John’s Journal: A New Coach Gets Victory No. 1

 

On the penultimate Preps Today with John Millea podcast of 2021 my co-host, Minneapolis Star Tribune sports columnist Jim Souhan, asked if I had any final thoughts before we ended the show. My mind immediately went to the future, and I expressed optimism for 2022. (You can hear that podcast – Episode 180 -- here: https://www.mshsl.org/podcasts/preps-today-john-millea)  

That sense of optimism grew even stronger, and brought back ties to the past, after I attended a boys basketball game at Mounds View High School on Friday evening. The game was really fun, it was fast-paced, and the visiting Forest Lake Rangers came away with an exciting 65-57 win.

Before going into details of the game, let’s go back in time to the 1950s. A gentleman using a cane stood in the doorway to the gym on Friday and watched the action. He graduated from Forest Lake in 1959 and coached the boys basketball team at Mounds View for 45 years before retiring in 2012.

His name is Zigurd “Ziggy” Kauls and he is a member of almost any Hall of Fame you can imagine. The Mounds View gym bears his name: Kauls Court. Ziggy won 739 games with the Mustangs and stands fifth on the all-time Minnesota boys basketball coaching victory list.

Another name from way back was on the minds of a few people at Kauls Court on this night. Bob McDonald began his coaching career in 1955 at McGregor and became a legend at Chisholm, coaching for 59 years overall and winning a state-best 1,012 games. Bob was 87 when he died in October 2020.

The rookie head coach at Forest Lake is Kyle McDonald, one of Bob’s grandchildren. Kyle played basketball for his dad, Mike, the longtime coach at Cambridge-Isanti. His big brother Rhett did the same and is the head coach at Duluth East. Since Cambridge-Isanti did not have a game Friday night, Mike and Dayla McDonald came to Mounds View to watch their son’s team.

No matter the outcome, history would be made in one of two ways:

--The Mounds View Mustangs came into the game with 999 victories since the program began in the 1954-55 season.

--Kyle McDonald was hoping to notch his first career victory after the Rangers opened the season with three losses.

The second scenario played out, and it was historic. Kyle’s first win as a head coach came 66 years after his grandfather’s first.

When I interviewed Kyle after the game, the first thing he did was exactly what his father and grandfather would have done: He paid respect to the opponent.

“First, all the credit in the world goes to Mounds View,” Kyle said. “They’re a solid team, the atmosphere was crazy tonight.”

Indeed, the Mustangs are solid. They brought a 5-1 record into the game. Mounds View senior Dylan Wheeler made history in the final minute when he made a free throw for his 1,000^th career point. Dylan, who led the Mustangs with 16 points, is a prime example of the team’s rich history; his dad, Shell Wheeler, played for Ziggy, as did his uncle Rich. Older brother Mitchell played for current coach Dave Leiser (an assistant to Kauls for 21 years) and graduated in 2018.

Mike McDonald watched the game from the second row, close to the scorer’s table. During a timeout in the second half, one of the officials walked over to Mike and said, “The kid can coach.”

Yes he can. And he’s proud to be part of the first family of Minnesota basketball.

“Grandpa was watching over me tonight and I felt it all the way through the day,” Kyle told me afterwards. “And to have my mom and dad here means the world to me. They’ve been by my side all the way through.”

Kyle played college basketball at Wisconsin-Eau Claire, then was a member of his dad’s coaching staff for one year before becoming an assistant coach at Forest Lake for a year. He was named head coach last May. He is 24 years old.  

“Basketball is a really big part of our lives as McDonalds,” he said. “Our life revolves around it because of one man and that was Grandpa. We love the sport, but more importantly we love the people around it. And we love creating relationships and that's exactly what Grandpa did. And every single McDonald strives to be like him.”

Owen Waldoch, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, led Forest Lake with 22 points. Nolan Dumonceaux, a 5-11 sophomore guard, scored 20 and 6-2 senior Nick Bartlett had 14.

There will be plenty of McDonalds gathered at Augsburg College in Minneapolis in late December, when the teams coached by Mike, Rhett and Kyle compete in the eight-team Augsburg Holiday Tournament.

Kyle is thrilled to be in his new role.

“Honestly, it's a dream come true,” he said. “I remember talking to my dad and my brother less than two years ago and they asked me where my dream job is. I said it was Forest Lake. It’s where I always wanted to be. I had great respect for them when I was in high school. And it's just been a dream come true, being the head coach here. These guys work their butts off and I couldn't be more proud of them and our staff.”

As I wrote above, I am extremely optimistic about 2022. Seeing coaches young and old do good things, watching kids work together and compete, knowing the importance of history and seeing positive examples everywhere I go in our great state, it’s impossible to not be optimistic about the future, into 2022 and well beyond.

Happy New Year.

--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 

John’s Journal: New Coaches, New Energy

 

In the second game of the season for both teams, the Irondale boys basketball team traveled to Anoka for a non-conference contest last week. It wasn’t a highly anticipated matchup, considering that the Irondale Knights went 1-18 last season and the Anoka Tornadoes finished 0-19.

That combined record of 1-37 is in the past now, and both teams have new leadership in first-year head coaches who bring energy and solid basketball  backgrounds – including college coaching experience -- to their new positions.

Irondale coach Trent Davis and Anoka coach Jesse Jefferson are both 31 years old. They are Minnesota-born but spent time in other states before returning. Both work with students in non-classroom roles at their schools; Jefferson is a student achievement advisor at Anoka and Davis is a behavior specialist at Irondale.

“It’s impactful. It feels good,” Jefferson said of his job away from basketball.

Jefferson was born in Minneapolis and moved to Georgia when he was 12. He played on a state-tournament basketball team at Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Ga., and returned to Minnesota as a player at Bethel University in St. Paul from 2011-13. He was a junior varsity coach at Coon Rapids from 2013-17 before becoming a member of the coaching staff for the Bethel men’s basketball team.

