COACH OF THE YEAR NOMINEES
DOUG CUTLER
COACH OF THE YEAR
Pella
The illustrious history of Pella cross country added more hardware in historic fashion over the fall. Cutler’ s Lady Dutch squad came into the state meet as heavy favorites to win their third straight title, but they did so in dominant fashion as they went 1-2-3 individually, had six girls receive all-state honors for finishing in the top 15 and tallied the lowest score in state meet history with a total of 23 points. Not to mention Marissa Ferebee’ s record breaking time to win her second straight state title. Cutler also led the boys team to another trophy finish as they would take third place with another all-state finish from Canaan Dunham. It was the Dutch boy’ s 10th top three team finish in the program’ s history.
DAVID BOUSKA
KATIE BANOWETZ
There was some uncertainty how the Lady Dutch tennis team would look this spring after losing five of their six starters to graduation from their title team in 2024. As it would turn out, the success continued with the newcomers as Bouska and the Lady Dutch sent four girls to the individual state tournament where Claire Smock eventually finished third place. Then Pella rallied all the way back to the state finals as a team before eventually falling in doubles play to Xavier to finish second place.
32 CHAPY AWARDS 2025
Pella
PELLA
In just her second season leading the Lady Dutch, Banowetz led the program to their second 20-win season after not posting a winning season since 2015. She also led Pella on a remarkable postseason run which saw the girls knock off the defending champions of Carlisle in the regional semifinals, but also pick up upset wins over No. 1 Xavier, No. 5 ADM and No. 3 North Polk, which combined to feature the top three pitchers in Class 4A, on their way to winning their first state title in program history.