The winter season begins today at Pella High School and an upstart program a season ago is aiming to build on a strong debut.

Pella Girls Wrestling Head Coach Adam Hale is excited to see how far many of his athletes have come from the first sanctioned year of the sport, and the follow-up starts competitively this evening in Ballard. Hale says the team is led by three returning state qualifiers — two of whom, Emmalee Spurgeon and Elaine Babcock, enter this winter highly ranked with higher expectations for themselves and the team.

“Emmalee and Elaine have really latched on to wrestling, and found a lot of success,” he says. “They’ve put a lot of work in and they’ve bought in from day one when we started coming to open mats before last season started. They were there, worked hard, and had good attitudes about it; willing to learn and listen, and have sought a lot of input from outside sources and other coaches.”

The two are joined by 2023 state qualifier Isabella Smith and several other returners who just missed bids to Coralville last winter. Pella opens the girls wrestling season at Ballard with a tournament that begins at 5:00 this evening.