Best Of 2019-20, Number 1: Jackson County Central Football And A Viral Video

Here it is, my favorite story from the 2019-20 school year. It was originally published on Nov. 25.

On a peaceful November Monday in Jackson County there was some measure of disappointment that the Jackson County Central Huskies would not be playing at the Prep Bowl later in the week. But those feelings were tempered by an immeasurable amount of pride in knowing what the world thought of the boys on the football team from the little southwest Minnesota town near the Iowa border.

In a tiny gym inside Pleasantview Elementary in Lakefield, 12 miles from Jackson, four of those boys were teaching. The senior team captains -- Nathaniel Post, Bradley Buhl Jr., Rudy Voss and Jack Brinkman – spent the day with fifth- and sixth-graders, playing games and talking about what's important. They emphasized words like respect, character, hard work. And love. 

"The three things that I want you guys to take with you are things that I live by, that we all live by," Voss said to the kids sitting on the gym floor. "The first one is love. Love each other, respect each other, form a bond with each other. The second one is work hard. Work hard in anything you guys do, whether it's sports, the classroom, group projects, work hard. And the third one is respect. Respect each other, respect your teachers, respect your parents. Holding the door for someone, saying please and thank you, that's the kind of people we want you guys to be.”

If Rudy's name sounds familiar, it's probably because you’ve seen a viral video from the Nov. 16 Class 3A state semifinals at U.S. Bank Stadium. After the Huskies lost a heartbreaking 20-14 decision to Pierz in a game between unbeaten teams, Voss, Buhl and coach Tom Schuller spoke to the media in the Vikings’ postgame interview room.

The video is emotional and stirring. Rudy, through tears, talked about football being a blessing in his life, the bond among the 21 seniors, how wins and losses don’t define them. At one point, Rudy is unable to speak and Bradley takes over, putting a hand on his teammate’s back and talking about how at the start of the season each player was asked to do their job and trust each other.

At that point, no one knew the impact their words would have. Two days later, A.J. Feldman of Lakeland News in Brainerd and Bemidji (who was covering Pierz) Tweeted a video clip of Rudy and Bradley that lasted 2 minutes, 12 seconds. And that video went off like a rocket.

It was re-Tweeted by NFL Hall of Famers, posted on a social media platform called TikTok by the NFL, went viral on the MSHSL Facebook page and just about everywhere else. It’s safe to say that millions have seen it and countless numbers of young athletes have been inspired by it. People as far away as Australia and Ireland have liked it on Twitter, and Voss and Buhl have received private social media messages from Scotland and many other locations.

“I can't tell you how many DMs (direct messages) I've had and Brad's had,” Rudy said after the school day ended. “Just kids that have reached out to us and said, ‘You're an inspiration, you make me want to work harder’ and things like that. That’s probably the best thing. It’s awesome. It’s just crazy how worldwide it is.”

The background of the video includes a Vikings logo, and at least one viewer thought the two players were local NFLers.

“One of our favorite comments was a guy saying, ‘Can you believe these grown men, professionals, are crying. This is their job,’ ” Voss said, laughing.

As the video went wild, JCC activities director Shelly Hotzler came up with the idea of having the captains share their message with younger students. On Tuesday they spent the day in a similar fashion with middle schoolers.

At the elementary school Monday, Brinkman asked the younger kids if they had seen the video. Of course they had.

“Yeah, these guys are like famous now,” he said. “Isn’t that cool? So these two showed really good character. They went into that press conference and they talked. They were asked questions like, ‘What does football mean to you? What does your team mean to you?’ And these two came up with the best answers you could have asked for, and that's why they're famous. They said that it wasn't about the games that meant the most, it was being with the teammates, being with the coaches, the lifting, the bus rides, all that.

“Events are going to happen, sometimes bad things happen. It's how you respond, which is the biggest part, and they responded really well. Which is why something like 10 million people have seen the video. It’s how you respond. So if something bad happens in your life, respond well. Be kind.”

Schuller, who teaches special education, admits he isn’t well-versed in social media. But he knows about the character of students at his school and players on his team.

“You could have had eight to 10 guys who would have sounded like that,” he said. “That's the really crazy thing about it. I mean, we have a lot of very articulate kids that would have had the same thoughts. That's a special group, there's no doubt.”