He’s in his fourth year working at Anoka, and said he had never really thought about becoming a high school head coach until he had spent some time there.

“I worked at the school for a few years and fell in love with the school and the kids,” he said. “I wanted to change the basketball culture.”

Davis was born in Waterloo, Iowa, and grew up in Apple Valley. He attended St. Bernard’s High School in St. Paul, playing basketball there on teams coached by Ed Cassidy that went to state tournaments in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Among his teammates were future Minnesota Gopher Trevor Mbakwe and Jordair Jett, who was the Atlantic 10 Conference player of the year at St. Louis in the 2013-14 season.

“We had some good teams,” said Davis, who played basketball at Wisconsin-Superior and became an assistant there after graduating in 2014. He coached girls basketball at Gateway High School in Kissimmee, Florida, for two years before returning to Minnesota. He spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at the College of St. Katherine in St. Paul.

“It’s a pretty wonky coaching background,” Davis said. He added that one thing he learned while coaching in Florida was the importance of a basketball team with support that included a program to teach the game to kids before they got to high school

“That made me come up with the idea that if I ever take a high school job again, I would want more support,” he said.

Davis said he has found that at Irondale, calling it “the perfect opportunity. I always wanted to stick with college basketball, but if I had the chance to coach in high school I definitely wanted it to be a team with kids coming up.”

Four Knights are averaging double figures in scoring, with D.J. Anthony at 15, Dane Dedominces at 14, Drake Gomez at 12 and Jordan Tieh at 10.

At Anoka, Jay Nyamari leads the team with a 22-point scoring average, Keenen Rodriguez is at 14, Peyton Podany at 13 and A.J. Howze at 10.

Unlike Jefferson, who has been at Anoka for several years, Davis is new on the scene at Irondale this year and learning about the school and the students.

“I’m trying to get to know the players on a game level at this point,” he said. “We want people to talk about Irondale with a positive aspect and we want our players to be good young men, which starts in the classroom. We want them to go to class, do their job and be students first.”

Both coaches stress the importance of culture on their teams, and both know that expectations – at least on the outside – are not high this season.        Anoka is in the Northwest Suburban Conference and Class 4A Section 7. Irondale plays in the Suburban East Conference and Class 4A Section 5.

“We have high expectations for ourselves and I think we can compete to win our section,” Jefferson said. “We want to compete in every game.”

Davis said, “I’m not sure how far we will go. We could end up in the middle of the pack in our conference, which is tough with teams like East Ridge and Cretin-Derham Hall, Mounds View and others. We’re trying to take it game by game because it’s so new to me. … We really want to get Irondale basketball on the map and get people talking about us.”

--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 

John’s Journal: Mankato East Remembers Pal Kueth

 

The Mankato East boys basketball team was on the court Saturday at Hopkins High School, meeting South St. Paul in one of 15 games on two courts as part of the Breakdown Tipoff Classic. The court was standard, with two hoops, out-of-bounds lines, free throw circles, etc. But it wasn’t quite the same as the Cougars’ home court.

New this season at Mankato East are two initials, a P and a K, inside a black circle in one corner of the court. They are in memory of 2021 grad Pal Kueth, who died suddenly at home on Sept. 11.

Pal’s initials were placed at the spot from where he launched a game-winning three-point shot at the buzzer to give East a 45-44 win over crosstown rival Mankato West last March. Everyone who was there will remember it forever.

“That's just a moment we'll never forget. It was crazy,” said East senior Puolrah Gong after the Cougars lost to South St. Paul 66-62. “I remember the play exactly. A kid missed a free throw, B.J. (Omot) got it, passed it to me and I couldn't get the shot off. I passed to Pal and he hit the shot, like he always did.”

A photo of Pal’s initials on the court was posted on Twitter recently by the East activities account (@Mankato_East), with these words: “Remembering Pal Kueth this season...the initials PK mark the spot Pal shot the game-winning three-pointer against Mankato West last season here at East. We miss you Pal.”

“He was an all-around leader and an all-around great person,” said Gong, a 6-foot-7 forward. “He was fun to be around, always smiling. Always. He really taught us a lot. He means a lot to us.”

Omot, a 6-8 senior who led the Cougars with 19 points Saturday, said, “If you were having a bad day, you’d just look at him and he made you smile. He was just that type of person. It was really tough losing him.”

Coach Joe Madson said, “We loved him. Pal was a great teammate, a very unselfish player who always had a smile on his face. He loved basketball. We want to remember him. He went way too early.”

In a game story about Kueth’s big bucket against West last year, the Mankato Free Press’ Chad Courrier quoted Pal: “I trust everybody on my team, and I know they could make a shot if we need to. But my teammates trusted me, and all I had to do was make the shot.”

The Cougars remember Pal with fondness and will keep him in their hearts throughout this season and beyond, on the court and off.

“I think it makes us play harder now,” Omot said. “You just want to do it for him, because he's one of us.”

--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 

John’s Journal: Moorhead Is 2021 Sack Hunger Champion

 

The Minnesota State High School League is proud to announce that Moorhead High School is the champion of the third John’s Journal Sack Hunger campaign, in which schools all over the state are encouraged to collect non-perishable food items for those in need.

The Sack Hunger campaign began in 2018, when Spring Grove High School was the champion. Owatonna High School won the Sack Hunger campaign in 2019 and the drive was not held in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The effort returned this year and the Moorhead Spuds went above and beyond to feed those in need. Moorhead High School and other buildings in the district collected canned food as well as monetary donations. A total of 15,846 canned items was collected by the Spuds, along with more than two thousand dollars in funds to feed the hungry.

Moorhead’s effort was part of the annual Fill the Dome campaign in the Fargo-Moorhead area, with the goal of filling the floor of the Fargodome with food donations for those in need. During Fill the Dome’s 14 years, four million meals have been provided to help feed hungry children, seniors and families in the region. Students also have collected more than $690,000 during that time. Fill the Dome is led by Great Plains Food Bank in Fargo-Moorhead.

