The Best Of John’s Journal From 2021-22/ No. 7: Life On The Road Is Every Day Up North

Here is No. 7 on the countdown of my favorite stories from the 2021-22 school year. I had wanted to write about the travel challenges that teams in northern Minnesota face for a long time, and a visit to Moorhead High School was the perfect opportunity.

Here’s the story, originally posted on Feb. 15 …

MOORHEAD -- Tuesday was a busy evening at Moorhead High School. The Spuds boys basketball team played a 6 p.m. home game against Bemidji, and next door at Moorhead Sports Center, the Spuds girls hockey team met Roseau in a 7 p.m. Class 2A Section 8 playoff semifinal.

If you have a map of Minnesota handy, look at those three locations: Moorhead, Bemidji and Roseau. Eyeball those distances. The visiting teams from Bemidji and Roseau drove more than 600 combined bus miles – lasting more than five and a half hours -- to get to Moorhead and back home on a school night.

And nobody batted an eye. Because long road trips are standard for teams in northern Minnesota, especially those from large schools that need to pack a lunch -- and a dinner -- in order to travel to schools of similar size.

Bemidji senior basketball player Gavin Luksik laid it out perfectly after the Lumberjacks defeated the Spuds 62-60.

“It's funny because teams will come up to our place on a weeknight and they'll be like, ‘Man, it stinks driving up here. We have to go to school in the morning.’ That's an everyday thing for us. We're driving two and a half hours every night.”

That’s correct. Bemidji’s one-way drive of nearly two and a half hours to Moorhead is standard for Lumberjacks teams. The Bemidji boys basketball team is in Class 4A Section 8, where the closest opponent is Brainerd … which is nearly two hours (and 100 miles) away. The section extends south to Twin Cities suburban schools such as Elk River (187 miles from Bemidji), Rogers (194) and St. Michael-Albertville (184).

The miles add up for northern Minnesota schools, but the teams take pride in their ability to make good use of the time.

“When you're in Moorhead, it starts when you're young,” said Spuds activities director Dean Haugo. “It starts when kids are typically in J.O. volleyball or youth soccer or youth basketball or hockey. So for us, it's ingrained. It’s part of the experience.

“If we have an in-town game or something that's close, that's the abnormal part of our schedule. Look at our speech team; I think they're in the metro area eight or nine weekends in a row.”

When Tuesday’s hockey game ended with the Spuds holding off Roseau 5-4, the Rams faced more than three hours on a bus to return home … where the Moorhead boys hockey team was coming the other direction after a 4-0 win at Roseau.

“The biggest part is we have an advantage in routine and our kids understand how to travel,” Haugo said. “They understand how to eat, how to pack, our coaches have places they like to stop. Each team is a little bit different. But rather than it being the anomaly it's the norm so for us, we don't really sweat it.”

Joel Hoover of KBUN radio in Bemidji is the play-by-play voice of Lumberjacks sports. He rode the bus with the team for Tuesday’s trip to Moorhead, which has become a luxury. Because of Covid protocols last year, he drove himself to games and covered 12,500 miles during the school year.

Haugo talked about a recent Moorhead graduate who was a multi-sport varsity athlete for five years and was aboard buses for 35,000 miles in that time.

But there are certain advantages to all that travel, including deals on hotel prices in the Twin Cities.

“We get a little fickle on hotels,” Haugo said. “We stay at the same hotel, they have to have certain things, there are certain breakfast expectations, and there are certain space expectations, beds need to be a certain size. We sound really finicky but on the hotel side, we're able to bring enough business where we get pretty good rates.”

With Moorhead located on the North Dakota border, Spuds teams are able to travel to schools in that state, but it’s not always simple.

“We do play in North Dakota, we play in South Dakota, our boys basketball team was just down at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls last week,” Haugo said. “One thing that's challenging for us is the North Dakota schools; in almost every sport they play far fewer games than we do, and they have heavy conference schedules. So we do play some but we would play more across the river if we could, just because it's the sensible thing to do. But the reality is we don't have that option in a lot of cases. So we embrace our opportunity and we embrace the travel.”

Northern schools are always thrilled when teams from the Twin Cities make the drive up north. But the reality in many cases is that the northern teams make the trek to the Twin Cities more often than the other way around.

“It can be difficult to get teams on our schedule,” said Lumberjacks boys basketball coach Steve Thompson. “So we're hoping that more teams will want to travel up to us and play in Bemidji.

