Todd Bouman had a long career as an NFL
quarterback, playing for the Vikings, Saints, Packers, Jaguars, Rams and Ravens
between 1997 and 2010. He played in 44 NFL games, starting seven. But ask him
about his favorite football memory and he immediately goes back to his high
school days.
He was a senior at Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the
fall of 1990. The RTR Knights met Minneota with a section title and trip to
the state playoffs on the line.
“We had never beat them before,” Bouman said. “The
game went into overtime, we threw for a touchdown at the end of the game and
our fans rushed the field. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.”
Bouman was back in his hometown on a recent
Saturday, holding a clinic for young football players in southwest Minnesota. At
49 years old he remains a strong, fit athlete, running around the field with
enthusiasm and teaching the skills that took him to the game’s highest level.
“It was awesome,” he said. “It’s something I’ve wanted
to do, get home and host a camp. All the feedback was positive, they loved it.”
The three-hour session focused on the passing
game, with two dozen quarterbacks and receivers taking part. Bouman and his son
Aidan, who began his college career at Iowa State and is a recent transfer to
the University of South Dakota, worked with the quarterbacks. The father-son
combination has spent many years together on the football field; Todd is the
former head coach at Buffalo High School, where Aidan was the starting quarterback.
During his NFL career, Todd worked as an assistant football coach at Pipestone (his
brother Troy was head coach) and Buffalo High School, serving in both capacities before departing when NFL teams called.
Everything began for Todd at his hometown,
where he was an all-state athlete
in football and basketball and went to state in track and field. He was a three-year
starting quarterback at St. Cloud State.
The clinic on RTR’s year-old
turf field was crisp, with quarterbacks and receivers working separately on
techniques at times and coming together to work on timing and passing routes. Water
breaks were frequent on a warm July morning.
“I told him how appreciative we are,” said RTR
head coach Joshua Fredrickson. “We don’t get into the kind of detail that he’s
working with. A guy like that with his experiences, working with our guys for
three hours, it’s definitely going to pay off. It was a lot of fun.”
Bouman, who stays busy with football camps and
clinics, had not previously held an event in his hometown. The kids paid 60
dollars for the three-hour session.
“A lot of high schools, especially small schools, don’t throw the ball
much, they don’t have the skill set of how to run a route, how to get open,” said
Bouman, who hopes to expand into similar events at several more southwest
Minnesota locations next summer.
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton’s new stadium sits next to
a world-class K-12 school, which also opened a year ago on
the western edge of Tyler, a town of 1,289.
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton is one of more than 100 Minnesota
high schools that have turf fields; with a 9-12 MSHSL enrollment of 177, RTR
is the third-smallest. Mountain Iron-Buhl has 136 students and Lakeview has 148.
Bouman’s first game on turf came during his
sophomore season in college when St. Cloud State played Mankato State at the
Metrodome.
“It’s awesome,” he said of his hometown’s turf
field. “There’s still nothing like playing on grass, but the beauty of turf is
you can use it all the time.”
Bouman’s legend is strong in his hometown.
He was the varsity football team’s long-snapper as an eighth-grader before becoming
a star quarterback. Local fans still talk about a legendary dunk he threw down
in the state basketball tournament.
Thirty-two years removed from his final season
as a high school football player, his hometown memories remain strong.
“I remember the games,” he said. “At lunch time,
people were backing their trucks in behind the end zone, picking their spot. There
was a wire cable around the field and people were lined up five, six deep. There’s
nothing better.”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
No comments:
Post a Comment