Fill the Dome has been happening in the Moorhead community since the beginning in 2007. At Moorhead High School, teachers and classes are encouraged to compete to bring in the most food, with a pizza party being awarded to the "winning" class. They have created a culture that supports this community food drive and they have worked hard over the years to raise awareness about hunger and food insecurity.

The Fill the Dome project at Moorhead High School is coordinated entirely by two student council members, who attend meetings throughout the summer and fall to coordinate and plan the food drive and the community activities associated with FTD. They also work with other schools in the district to encourage their food-drive plans and gather all the food at the end of the designated time. 

This year's student leaders at Moorhead High were Evie Kenkel and Megan Wilke. Congratulations to them!

The Sack Hunger campaign is a partnership between the MSHSL and Second Harvest Heartland to fight hunger in Minnesota and the upper Midwest.

According to Second Harvest Heartland, more than half a million Minnesotans are now facing hunger, including 200,000 kids who are going to bed hungry, and 63 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, when one unexpected expense can mean choosing rent over meals.

 

--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 

John’s Journal: Basketball Is A Family Affair At NRHEG

 

Every time the girls basketball team from New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale Geneva hits the road for a game, they are driven by someone special. The Panthers may be the only team in Minnesota with a bus driver who also won back-to-back state championships as a head coach.

John Schultz stepped down after 11 years as head coach after NRHEG won Class 2A state championships in 2013 and 2014, completing three consecutive trips to state. Those teams were led by Carlie Wagner, who is the second-leading career scorer in state history (behind Braham’s Rebekah Dahlman) and went on to play at the University of Minnesota.

Schultz is retired from teaching but remains busy working as a substitute teacher and bus driver, including his duties with the basketball team (and the volleyball team in the fall). Onika Peterson, who was one of Schultz’s assistants, became head coach when he retired. She was more than happy to add Schultz to her staff a couple years ago.

There also was a family dynamic to his return to the bench. John’s daughter Sidney, a varsity player since seventh grade, is a junior who reached the 1,000-point milestone last week.

The Panthers won at Blooming Prairie 68-44 on Tuesday night to improve to 3-0 on the season. After chatting for a few minutes on the court afterwards, John Schultz excused himself because he had to warm up the bus for the trip home.

“It's amazing,” Peterson said. “Why would you not want him on your staff? All the experience he has, having the state run and back-to-back state titles.”

Sidney was a little kid when the Panthers had their championship run, and she was on the inside of it all.

“I was at all the practices,” she said. “I always tried to listen in on everything and take it all in as much as I could. I tried to learn from everything they did.”

Another key player on those teams was Sidney’s sister Jade, who now is a special education teacher at Maple River (while she misses a day of teaching this week, the substitute teacher will be her dad).

John has lots of wonderful memories from the Panthers’ state tournament experiences, including taking the court at Target Center.

“When we walked into Target Center for the very first time and that place was packed, that was breathtaking,” he said. “But the biggest thing was those kids. I had them from third grade on and they were the toughest kids I’ve ever seen. They were so fine with their roles, it didn’t matter what it was; they were so happy and proud of what they did for the team. We didn’t talk about scoring because everybody knew that we would score, we worried about defense and rebounding and things like that.”

The current players also had John Schultz as a coach before he returned to the bench. He worked with Sindey’s class beginning when they were in third grade, which helped make his return to the varsity staff seamless. John’s career record as a head coach is 225-58.

“He has a lot of knowledge and the girls are obviously comfortable with him since he's coached them for so many years,” Peterson said. “And it's always great to have another set of eyes, and more experienced eyes when he's coached way more games than I have. It's been really, really great.”

Sidney Schultz is the 13^th girls player from New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva to score at least 1,000 points. The list is a who’s-who of talented athletes, led by the top three of Carlie Wagner and her younger twin sisters, Maddie and Marnie. Jade Schultz is No. 5 on the list and current senior Sophie Stork is No. 12.

Sidney is a 5-foot-5 point guard who is talented, relentless and poised.

“She's an absolutely hardworking, extremely driven athlete,” Peterson said. “I want to call her a bruiser, but she has more finesse than that. But she's just tough and she has been that way since she was in seventh grade. She works extremely hard, she attacks the basket really well. She has a good three-point shot and as a point guard she sees her teammates well. She gets knocked down, she hops back up, kind of shakes it off and starts sprinting the length of the court.”

Sidney wore a big smile when posing for a postgame photo with her dad.

“I’m very used to it,” she said of being coached by her father. “It's actually comforting. I'm always looking for him to be there on the bench, cheering me on, and he's always there.”

--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 

 

John’s Journal: “The Other Side of Glory” Is A Glorious Read

 

I am in the midst of reading a Hemingway novel and it involves some heavy lifting. That fellow believed in using a massive amount of detail in his writing and it takes commitment – at least for me – to conquer those 470 pages. I will get there, but in the meantime a book arrived in the mail that I have been looking forward to reading.

In 2011, Carl Pierson wrote “The Politics of Coaching: A Survival Guide To Keep Coaches From Getting Burned.” It’s basically a manual for coaches, explaining lots of circumstances that coaches face and offers methods for dealing with them. I found it to be very well done.

Pierson’s next project, which I just received, is “The Other Side of Glory: A Team’s Quest for High School Girls Basketball History.” It is a compelling read about the Waconia Wildcats in 2019-20, the first season after Pierson stepped down as the team’s head coach.

While on a weekend family trip to Iowa, I began reading the book on Friday night and I didn’t put it down until I finished the last of its 242 pages. It is fast-paced, fun and extremely insightful.

I found it fitting to have read the book in Iowa, where I grew up watching high school girls play six-on-six basketball. (If you’ve never seen it, go to YouTube and type in “Iowa six on six girls basketball” and prepare to have your mind blown.)