“It's tough. A lot of teams travel to Bemidji and they say they can’t believe how far it is up here. But we put on so many miles from the time the boys are little. They start traveling from a young age. We drive to Moorhead and down to the Cities and it's a real commitment for a family in Bemidji.”

The Bemidji boys basketball players were glad that their game in Moorhead started at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than most games. They knew full well that the school day would start at 8:19 a.m. Wednesday.

“We got done early tonight and we’ll probably get home between 11 and midnight, which is about average,” said senior Caden Bolte. “And then we're expected to be in class the next day.”

There are routines aboard the buses. Kids play video games or cards or catch up on sleep. Teams usually order pizzas or sub sandwiches to be delivered at game’s end so dinner can be eaten on the road.

“A short trip for us is two hours,” Thompson said. “So we're two to four hours all the time, and it gives us plenty of time to bond as a team and the coaches get a chance to spend some time off the court together. So there are some positives, but there are some real challenges to it, as well.”

--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  

The Best Of John’s Journal From 2021-22/ No. 8: Adapted Floor Hockey Is A Hit In Mankato Debut

As the countdown of my favorite John’s Journal stories from the 2021-22 school year continues, today our focus is on the first adapted floor hockey team from Mankato. I was invited to attend the team’s first game, and I was blown away by what I saw. It was highly inspirational.

Here’s the story that was originally posted on Jan. 10 …

MANKATO – The first goal in the history of the Mankato adapted floor hockey program was a beauty, as was the celebration, as was the entire first game ever.

Mankato, with athletes from Mankato East and Mankato West, played host to the team from Stillwater/Mahtomedi on Monday inside the little gymnasium at Franklin Elementary School, which has stood in a quiet Mankato neighborhood since 1928. A large crowd of fans watched from balcony seats, and they saw quite a show.

The game’s opening goal came quickly. After Mankato junior goaltender Jacob Watson made a couple of sharp saves, the puck was knocked to the opposite end of the floor. It found its way to the stick of Mankato ninth-grader Shanti Esters, who gave it a whack and saw it bounce off the goalie’s pads. Shanti gave it a second knock with the same result, and the third time was the charm. The puck went in, the crowd went wild and Shanti began a celebratory run down the court.

She was so excited, and rightfully so, that she lost her footing at midcourt and went down. Her big smile, shining brightly through her facemask, never wavered as she tumbled. And after landing, she posed. Yes, she posed, putting one arm behind her head, sticking up one knee with that perfect smile on her face. It was magical.

“That first goal today and the celebration, it was probably one of the best things I've seen in my 19 years,” said Mankato East activities director Todd Waterbury, who helped shepherd the team into existence. “It was just a lot of fun with the joy around here, a lot of positivity.”

Shanti scored again in the third period, setting off another round of cheering. The game went the way of Stillwater/Mahtomedi, which won 17-2, but the outcome was much less important than the event itself.

“I really truly didn't know how it would go. But our kids did great,” said Mankato coach Dylan Boettcher, 28, who attended Franklin and played hockey at Mankato East. “They exceeded my expectations. Honestly, the scoreboard doesn't necessarily show it; Stillwater is a great team, it looks like they've been playing for a long time.”

The crowd was hockey-flavored, including a whole bunch of players from the Mankato West girls hockey team, as well as some from the Minnesota State Mankato women’s squad. Between the second and third periods, anyone wearing a hockey jersey was invited to come down to the court and try to make a shot from one end to the goal on the other end. The hockey-playing girls from West, using a different kind of stick and a much lighter puck than they are used to, didn’t have tons of luck but they sure had fun.

The Mankato athletes wear uniforms that are black and gray, just like the combined East-West girls and boys lacrosse teams. They looked awfully sharp. The pregame period was filled with music on the little gym’s PA system … the tunes included “Sweet Caroline,” “Ice Ice Baby” and “Party in the USA.” It was good stuff.

All the players from both teams were introduced before the game began; athletes waved their stick in the air and some waved a hand to their families sitting up above. The Guns N’ Roses classic, “Welcome To The Jungle” played as the game began.

After the clock ran out on the first adapted floor hockey game in Mankato history, the teams lined up for a postgame handshake line, just as in every other high school sport. They thanked the officials, Ryan Swafford and Aaron Anderson, who are veteran hockey officials working their first adapted floor hockey game.

The hockey players from Mankato West came down once more and gathered with their counterparts on the floor hockey team for a photo. They held a sign that read “Let’s Go Mankato.”