Brinkman agreed, saying “Truly, I think what they said was perfect and if you asked any of the other seniors they would have had a similar response. I think our coaches have instilled that in us.”

Schuller said he was proud of his players, because they gave it everything they had against Pierz. Jackson County Central led 14-0 after the first quarter and was in front until Pierz took the lead on a 48-yard touchdown pass with 1:19 left in the fourth quarter.

“One of our big things is we tell the guys if you do your best, that's got to be good enough,” Schuller said. “You have to make sure that kids trust you, that when they put it out there, it is good enough. And what they put out there that day was. And that's the first thing I said to the Pierz kids; we congratulated them and said it was everything we had, and they said that was everything they had, too.

“And we said ‘Good luck.’ I don't know if I'll watch the championship game (Pierz will meet Dassel-Cokato for the state title on Saturday) because that was a tough loss but we have a lot of respect for the Pierz team and their players. I don't think there was a cross word said out there between the players or coaches and officials and it was kind of what we're trying for in athletics.”

Still, it was a tough loss to take. And seeing the video remains difficult for some.

“That video is still hard to watch for all of us,” Post said. “I watched it the first time with my mom next to me and she couldn't finish watching it. But it just kind of explains the brotherhood we have going on here.”

Voss said, “I couldn’t even remember what I said. After I left the room I had a little idea but I had so many emotions. You could have asked me a couple hours later and I really couldn't remember what I even said.”

There’s no need to remember the details now. The world knows.

--Follow John on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts and hear him on Minnesota Public Radio

Best Of 2019-20, Number 2: Brave Like Gabe: Grunewald Inspires Perham’s Historic Day

Here's story No. 2 on my list of favorites from the 2019-20 school year. It was originally published on Nov. 2.

NORTHFIELD -- Saturday was a history-making day for the cross-country teams from Perham High School. Both Yellowjackets squads captured Class 1A state championships at St. Olaf College, and the historical record will forever state that Perham became the first school to win both crowns for three years in a row.

Jeff Morris is the head coach of both teams, and this is his 18th year in that post. Every fan of Minnesota high school cross-country is familiar with Perham's success; the boys cross-country team now owns eight state championships and the girls have won it four times. Individually, Kevin Lachowitzer of Perham won cross-country state titles in 2006 and 2007, Keeghan Hurley did the same in 2013 and Maddie McClellan was the 1A girls champ in 2009.

One of the first Perham stars under Morris’ watch was Gabriel Anderson, who as a senior in 2004 won a track state title in the 800 meters. That was the first state championship won by a Morris-coached Perham runner.

Anderson went on to compete at the University of Minnesota and then as a professional runner. After her marriage to fellow Gophers runner Justin Grunewald, she was known as Gabe Grunewald. Gabe died in June in Minneapolis at age 32; a decade earlier she had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Her fight, her inspiration lives on in the running community nationally and around the world. Gabe and Justin began the Brave Like Gabe Foundation during her days with cancer, and runners of all ages have been inspired.

Gabe died a few weeks before the start of the 2019 high school cross-country season. Her loss hit folks in her hometown hard.

"We’ve actually had a kind of rough season, just a lot of things that have been going on mentally, physically, emotionally with our team,” Morris said Saturday. “And it started out with everything that happened with Gabe this past summer.

“We started off the season with the Brave Like Gabe (an inaugural early-season invitational) and I told the kids we’re going to focus on being thermostats, not thermometers, kind of letting our attitude and effort being where we want it to be. And it seemed like after that, everything that could happen wrong happened. We have one kid running on a non-displaced fracture, another kid with a stress fracture. We’ve had sickness. And the cool thing with the kids was they made no excuses. They stepped up to the moment and it was just fun.”

It’s not hard to imagine that the Yellowjackets felt pressure coming into the state championship races. Facing the prospect of making history can do that.

“I think they feel pressure from not wanting to let people down,” Morris said. “That’s the biggest thing. My daughter (Mya) is a ninth-grader and last night in the room her and her friends were saying, ‘We’re so nervous.’ At the start line today I just reminded them that the most important thing was that they were doing this for each other. We kind of focus on faith, love and hope. And we said if we run with that and kind of make it about that, it doesn’t matter how we do. It matters in our eyes what we do, and the rest of the what-ifs and what other people think, that doesn’t matter and that’s a good life lesson to learn.”