Iowa girls began playing six-on-six in the 1920s and never stopped. In fact, for most of the 20^th century, including during my formative years, the Iowa girls state basketball tournament was bigger than the boys tournament and the state’s best female players were household names statewide. In Minnesota and most of the rest of the country, girls sports were shut down long ago and revived only with the passing of Title IX in 1972.

Pierson – a social studies teacher at Waconia High School, member of the Waconia City Council and executive director of the Minnesota Girls Basketball Coaches Association  -- does a great job of describing the history of Minnesota girls basketball, specifically in Waconia, where teams had so many state tournament near-misses over the years that the term "curse" was used. The book is a start-to-finish chronicle of Waconia’s 2019-2020 season and the Wildcats’ dream of becoming the first girls basketball team in school history to reach state.

Pierson offers plenty of superior behind-the-scenes storytelling and drama, from the locker room to the practice floor to bus rides and beyond. The book also includes lots of play-by-play details from games, which sometimes are literally basket-by-basket breakdowns. There are several references to officials and controversial calls (oddly, none of which apparently worked in the Wildcats’ favor).

There are precursors to this line of books, of course, most notably Buzz Bissinger’s “Friday Night Lights” in 1990. Another one I enjoyed was Joe Drape’s “Our Boys” about a Kansas football team and published in 2009. I have seen very few books chronicling a season for a high schools girls team. If “The Other Side of Glory” is breaking new ground, it’s doing so in an impressive way.

There was something in the book that caught me by surprise: No players are identified by their real names. Instead, Pierson used the nicknames that all members of the team went by: Bird, Mel, Raptor, Salsa, Scrunchie, Snake, Ozzie, Rookie, Dozer, Sauce, etc. This was a bit disconcerting, at least for me, and seemed to make the individual players somewhat less genuine and human. Head coach Dusty Niebauer, assistant coach Ashley Westphal and school administrators are identified in full, but the players are basically anonymous to anyone not familiar with that specific team.

To be honest, I just don’t know what to make of that. I found it difficult to identify with the players when I didn’t know their names. I can’t imagine “Friday Night Lights” without fully identifying everyone in the story and going into depth on each of them, on the field and off. In reading “The Other Side of Glory,” I would have liked to learn more about the key players; basic things like their future goals, their parents’ professions, the size of their families, the classes they liked and disliked … just more depth into their lives. 

That being said, Pierson is the perfect person to tell this story. The father of two young children, he stepped down as the Waconia coach after the 2018-19 season, which ended in a heartbreaking one-point loss to Cooper in a section championship game. I wrote about Pierson’s teams on occasion over the years, including a stretch when his players, undersized but quick, raced up and down the court, shot threes with abandon and averaged nearly 95 points per game.

After Pierson stepped away, 15-year assistant Niebauer took over in 2019-20. Pierson knew Niebauer and the players very well and tells a tremendous tale of their season.

The foreward is written by University of Minnesota women’s basketball coach Lindsay Whalen, whose hometown of Hutchinson is 35 miles from Waconia. She wrote: “My journey and the journey of the Waconia girls basketball team shows us that if you persevere through adversity, stick together as a team, work through conflict, and have passion for the game you love, then anything is possible.”

That indeed is the great lesson of Pierson’s book.

With that, I’ll take some deep breaths, pack a lunch and get back to Hemingway. I don’t believe I’ll enjoy old Ernest as much as I enjoyed “The Other Side of Glory.”

--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 

John’s Journal: Buses Filled With Fans, Free Of Charge

 

The little Minnesota town of Fertile, located 23 miles southeast of Crookston, was founded in 1879 when the first settlers arrived. Brothers Knute and Einar Nelson, plus their uncle Lars A. Bolstad, made their way to Minnesota from Norway. Soon thereafter, brothers Askeld Olsen Morvig and Anders Olsen Morvig were part of a group that set up homesteads near the Nelson-Bolstad place.

At any mention of the word “pigskin,” those pioneers would probably have thought of a nice hat or gloves made from hog parts. But in this autumn nearly a century and a half later, football has been the biggest thing in Fertile – as well as in  Beltrami, 13 miles due west – since about as long as anyone can recall.

A great testament to the support for the Fertile-Beltrami Falcons came walking through the Legacy Gate at U.S. Bank Stadium for Saturday’s Nine-Man football state championship game. Business owners, farmers and other folks made sure everyone in those little towns (Fertile has 808 residents and Beltrami is home to 101 proud citizens) could catch a free ride to the game … 275 miles and more than four hours away from home.

Five chartered buses were filled with Falcon fans, all riding free of charge, thanks to approximately $25,000 worth of donations. In a report by Matt Henson of WDAY TV in Fargo, “We get to see these kids every day, ever since they asked their parents for candy in the candy aisle," said Travid Jensrud, the co-owner of JT's Station, a convenience store in Fertile. (Click here to see the story: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/7299461-Businesses-and-farmers-raise-money-to-bus-Fertile-community-to-cheer-on-football-team-at-state-title-game?fbclid=IwAR3vGGWWY6URUDnJlpyafqtD52BLWd_2NLMMfR7w4OFkktY7A_2QXDfDNzU )

"Oh, that's just our community. It’s very tight-knit,” said Falcons coach Brian Nelson after a 58-8 loss to LeRoy-Ostrander. “They love their sports teams, along with band and choir, too, and they get behind you, they support you.

“You know, that's just the tip of the iceberg, with some of the things that have been donated, like food and snacks on the bus and things like that. We're very, very grateful for those and we'll get thank yous off as soon as we can get take a little while to digest some of this.”

The Falcons fans filled the stands behind their team’s bench and never stopped pulling for their boys. The players were well aware of their fans, too.

“Our crowd is insane,” said senior Austin Bjerk. “You look back in the stands and it’s all red. We just love that, all the support they give us. It’s like the whole town was here.”

