Pella and Pella Christian’s girls basketball teams are aiming to climb the conference standings, but the primary challenge to do so will be the amount of returning talent in the league.

Lady Dutch Head Coach Jerod Garland has a varsity roster that is largely the same as the 2019-20 — and he hopes the work made in the summer will elevate them to be even more competitive near the top of standings, even with the likes of No. 13 in 5A Indianola and No. 10 in 4A Grinnell returning a lot of the athletes who pushed them to the top two spots last winter.

As for Pella Christian, with a win over No. 8 in 1A Montezuma under their belts, Head Coach Brad Engbers hopes they can take a leap in the standings and be more competitive with all schools in the league.

Basketball coverage of the Dutch and Eagles begins Tuesday on 92.1 KRLS and the KRLS2 stream.