For every student-athlete in Iowa the goal every season is to compete at State, and that is no different for the athletes at Pella Christian.

The Eagles track and field teams have set out to improve on last year’s nine State Qualifiers, but a lot of things go into attaining that goal. Pella Christian head coach Keith Anderson knows that his athletes need to be ready physically to run well in March and April while staying healthy for the State Qualifying meet in May. While he admits that it’s not an exact science for keeping athletes healthy throughout the season, he is thankful to have a great staff around him to help with that.

“We’ve got a great group of trainers and we’ve got a gentleman by the name of Nick in our weight room who’s got some great lifting programs for our athletes. He kind of tailors it a little bit to our jumpers and then our throwers and then our sprinters. So, it’s a collective effort to keep everybody healthy, to keep everybody ready to go each meet. We definitely put a lot of extra emphasis on stretching, making sure nutrition and hydration and all of those things are are key. And I know that’s hard for teenagers to eat and get to sleep that they need. But I’m just really kind of hammering that point home day after day and hopefully they’ll see the success that older athletes have had and then maybe buy into it.”

The Eagles pursuit of qualifying for State begins this Thursday at the Bear Athletic Center in Grinnell.