In the days leading up to the state meet, the Yellowjackets watched a documentary about Gabe, which brought some of the runners to tears.

“I think it’s taught the kids that in a moment like that, where you had everything that Gabe went through, you realize that the running doesn’t matter anymore,” said Morris, who became head coach in Perham when Gabe was a junior. “The running is secondary, and I think these kids learn that, ‘Hey, these races are important and we had a great moment and we want to do something great,’ but to realize it’s just a race. There are bigger things that are way more important. Because you’re not always going to win. I’ve been here when we’ve been on the other side of it. If you can learn from that and take that with you for the rest of life, it’s going to matter. And that’s how Gabe will live on in these kids.”

A little extra motivation arrived in the form of some special gifts in preparation for state: sweatshirts carrying the slogan “Running On Hope” ... that’s a phrase made famous by Gabe and the Brave Like Gabe Foundation. They were sent to the Yellowjackets by Justin Grunewald.

“The kids were pretty emotional about that,” Morris said. “Every kid and every coach got one, and he wouldn’t even let me pay for them.”

Justin, in New York for Sunday’s New York City Marathon, said via phone Saturday night that he is inspired by lots of people from Perham.

“The Perham community, their cross-country teams, their volleyball team, their boosters, KLN, which is a wonderful company, they’ve all shown so much support for Gabriel and the foundation,” he said. “On top of that, right when I came out of college, myself and another guy became the first post-collegiate runners Jeff coached. He gave me some of my best years of running, and he never took a penny. It was a long-overdue thank you. I just felt with all that their kids have done and how inspirational they’ve been, buying them sweatshirts made a lot of sense.”

Through souvenir sales and donations from teams that participated in the first annual Brave Like Gabe Invitational, the Yellowjackets raised $5,680 for the Brave Like Gabe Foundation.

“These kids are who is going to change the future," Justin said. “I can only do so much, and Gabriel gave her heart and soul. Seeing these kids be good stewards, raising money for the foundation, I’m speechless.

“They’re raising money to make the world a better place. Hopefully none of them are afflicted with cancer, but they’re spreading hope for those who are. They’re all winners in my book.”

--Follow John on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts and hear him on Minnesota Public Radio

 

Best Of 2019-20, Number 3: Brayden Weber: ‘A Good Indication That I Was Dead’

Here's story No. 3 on my list of favorites from the 2019-20 school year. It was originally published on March 11. 

Brayden Weber was right where he wanted to be Wednesday afternoon, in the midst of a large, enthusiastic crowd of Becker High School students missing class while cheering for the Bulldogs in the Class 3A girls basketball state quarterfinals at Maturi Pavilion.

Becker came away with a 63-55 win over Alexandria and will meet Waconia at Williams Arena in Thursday's televised semifinals. It's been a good week in Becker.

But go back 11 days and everyone in Becker feared the worst. Brayden was wrestling in the semifinals of the state tournament at Xcel Energy Center when the unthinkable happened. He collapsed, medical personnel could not find a pulse and performed CPR on the 220-pound junior.

Seeing Brayden having the time of his life Wednesday was an amazing turnaround. He feels fine, he knows he was lucky and he's walking around wearing one heck of a nice smile.

Doctors have diagnosed ventricular tachycardia, a heart rhythm disorder caused by abnormal electrical signals. He's taking medication and genetic tests are in the works as doctors try to narrow down treatment options. Brayden said surgery is a last resort.

"I feel totally normal, like it never really happened," he said after the basketball game. "But, yeah, it did. It definitely happened."

While wrestling Orono senior Danny Striggow, he didn't feel right.

"I was so far gone, I couldn't even stand up right so I just kind of laid there and let him pin me. Then I closed my eyes and that's the last thing I remember.”

He has no memory of shaking hands with Striggow or taking a few steps away from the center of the mat or going down hard. There were no warning signs, no previous indications of any problem. All he knew was that he passed out and then came back to life. It was a Miracle on the Mat.

“I woke up and I thought I heard my alarm clock but it was the AED beeping,” he said (the AED was activated but not used). “I was trying to open my eyes and I couldn't open them. And that's when I was coming to. Then all of a sudden I open my eyes and there’s like 55 people around me.”

