(Pella) Griswold alum Evan Kelly will be entering his fourth season with the Central College football team this fall.
Kelly’s role with the Dutch has grown over the years and he was able to see some time as a reserve running back last season.
“It’s been great. Freshman year it was definitely an experience into college football and I really enjoyed it. Then with Covid that kind of paused everything, but we still were able to have a spring season and be together as a team. This last year we had pretty good success. I’d say it has been a blast these last three years, so I’m excited for this year.”
He appeared in two games last year and carried the ball four times. One of his rushing attempts ended up in the end zone. “It was fun. I got to see the field a little bit more. Against Luther I actually got to score a touchdown, so that was pretty cool. This year I was more comfortable with the offense. I got to know the plays better and was more confident in my play. That kind of showed and I was able to get some playing time. It was pretty fun.”
The family atmosphere at Central attracted Kelly to the program. “I did an overnight visit so I got to meet a bunch of the players before I even was there. I got to know them and just saw that they were a close knit group of guys.”
The squad went 12-1 last season and won a pair of NCAA Division III playoff games. Kelly admits he knew they had something special brewing when they blew out rival Simpson in their fourth game of the year. “It’s a rivalry game, so you figured it’d be a pretty close game, but by the end of the first half our quarterback had seven touchdowns. I think we won 84-16. From there you realized we were kind of good and could make a run. The rest of the season went pretty well.”
Central will start the season against St. Olaf on September 3rd.
