Photo Courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

As J.D. Boer enters his third season as the Pella Christian boys basketball coach, he will do so with a team that looks significantly different than his first two seasons. 

Of the 14 players that saw varsity action last winter, the Eagles graduated seven seniors that helped lead the Eagles to the State Semifinals in Class 2A. Among the graduates from the State Tournament squad last year, was a deep and experienced backcourt, in addition to six of Pella Christian’s top eight scorers. The two top returning scorers for the Eagles are guards Aiden Stoltz and Tysen De Vries. With the bulk of the Eagles returning experience coming at the guard position, the Eagles style of play will be much different than in Coach Boer’s first two seasons. 

“Any coach loves good guard play. You’ve gotta have guards who can go make plays. Tyson and Aiden being those returners, those guys who know what it takes to play at a high level – played in state tournament basketball games, they’ve really taken on leadership roles. They’ve done a great job on both ends of the floor of initiating our offense and our defense. And those guys are great competitors too, and that’s what I like about those guys is that I know we can rely on them in big moments.”

Pella Christian kicks off their season on Tuesday with a home doubleheader against Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont that can be heard live on the KRLS2 stream at KNIAKRLS.com.