Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

With their 20th season of high school football kicking off later this week, Pella Christian has their largest roster in program history set to take the field on Friday.

The Eagles have 66 students out for the sport this season, including 28 freshmen. Pella Christian head coach Rich Kacmarynski says he is grateful to see the program growing in numbers and for a great coaching staff that he believes has helped encourage more kids to participate this fall.

“There’s a lot of things competing for young people’s time today. So I just want to say, very sincerely, I’m so thankful for each one of our young men. I’m thankful for their families. I think that we got a great staff, and we’ve got some young coaches that I think are fun to be around. I know football can be challenging. It is a hard sport, but I also think it’s an extremely exhilarating sport. It’s a fun sport. It’s a sport where you really learn how to work together. I think it’s a sport that you learn a little bit about yourself and how to persevere through hard things and grow.”

Pella Christian kicks off their 20th football season on Friday, hosting rival Des Moines Christian at 7pm, and the game can be heard live on the KRLS2 stream at KNIAKRLS.com.