The long-awaited 2025 debut of the Pella football team is here tonight as the Dutch welcome a familiar opening foe to the Tulip City. The football calendar will open for a third consecutive season against Ballard — both games in the last scheduling cycle were competitive, with the schools splitting the series in 2023-24.

It will be a new-look Bombers team returning, with just a small handful of returning varsity players lining up for a team that earned a bid into the Class 4A playoffs last fall.

Pella Head Coach Ben Bollard doesn’t want to take any of that for granted, knowing they have their own puzzles to solve. The Dutch will open with Michael Manning at quarterback after they kept the repetitions spread out in camp.

Tonight also marks the debut of the renovated Pella football stadium. Live coverage of the Dutch begins at 6:30 this evening on the KRLS2 stream at KNIAKRLS.com and the free KNIA/KRLS mobile app. All Pella home games will also be broadcast on Pella Dutch Live on YouTube.