Boettcher gathered his team around him, telling the kids, “You guys did a great job. Have a good night with your families.”

Dylan’s wife, Heather, watched from the balcony in a chair that included this hand-written sign: “Reserved for coach’s very pregnant wife” … the word “very” was underlined. A cesarean procedure was scheduled for the next day, with Dylan and Heather looking forward to welcoming their first child.

East and West already have adapted bowling programs, with floor hockey the district’s first adapted team sport; the MSHSL also sponsors adapted programs in soccer and softball. The Minnesota Association for Adapted Athletics pioneered those activities in the state, and they came under the MSHSL umbrella in 1992. Programs are offered for Cognitively Impaired (CI) and Physically Impaired (PI) students. The Mankato team is in the CI division.

“It’s important to me to make sure it’s a big deal,” Dylan Boettcher said. “I’m hoping this can be a jump start for adapted sports in Mankato. I’ve fallen in love with the people involved in activities for special needs kids.”

Waterbury offered an apt summary of the new program, saying, “The opportunity is what we're all about. That’s what the League's about, it's what our district’s about, to increase the opportunities for those who don't have a lot of chances to be involved in an activity.

“I just think it's the best thing we could do. You saw the people here today. Not only our school community, but the college representation that was here and all the other folks. It tells you the importance of it and what a big deal it is.”

--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 

The Best Of John’s Journal From 2021-22/ No. 9: The High School Athlete Who Owns A Construction Company

 

Today’s entry in the list of my favorite John’s Journal stories from the past school year is unlike anything I have seen in many years of writing about high school sports. Meeting a student who owns a self-made construction company and employs lots of people is not something I ever expected.

Here’s the story, which was originally posted on Feb. 9 …

Caden Fritz is a busy young man. The senior at Edina High School is a center on the Hornets hockey team, and combining a varsity sport with schoolwork seems like enough to keep almost every day filled.

But not for Caden.

“I kind of have too many interests,” said the 18-year-old. “I'm always going somewhere, I'm not the kind of kid to sit at home.”

No kidding. He goes to school, he plays hockey for one of the state’s storied programs, and … there’s no way to explain it other than this: Caden owns a construction company that he built from scratch.

When he’s on the ice at Edina’s Braemar Arena and the student section chants “Fritz Construction!” it’s an ode to Caden’s focus away from school and hockey. He drives a truck to school with the Fritz Construction logo on the side, and he can also be seen wearing apparel with the same logo. His company (fritz-construction.com) is licensed, bonded and insured, and Caden is a licensed general contractor.

On the ice, he has played in all 21 games for the Hornets this season, with one goal and six assists. Off the ice, his work ethic is amazing. His first business venture was lemonade stands as a youngster, and later he built and sold a vending-machine business. He also made money as a hockey referee when he wasn’t playing, and sold referee apparel and equipment on the side.

In the summer of 2020 he started a pressure-washing business that specialized in cleaning decks. After customers asked if he could also sand and stain their decks, he created a company called Fritz Deck Restoration.

“I did that for that whole summer and made quite a bit of money, fixing decks, sanding and staining them,” he said.

He moved into construction in the fall of 2020, building new decks at first. Then came minor remodels, including laundry rooms, bathrooms and finishing basements.

“It started off small,” Caden said.

Things heated up in 2021 when he and his employees built more than 60 decks, as well as some large-scale home additions and renovations. As spring weather nears, Caden’s company is preparing for work that includes decks, homes, roofing and siding, and commercial and residential excavation.

Once again, he is only 18 years old.

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” said Ben Gross, 21, who is on track to graduate later this year with a degree in applied economics from the University of Minnesota. Caden calls Ben his right-hand man, because Gross handles much of the day-to-day business operations, including meeting with clients and managing projects.

Ben’s first contact with Caden came when his parents contacted Caden about building a deck after they saw an ad on Facebook Marketplace.

“He gave them an awesome quote and said he could have it done by the end of the month,” said Ben, a graduate of Orono High School. “They met, went over the quote, and my mom was a little skeptical. She said, ‘He’s in high school but it sounds like he knows what he’s doing.’ ”

Ben ended up helping out the crew that did the work, and he and Caden became friends. Before long, Ben was working for Fritz Construction.

“I kind of oversee all the projects,” Ben said. “He’ll get a quote and we’ll talk about what it would entail, the costs, the timeline. I try to handle applying for permits and help on the operations side of things.