Classmate Rylin Petry added, “I'm very grateful. It’s such a great community. They've been with us since the first game. We had a whole bunch of people come to our home games and away games. And now, looking to see them in the stands, it was great, the amount of support we have, and we're very thankful for that.”

Fertile-Beltrami played in its first Prep Bowl, advancing to the state tournament for the first time since 2006 and sixth time overall. The Falcons finished with a record of 13-1.

LeRoy-Ostrander, at state for the 13^th time and first since 2004, won its first championship; the Cardinals were state runners-up in 1993 and 1995. They finished 12-2, losing to Lanesboro and Grand Meadow during the regular season and defeating both in the Section 1 playoffs.

The Cardinals also were recipients of strong community support that went beyond the large number of fans at U.S. Bank Stadium. They held two practices this week at the Packer Dome in Austin, a bubble that covers Austin High School’s football/soccer field during cold months. Community contributions covered those costs.

“God bless our community,” said LeRoy-Ostrander coach Trevor Carrier, who also talked about his small group of players.

“You look at our sideline and we’ve got 18, 19 guys,” he said. “We don't have a lot of guys but we have a lot of quality. I wouldn't trade my 18 guys for another 60 anywhere.”

--LeRoy-Ostrander senior quarterback Chase Johnson finished with a Prep Bowl-record 412 yards (140 passing, 272 rushing). The previous record was 401 (344 passing, 57 rushing) by Cory Hackett of Waterville-Elysian-Morristown in 1999.

--The Prep Bowl record for longest run from scrimmage is 92 yards by Hutchinson’s Robbie Grimsley in 2013. Another Hutch Tiger, Mitchell Piehl, ran for a 90-yard score in Friday’s 42-14 Class 4A win over Kasson-Mantorville.  

--Brad Rosa, a member of the officiating crew for Saturday’s Nine-Man championship game, worked his second Prep Bowl game. The first was 37 years ago, in 1984, when he was on the field as Granite Falls defeated Breckenridge 13-7 for the Class B title.

--Lakeville South, which won the Class 6A title Friday night with a 13-7 win over Maple Grove, has a first-year offensive coordinator who is no stranger to championship football. Jon Bakken was the head coach at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown for 34 years, winning state championships in 1989, 1999 and 2009.

2021 Prep Bowl

Friday’s Games

1A: Mayer Lutheran 20, Minneota 14

2A: Chatfield 14,West Central Area/Ashby 13

4A: Hutchinson 42, Kasson-Mantorville 14

6A: Lakeville South 13, Maple Grove 7

Saturday’s Games

Nine-Man: LeRoy-Ostrander 58, Fertile-Beltrami 8

3A: Plainview-Elgin-Millville vs. Dassel-Cokato

5A: Mahtomedi vs. Mankato West

--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 

 

John’s Journal: “That's just 100 percent effort”

 

In a play that will live on in Prep Bowl lore, Minneota senior Jonah Gruenes scored a near-miraculous touchdown Friday late in the first half of the Vikings’ 20-14 loss to Mayer Lutheran in the Class 1A championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium.

On the first play after the Vikings recovered a Mayer Lutheran fumble, Gruenes caught a 22-yard scoring pass from Isaac Pohlen to give Minneota a 14-13 lead at halftime. In the official statistical account, the play is described thusly: #12 I. Pohlen pass complete to #10 J. Gruenes for 22 yards to the MLn00 TOUCHDOWN, clock 00:31, 1ST DOWN.

That is certainly accurate, but what Gruenes did on the play was something special. He caught the pass inside the 15-yard line and it looked like a short gain. But he never went down, even as multiple defenders jumped on him. He kept his legs moving, carrying tacklers and careening toward the end zone. With a couple teammates pushing the pile, Jonah knocked over a pylon as he reached the end zone. It was a phenomenal display of power and perseverance.

“It was huge,” said Vikings coach Chad Johnston. “That was an effort thing. All of a sudden we're down here and he's just carrying it, he gets a little help from some of his teammates. That's just 100 percent effort. And it was huge. You always talk about going into halftime with momentum, and we didn't have a whole lot at that time. … That was a huge play.”

Jonah said, “It definitely gave us some confidence going into the second half. I think we kind of had our heads down, we were losing. We haven’t really experienced that all year. It was a new situation and it was nice to go into the half leading.”

After every Prep Bowl game each team names a Most Valuable Teammate, who is recognized during the awards ceremony. Mayer Lutheran gave the honor to team manager Isaac Schmutzer and Minneota’s recipient was Gruenes.

At all semifinal and Prep Bowl games at U.S. Bank Stadium, head coaches can bring any players they choose into the postgame media room. Johnston brought Gruenes with him. “We've got a lot of quiet guys. As you can jokingly say, I brought probably the most quiet one with me here,” he said, smiling at Jonah. “We’ve got a lot of quiet guys but they lead by example, they give effort. A big reason for us to give him the MVT was just the effort throughout the year and the unselfish play. He not only carries the ball, he goes out for passes, he's probably our leading wingback blocker, he goes out in motion a lot. We’ve asked him to do a lot of things all season long, He has been our top linebacker and those are things that you expect out of your seniors.”

--Minneota played in its 10^th Prep Bowl, with titles in 1986, 1987, 1988, 2009, 2014, 2015 and 2017. Mayer Lutheran won the state championship in its first Prep Bowl.

--Johnston is also Minneota’s girls basketball coach. The Vikings open the season Tuesday with a home game against Ortonville.

Prep Bowl Dreams Do Come True

Chatfield’s Jeff Johnson knows he is fortunate to have coached two state championship teams. The Gophers won the 2013 Class 2A title and did it again Friday with a 14-13 nail-biter over West Central Area/Ashby. The Gophers also won Class C championships in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Johnson, a Pine Island native, first experienced the Prep Bowl as a child but never reached it as a player.

