Jay McKinstrey

Jay McKinstrey

Class 3A top ranked and defending champion Pella will play the remainder of the season without All-State linebacker Austin Schulte. The Iowa commit suffered an ACL injury in last week’s season opening win against Washington.

Dutch coach Jay McKinstrey says Schulte will undergo surgery Friday morning. Pella visits second ranked Dallas Center-Grimes in a non-district game on Friday night.

McKinstrey calls football the greatest sport to teach young men to become a young man but says injuries are a difficult part of it.

“It certainly has impacted our team this week and trying to prepare for the game against DC-G. It has been a challenging week”, said McKinstrey. “Our kids I know will respond well and we will come out in play but it is hard to lose a quality player like that. As far as just the leader he is and the type of young man and the family he comes from it is a little bit of a grieving process with the loss of him.”

McKinstrey says it is a big early test but a win over Dallas Center-Grimes won’t make their season and a loss won’t break it either.