a little change of heart — everything that the football staff did at Central was awesome, and they were awesome to me and I can’t give enough thanks to them. But at the end of the day, I just thought it was best to play basketball for the next four years.”
His teammate Oltman will also take his golf skills to the Dutch athletics programs, and says he’s excited to continue playing with Shetterly and to become Van Gorp’s teammate.
“I’m excited, we’ve played together quite a bit over the past few years, so continuing to get to play with them at Central is pretty exciting,” he says. “When Logan told me he was switching from football to play basketball…I was pretty pumped and just getting to play with him again and getting another four years will be exciting.”
As for Josh, he felt at home with his decision to play for Central and Coach Douma.
“I’ve played for Coach Douma in the past and he’s always been a really good coach, and Central just seems like a great college with a great atmosphere.”
All three earned several postseason honors for their high school basketball seasons in 2019-20; Shetterly was a Class 3A 2nd team All-State selection, Van Gorp earned Class 2A 3rd team recognition, and Oltman was a second-team All-Little Hawkeye Conference honoree. Oltman was a 2nd team All-State and All-Tournament golfer in 2019 for the state qualifying Pella Dutch golf team. Hear from the trio heading to the Central Basketball team on Monday’s Central College Radio Coaches Corner, starting at 7 p.m. on 92.1 KRLS, and again on Wednesday’s Radio Sports Page, beginning at 6 p.m. on KNIA/KRLS.