“In the Metrodome back then, my dad brought me to these games and I was in first, second, third grade,” he said. “I only had one goal, and that was to get there and I fell short my senior year. So in 2013, I told those guys, ‘Thank you, thank you for getting me here,’ because that was my main goal. And for these guys here, it's their own championship.

“Chatfield’s been spoiled. In the 90s we won three, and it really puts a shadow on you, you kind of feel like you have to win it or else your season's not very successful. And in 2013 we felt that pressure and right now, we felt that again. So I'm darn glad that we won it. Not many teams get here. This was just a fantastic, successful season from day one. This is their own team, their own championship.”

--Despite Friday’s loss, West Central Area/Ashby senior Hunter Norby called the experience of playing in the state semifinals and Prep Bowl “The best two weeks I’ve ever had.”

Teammate and fellow senior Mattson Hoff said, “At the beginning of the season, in August, if you would have told me we're going to the state title game I would have thought you were crazy. I just hope that (younger kids) understand this: if you put your mind to it, and you believe it, you put your heart into it, it's possible.”

Hurrah For Dad

One of the officials for Friday’s Class 1A game had some special fans watching on TV. Tiffany Eichten, wife of official Christopher Eichten of Wabasso, posted a photo on Twitter of their son Jeter dressed in referee stripes and standing in front of a television (with his dad pictured on the screen). Tiffany’s post read: “It's not every day you get to watch Dad ref on TV, but when he does you have to make sure you dress just like him!”

2021 Prep Bowl

Friday’s Games

1A: Mayer Lutheran 20, Minneota 14

2A: Chatfield 14,West Central Area/Ashby 13

4A: Kasson-Mantorville vs. Hutchinson

6A: Maple Grove vs. Lakeville South

Saturday’s Games

Nine-Man: LeRoy-Ostrander vs. Fertile-Beltrami, 10 a.m.

3A: Plainview-Elgin-Millville vs. Dassel-Cokato, 1 p.m.

5A: Mahtomedi vs. Mankato West, 4 p.m.

--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 

John’s Journal: The Rostberg Name Will Live Forever In Hutchinson

 

In several ways, football is very special at Hutchinson High School. Home games for the Tigers at S.R. Knutson Field provide a stellar example of tradition, with big crowds that include townspeople who tape blankets to bleacher seats hours before kickoff in order to have an optimum view of the action.

The tradition also includes lots of success under the first family of Minnesota high school football coaches. Hutchinson will play in its seventh Prep Bowl game this week, taking a 11-1 record into Friday’s 4 o’clock Class 4A state championship against Kasson-Mantorville (9-3) at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Tigers won championships in 1983, 1984, 1998, 2012, 2013 and were state runners-up in 2003. Those first three crowns came with Grady Rostberg as the head coach; his son Andy was the quarterback in 1983 and 1984 and the offensive coordinator in 1998.

Grady became the Tigers coach in 1970 and Andy took over when Grady retired in 1999. If the Tigers defeat Kasson-Mantorville, Andy will match his dad’s three state titles.

The Rostbergs are Minnesota’s No. 1 father-son coaching combination in career wins. Their combined record is 482-137-1; Grady’s record is 277-89-1 and Andy is 205-48. Grady continues to contribute as a volunteer, watching from the press box with assistant coaches on game days.

It’s pretty amazing to think that the last time someone other than a Rostberg coached the Tigers, the Woodstock music festival was taking place and Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon. (The coach prior to Grady was Bill Snyder, who stepped down from coaching when he was named principal.)

Another layer of tradition will be added to Hutchinson football next season when S.R. Knutson Field will be given an additional name to honor the Rostbergs. When a proposal to do so was submitted to the school board, it included these words: “to honor the Rostberg family who has done so much for Hutchinson student-athletes on and off the field for more than the past 50 years … the Rostberg family has and continues to make an impact on many levels.”

The Hutchinson gym was named “Whalen Gymnasium” in 2018 in honor of basketball legend Lindsay Whalen … whose high school basketball coach was Andy Rostberg.

The football facility’s name will be something along the lines of “Rostberg Stadium at S.R. Knutson Field,” with the Rostberg name attached to new facilities that include bleachers, lights and a press box. Efforts are also being made to add a turf field to the facility at some point in the future. S.R. Knutson was the superintendent when the original field was built.

After Hutchinson defeated Orono 36-6 in last week’s state semifinals, Andy Rostberg was asked about the town’s football tradition.

 “That's the dream,” he said, “one town, one team, one dream. And we always say when we win, we all win, everybody wins. When somebody calls and says, ‘How did the Tigers do?,’ we don't say, ‘They won.’ We say ‘We won,’ because you’re part of that, the town is a part of that. It's kind of fun to share it with as many people as you can.”

The current Tigers were little kids when the team won its last state title in 2013. The 2021 Tigers lost only to Becker, the team Kasson-Mantorville rallied to beat 24-20 in the state semifinals.

Talking about his players, especially the seniors, Rostberg said last week, “They've got one more chapter in the book that they would like to write for 2021 and I know we're all excited. We talk about it all the time. Now we get to go hang out for one more week, now we know when the last practice of the season is and that doesn't happen very often. We've got four more practices and one game.”

2021 Prep Bowl

Friday, Nov. 26

1A: Minneota vs. Mayer Lutheran, 10 a.m.

2A: Chatfield vs. West Central Area/Ashby 1 p.m.

4A: Kasson-Mantorville vs. Hutchinson, 4 p.m.

6A: Maple Grove vs. Lakeville South, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 27

Nine-Man: LeRoy-Ostrander vs. Fertile-Beltrami, 10 a.m.

3A: Plainview-Elgin-Millville vs. Dassel-Cokato, 1 p.m.

5A: Mahtomedi vs. Mankato West, 4 p.m.