For fans in attendance, the best signal came when Brayden raised one arm, giving the thumbs-up sign, as he rode out of the arena on a stretcher.

“I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that I was alive, because I wasn't really moving,” he said. “I was strapped down and I had a towel over my face. They couldn’t see if I was talking or anything like that, so I just gave them a thumbs up.”

The doctor who performed CPR was Mark Berg of M Health Fairview, assisted by athletic trainers Jenna Arnold and Karin Shelstad from the Institute for Athletic Medicine. Doctors and athletic trainers are on hand at all MSHSL state tournaments, for which Brayden is very thankful.

“What if I'm home alone or whatever, somewhere by myself? That goes through your mind,” he said. “Because if it happened at practice, I would have been screwed because we don't have a trainer that's so close; she’s in another building.”

Brayden went back to Becker after a couple days in the hospital. He stayed home from school for a week; when he returned this past Monday there were more hugs than you could count.

He will sit out the spring track and field season but has high hopes to being on the football field for the Bulldogs this fall. He’s a talented linebacker who has Division I college aspirations.

“Honestly, it still hasn't really set in,” he said. “They don’t know if my heart actually stopped; they just couldn’t find a pulse. They said with an irregular rhythm it could just be hard to detect a pulse. But they said I wasn't breathing on my own for five minutes, which is like a good indication that I was dead.”

And here he was, with his buddies, cheering for the Bulldogs. Laughing, smiling, enjoying life.

What a lucky dude.

--Follow John on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts and hear him on Minnesota Public Radio

Best Of 2019-20, Number 4: Selfless Moorhead Athlete Makes A Wish For Others

Here's story No. 4 on my list of favorites from the 2019-20 school year. It was originally published on May 7.

Scott Verkuilen was at pretty much rock bottom last August. Shortly before his senior year and final football season at Moorhead High School was to begin, he was hospitalized. There was surgery. Then chemotherapy.

He was, as he told me recently, "really, really sick."

He was undergoing treatment for nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma, which is as scary as it sounds. Visitors from Make-A-Wish Minnesota were with Scott in the hospital, asking if he had any wish that they could help fulfill.

The options were amazing. Did he want to go skydiving with Dwayne The Rock Johnson? How about traveling to Australia or another exotic location?

Verkuilen talked with his parents about the possibilities. “The options were completely wide open,” he said.

But Scott also thought about Moorhead. He had lived in Little Falls until sixth grade before moving to Moorhead. And he loves Moorhead; his friends, his school, the community, the tradition, the Spuds.

Last fall, voters in Moorhead overwhelmingly approved the construction of a new high school. Verkuilen thought about that, came up with an idea and made his wish known. He wanted his school to have a world-class weight room.

“I thought what better way to not only better myself but to help those around me,” he said. “That pay-it-forward movement, treat others as you would like to be treated. I knew the school was getting redone and I knew sometimes those expenses get overlooked.”

And that's when others jumped in. Moorhead High School strength and conditioning coach Cory Herrmann, who coaches the Spuds weightlifting team, spread Scott's story and wish through contacts nationwide. A monetary contribution from Make-A-Wish Minnesota got the ball rolling. Power Lift, a company specializing in weightlifting equipment, got on board, as did similar firms Intek Strength and Dynamax, along with the Moorhead school district. Essentially, the new weight room will receive $200,000 worth of donated gear.

“It gives you goosebumps just thinking about it,” Spuds head football coach Kevin Feeney said of Scott’s wish.

All the Spuds football players and coaches gathered for an online team meeting one evening last week. Representatives from Make-A-Wish Minnesota and Power Lift were also on the video call as Scott learned that his wish had been finalized and a top-shelf weight room would serve Moorhead students for many years to come.

“For a teenage kid, a high school kid, to come up and think of something like that to give back, rather than take a trip somewhere you always wanted to go, I thought it was fantastic,” Herrmann told Verkuilen.

Scott said on the call, “I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows they are not alone.”

That was a sentiment that helped carry Scott through surgery, chemotherapy, loss of his hair and everything that went into his recovery. He now has a clean bill of health. After his final chemo treatment in December at Roger Maris Cancer Center in Fargo, his teammates and other friends filled the lobby with smiles, hugs and cheers as Scott rang a celebratory bell.

