When the Iowa High School Athletic Association mandated new scheduling policies for football teams across the state, many schools were scouring to meet those requirements. Pleasantville Activities Director Joel Allman feels as though the changes the program had to make were minimal and will help the Trojans in the long run.

Among the most important schedule changes was that all teams were required to have anywhere from five to seven games in their schedules with the regular season being seven weeks long. It is slated to begin Friday, August 28 and end on Friday, October 9. This means that most schools would be able to play their previously scheduled district games as well as having the option to fill in the rest of the schedule with non-district opponents.

In the case of Pleasantville, no changes had to be made for their first two games. The Trojans’ final five games had to be altered to correspond with the new requirements.

The other major change is that all teams in the state will qualify for the playoffs, which will begin on Friday, October 16.

Allman says that this was well accepted by the Trojans and they look forward to it. The one bad hand Pleasantville drew, however, was having four of their seven games on the road. Despite this, Allman takes this in stride and is happy with the schedule for 2020.

“Luckily we were able to keep our top two games for football, who we selected to play as number one and number two that we prefer to play for non-districts. So it wasn’t too much of a change or too much work on our end because we were able to keep those opponents. Going to seven games, obviously it’s going to be a little bit weird with less home games, we’re just going to have to deal with that this year. And also everyone’s going to make the playoffs this year which we really like.”

Allman also added that should unforeseen circumstances cause the team to shut down or cancel games, he’s pleased in knowing that a playoff spot will still be there at the end of the season, where the Trojans certainly hope to be come championship weekend.

Pleasantville kicks off their football season at Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont on Friday, August 28th. Hear select football games from the Trojans this fall on the KNIA3 stream at KNIAKRLS.com. The Trojans volleyball team is in action on Tuesday, August 25th at home vs. Earlham, while cross country begins on the 24th at Knoxville.