--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 

John’s Journal: Giving Thanks For High School Football

 

From border to border, North to South, East to West, this has been one of the most amazing high school football seasons I have witnessed. The weather has been exceptional for the most part, but the biggest marker of the 2021 football season has been the sense of normalcy after a 2020 season that saw limited fans, disrupted schedules and no fall state tournaments due to Covid-19.

There was a clear sense of joy, happiness and gratitude everywhere I went this fall. I think we all have a renewed feeling of appreciation for high school activities after the pandemic changed so much for so long. I saw nonstop smiling faces during my travels to schools, practices and games.

I watched 16 outdoor football games before we headed indoors to U.S. Bank Stadium for last week’s 14 semifinals and this week’s seven Prep Bowl championship games. This week’s contests will be a major celebration of high school football in Minnesota.

In my eyes, football games provide the epitome of community. At schools large and small, folks gather to watch football but also to visit with their neighbors, catch up on the news and support their kids. It’s a magical scene, with the action on the field the focus, but with so many other things happening; the pep band performing, cheerleaders working hard, student fans having so much fun, little kids playing football and chasing each other behind the bleachers. There is nothing else like it.

I have been going back through the football-related stories I wrote this fall here on John’s Journal. I saw it all, from Nine-Man to Class 6A, in little rural villages and giant suburbs. This resulted in the below brief reminders of each story, along with links to read the full stories.

What a season it’s been!

--As the Chisago Lakes football team prepares for a new season, one small moment at Monday’s practice – a very brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene – encapsulated everything that Minnesota high school athletes and teams have gone through since Covid-19 began its long, slow bat flip and home run trot around the planet.

The Wildcats wrapped up the day’s drills with 40-yard sprints. Starting at one goal line on their grass practice field, they ran out to the 40-yard line, then back, then out and back again in three groups. Head coach Bill Weiss offered a reminder as one of the groups prepared to run: “Behind the line, not on it! Little things matter, guys!”

They absolutely do. Little things like the simple act of playing a football game. The Wildcats experienced that just once last fall. That’s correct: The Chisago Lakes football team played all of one game, with Covid driving a stake through the rest of their 2020 schedule. (Rush City is the only other team that played just one game in 2020, while Wabasha-Kellogg played no games a year ago.)

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-new-season-begins-little-things-are-big

--The night had not gone well. The boys on the Wabasha-Kellogg football team – all 19 in uniform -- had hoped to win their season opener against Cleveland High School on a lovely Friday night at their home field, nestled on a piece of ground surrounded by southeastern Minnesota bluffs, a short distance from the Mississippi River.

In the final gathering before kickoff, in an equipment shed near the field, Wabasha-Kellogg coach Tim Klingbeil reinforced how special nights like this are: “It's an exciting thing that we get to do as young men. When high school football is over, it's done, it’s over. It ain’t golf. You get to create as many memories as you can on that field right now, tonight, because it just doesn't last very long. It disappears really quickly.”

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-wabasha-kellogg-returns-field

--Brad Wendland wants you to do something, no matter who you are, where you live or where you work or go to school. Wendland, the head football coach at Waseca High School, knows he is lucky to be alive and he wants others to have the second chance he’s getting.

His heart stopped beating during a game early this season. Wendland collapsed on the sideline and athletic trainers from Waseca and St. Peter (the visiting team), joined by a nurse who was in the stands and others, absolutely saved his life. They maintained his airway, they did chest compressions, they used an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to shock his heart.  

Wendland was fortunate. When he was struck by sudden cardiac arrest, he was surrounded by people who were trained in life-saving skills, at a school that had implemented plans to handle such a crisis.

“You’d better put in (this story) the importance of CPR training and having AEDs available,” Brad told me. “If one person hears it and does it, or one person in the crowd that night gets a checkup or asks at work, ‘Where’s our AED,’ or gets trained in CPR, it will be worth it.”

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-every-day-good-day-wasecas-wendland

--Alexander Hamilton never gave a thought to football or high school marching bands, since neither was even a thing when the founding father came out on the short end of a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. But Hamilton gets a share of the credit for what is happening with the Farmington High School football team and marching band this fall. The two groups – 60 varsity football players and 140 musicians – have formed a close relationship with an assist from good ol’ A dot Ham.

Bradley Mariska, one of the school’s band directors, and Jon Pieper, the Tigers’ co-head football coach along with Rick Sutton, have been working together to create a class based on the life of Hamilton and the Broadway musical about him. Mariska will handle the musical aspects of the class and Pieper, a social studies teacher, will focus on history. 

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-alexander-hamilton-football-and-marching-band

--Gary Sloan retired as the football coach at Grand Meadow, a Nine-Man powerhouse, after the Superlarks season ended. I have known Gary for years and always enjoyed spending time in Grand Meadow.

Gary’s teams won four consecutive state championships from 2013 to 2016 and went to state many times in his 29-year career as head coach. Asked about his memories, Sloan didn’t mention state championships or big wins. He talked about the important people in his life: the players.

“The games are fun but I’ve built so many relationships with kids,” he said, “and a lot of those kids now are 35 or 40 years old. A handful of them still call me coach.”

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-grand-meadows-sloan-steps-down

--On back-to-back days on October I went to football games at two new stadiums; Class 6A Forest Lake and Class 1A Lakeview in Cottonwood. Both schools celebrated the arrival of artificial turf as part of stadium renovations that have put both schools on the map. Lakeview is the second-smallest school in Minnesota with its own turf field. The smallest is Mountain Iron-Buhl, with an MSHSL enrollment of 136 … 12 fewer students than Lakeview.

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-after-21-years-minnesota-covered-turf

--Four years ago, I wrote about a unique high school football team. The St. Clair/Mankato Loyola Spartans were in their first season as a combined, cooperative team. There are 12 seniors on the 2021 Spartans roster, and they remember well what it was like when the now-rock-solid bonds began to be forged.