“Before all this happened, I would have told you Scotty was one of those guys who was wise beyond his years,” Feeney said. “He’s a very mature young man. Going through this process, I could not believe how he handled it and how he consistently worried about everybody else and not himself.

“Our team learned so much, like you’re never alone. Our team rallied around him. The kids who went through this with him understand his legacy. He was as strong as he could be and more selfless than he should have been. This group understands that legacy and it will be easy to keep that legacy more visible for future generations.”

Scott will enroll at Concordia University in Moorhead this fall on a pre-med track with the goal of becoming an oral surgeon. It will be a grand day, in three years or so, when he helps cut the ribbon on the weight room that will have his name on the wall. Weight plates will bear some of his signature phrases, such as “Never Alone.”

The Moorhead weightlifting team began when Scott was a ninth-grader and he loved it from the start; the room, the work, the support, the goal-setting.

“The team was really important to me and coach Herrmann has been a mentor for me,” he said. “He gave us an opportunity to be a part of something great.”

Verkuilen missed his junior football season when he suffered a hand injury during summer training. He wrestled that winter and had what he called a “decent season.”

His cancer battle began last July began when tumors were discovered in his neck. A lymph node the size of a golf ball was surgically removed. And here he is now, ending his high school days with health, a smile and a joyous attitude.

“I received a few messages from various teammates, saying this was inspirational,” he said. “I just wanted to pay it back. I hope that it inspires others to leave a mark on the world.

“It’s a dream that came true. I’m so unbelievably grateful to everybody.”

--Follow John on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts and hear him on Minnesota Public Radio

Best Of 2019-20, Number 5: Because A Plan Was In Place, An Official’s Life Was Saved

Here's story No. 5 on my list of favorites from the 2019-20 school year. It was originally published on Oct. 7.

KIMBALL – When veteran football official Mike Canfield went down with a cardiac issue during a junior varsity game here last week, a plan to save his life was already in place. And because the plan was executed to perfection, Mike is still with us.

Here's the end of the story: surgeons placed two coronary artery stents near Mike's heart and he’s in recovery mode. The 71-year-old from Waite Park is eternally grateful that coaches and others followed the MSHSL Emergency Action Plan advice and were ready when the emergency happened.

"We did have a plan," said Kimball activities director Byron Westrich, “and one of my coaches texted me right away, saying ‘Thank goodness you had that plan.’ It worked like clockwork.”

Emergency Action Plans are simple. Everyone on hand knows their role. When Canfield collapsed on the field during the third quarter of a game between Morris and Kimball, Kimball head coach Johnny Benson did his job and went right to Canfield; assistant coaches Jamie Liether and Jake Gagne did their jobs and ran to get AEDs (automated external defibrillators); assistant coach Joe Anderson called 911 and continued to do his job when an ambulance arrived, directing the crew to Mike’s location.

Mike Schindler, a former Kimball wrestling coach who is a firefighter and trained first responder, has a son on the football team and was watching from the stands. He was chatting with a buddy when he saw the official collapse. Schindler ran to Canfield. His description of what happened is gripping.

“He was seizing, he went limp. Two AEDs were there right away, which was awesome. We got one hooked up and it told us to shock right away. We started (chest) compressions; we did four rounds of 30 compressions with breath between each 30, then we saw that he was breathing. We checked for a pulse and we got the pulse back.”

A couple from Morris, Paige and Rich Hardy, performed CPR. Paige is a nurse at Stevens Community Medical Center in Morris and Rich is an athletic trainer at the University of Minnesota-Morris.

Canfield was conscious but not very alert when he was loaded into the ambulance, bound for St. Cloud Hospital. He became fully alert, however, as they were about five miles out of Kimball.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ve never seen that before,” Schindler said. “It was awesome.

“I’ve performed CPR way too many times. There was a group of people that did the job, got stuff done that needed to be done. Everything clicked.”

Canfield has been officiating for 48 years and no longer works varsity games, but he is one of countless officials who are committed to making sure the games go on and student-athletes have great experiences.

“Everybody did their job without hesitation and together saved a life,” Leither said. “The plan that was put together for us worked to a T. I hope we never have to use the plan again, but we know that it does work.”

--Follow John on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts and hear him on Minnesota Public Radio