“Some of my closest friends go to Loyola,” said St. Clair senior Hayden Kasprowicz. “Thinking back to four years ago, I would have never, ever thought about that. I knew of people but didn't know them on a personal level. I think we were all kind of nervous but also excited.”

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-four-years-later-they-remain-spartans-life

--I was in the press box at St. Thomas Academy when the Cadets defeated Hastings in the section playoffs. It was the final event of a nearly two-decade radio career for Nick Tuckner, the voice of the Hastings Raiders. After he had signed off for the final time, St. Thomas Academy coach Dan O’Brien, one of the classiest people I know, came into the press box to shake Nick’s hand and congratulate him. It was a wonderful moment.

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-voice-raiders-says-farewell

Kim Royston was an all-state football player at Cretin-Derham Hall and an All-Big Ten selection at the University of Minnesota. This fall was his first season as an MSHSL football official. Royston, a middle school principal, said, “I’m loving it. I’m learning new things every week. It’s really therapeutic after a long hard day at the middle school to go out there in nice weather, working in the game you love.”

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-kim-royston-goes-big-ten-back-judge

--Marshall Behrens is one of the most well-known and respected officials in Minnesota high school sports. He officiates football and volleyball in the fall, girls and boys basketball in the winter, and baseball and softball in the spring. Away from high school sports, he also works Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football games and amateur baseball. Yes, he is a busy guy. He wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Officiating has become such a passion for me,” he said. “I’ve often used the word addiction. It’s so much a part of my life. The people and the relationships, the good friends, just giving back and seeing the kids. I don’t know what I’d do without it.”

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-officially-speaking-behrens-does-it-all

--During a football game between Cretin-Derham Hall and St. Thomas Academy at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center, a receiver caught a pass in the left flat and had one tackler to beat in order to gain big yards. As the receiver was brought down quickly by the lone defender, a man watching from the press box said, “You’ve gotta beat that guy.”

Michael Floyd knew what he was talking about, because he made a living by catching passes and beating tacklers. Floyd was a star at Cretin-Derham Hall, where he graduated in 2008, set Notre Dame records in several categories during his four years there, was a first-round NFL draft pick and played with Arizona, New England (earning a Super Bowl ring), Minnesota, New Orleans, Washington and Baltimore from 2012 to 2019.

Floyd, who teamed with 1994 Cretin-Derham Hall grad and former NFL player Matt Birk as honorary captains for the Raiders in Friday’s game, is back in his hometown filling a new football role: coach. Floyd is a first-year assistant wide receivers coach at NCAA Division II Concordia University in St. Paul.

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-michael-floyd-back-home-football-field

--Ron Stolski, the most well-known football coach in Minnesota annals, retired after the 2019 season. He coached for a total of 58 years, the last 45 at Brainerd High School. No high school head football coach in Minnesota worked more seasons than Stolski. 

He announced his retirement in January 2020, and a ceremony to honor Stolski was scheduled for that spring. But the Covid-19 pandemic derailed those plans; the event was rescheduled and postponed again. A celebration was finally held in October in Brainerd, and it was magnificent. Hundreds of people gathered at the Northern Pacific Center, including former players, men who coached alongside Stolski, men who coached against him, friends and family. Later in the day, a reunion of Brainerd football alumni was held in the same location. It was a grand day in Brainerd.

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-honoring-ron-stolski-58-years-coaching-educating

--Since about fourth grade, Phillip Klaphake knew he wanted to be a coach. He comes from a family of coaches, and as the head football coach at Sauk Rapids-Rice put it, “I don’t know if I’m good at anything else. Coaching is in our blood, for sure.”

Phillip was on the football, basketball, baseball and track and field teams in high school before becoming a record-setting quarterback at St. Cloud State. He remained at St. Cloud State for a year as a graduate assistant coach, then worked as an assistant coach at Gustavus Adolphus College for one year before becoming head coach at Sauk Rapids-Rice in 2016.

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-storm-rising

--On an absolutely perfect night for football, I watched Grand Rapids play at North Branch. The North Branch Vikings came out on top 21-20 in an exciting game (the Thunderhawks would even the score by defeating the Vikings 14-12 in the Class 4A Section 7 championship game).

I wrote about two individuals after that game. A week before Grand Rapids’ first game, senior linebacker/quarterback Andrew Thomsen was hurt as he was tackled during a scrimmage. He walked off the field, but later was diagnosed with a serious injury. A broken neck. He was flown to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, where spinal-fusion surgery was performed. Andrew missed the season-opening game against Mora but has been with his teammates at every practice and game since. 

A motto for the North Branch football team is “Family.” For the players and coaches, including head coach Justin Voss, that concept extends well beyond the shirts on which the word is printed. “I don’t want that to be a loose term,” Voss said. “Our guys have invested in that. We show love by sacrificing for each other. We want to show it on the football field, in the classroom and in the community. The kids want to be part of that and welcome others in. We talk about attitude, effort and family.”

As the teams warmed up Friday night, Voss sprinted from the field and over the eight-lane track to a fence. He ran to a little girl named Molly and hugged her. Voss is a special education teacher who works with severe profound children. Molly is one of his students.

“I love it when they come to the games,” Voss said. “I tell them to call me over so I can come and say hi.”

https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-halo-family-life-lessons

2021 Prep Bowl

Friday, Nov. 26

1A: Minneota vs. Mayer Lutheran, 10 a.m.

2A: Chatfield vs. West Central Area/Ashby 1 p.m.

4A: Kasson-Mantorville vs. Hutchinson, 4 p.m.

6A: Maple Grove vs. Lakeville South, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 27

Nine-Man: LeRoy-Ostrander vs. Fertile-Beltrami, 10 a.m.

3A: Plainview-Elgin-Millville vs. Dassel-Cokato, 1 p.m.

5A: Mahtomedi vs. Mankato West, 4 p.m.

--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