“His buddies say he’s had a knack for this since he was a kid, doing carnivals for kids in the neighborhood. Then he sold his vending machine company for a fair chunk of change. His work ethic is tenacious, he’s a dynamo. He never stops. I played varsity lacrosse in high school and I can’t imagine doing what he’s doing.”

Caden is the oldest of three children of Rob and Stephanie Fritz. His parents work in the corporate world.

“We’re not in construction,” Stephanie said with a chuckle.  

In all of Caden’s business ventures, he has done everything on his own financially.

“We never gave him a dime,” said Stephanie. “I think back to his lemonade stands, when we made him pay for everything himself. He’s just wired that way.

“He doesn’t sleep. He loves life. Nobody has more fun than Caden. With a business comes pressure and issues, and he knows how to enjoy himself but he really works for it. He thinks big. He’s not afraid to try and fail.”

The Edina hockey team has a record of 13-8 with four games remaining in the regular season. This is Caden’s first year on the varsity and he’s having the time of his life.

“My line’s doing really well and I've been really focusing on hockey,” he said. “I’ve got my whole life to work and I enjoy it but you're never going to get to play hockey in Edina with a good team like this ever again.”

During peak times last summer, Fritz Construction employed more than 30 people on any given day. In the summer of 2022, Caden is hoping that number might increase to 55 or 60. But he also likes to have fun with his buddies, including those who work for him.

“I'm still in high school and I like hanging out with my friends every night,” he said. “So we'll start working around five in the morning and most days get done around two o'clock. And then we go to the lake (Minnetonka) pretty much every single day. A lot of times we go to my family’s cabin on weekends and have a lot of fun. We definitely work really hard but we have a lot of fun in the process.”

Deck construction has continued throughout this winter, with the boss swinging a hammer when he can.

“I'll get out there every once in a while on a Sunday and or after school for a few hours and help out, get my hands dirty,” he said.

Caden is hoping to buy his own cabin up north, either purchasing an empty lot and building a cabin or purchasing a fixer-upper. His story is even more remarkable when he tells you that he didn’t even know how to operate a drill four years ago. But he’s curious and never intimidated.

In 2018, using tools that had belonged to his late grandfather and watching instructional YouTube videos, he built a shed at the family cabin to store four-wheelers. It took him all summer.

“It wasn't stellar, but it still stands today,” he said. “Now I can do anything from painting a house to building a house.”

As if he isn’t busy enough, Caden is also training as an Emergency Medical Technician. He has spent time working in a hospital setting and is interested in possibly working with a fire department or law enforcement. He has interviewed with two sheriff’s departments for part-time EMT work.

He plans to attend the University of St. Thomas in the fall to study criminal justice, possibly becoming an attorney and/or going into law enforcement.

Asked what he will be doing in 10 years, he replied, “I guess if you asked me today and then tomorrow, I might have 10 different choices.”

And yes, he’s only 18 years old.

--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  

The Best Of John’s Journal From 2021-22/ No. 10: From Morning TV To High School Speech

 

This has been a big year for Jason DeRusha. The longtime WCCO TV morning anchor recently left television to become an afternoon host on WCCO radio. He made news away from the media, too, when he became the speech and debate coach at Maple Grove High School. His kids are involved in those activities, and this is a story of someone giving back to young people.

This is No. 10 on the list of my personal favorite John’s Journal stories from the 2021-22 school year. We’ll continue counting down the Top 10 in the days ahead.

Here’s the story that was originally posted on Jan. 30…

Jason DeRusha is always busy, it seems. His alarm goes off at 2:45 on weekday mornings in his Maple Grove home so he can arrive at WCCO TV in downtown Minneapolis in time to anchor morning shows from 4:30 to 7 a.m. and 9 to 10 a.m. He’s frequently heard on WCCO radio and is the food critic for Minnesota Monthly magazine.

He is past president of the Board of Governors of the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He’s a frequent speaker and host for charity fundraisers. He has earned nine Emmy Awards for his television work.

He’s also a dad. And, proving that life comes with twists and turns, he’s the first-year coach of the debate and speech teams at Maple Grove High School.

Jason and his wife Alyssa have two sons; Seth is a junior at Maple Grove and Sam is in ninth grade. Both boys participate in debate and speech, but the teams were left without a coach as the current school year approached. The previous coach had stepped down and time was running short before the debate season began last fall.

Jason sent an email to the school and asked how he could help.

“Those were famous last words for any parent,” he said with a laugh. “The next thing I knew, I was doing a Zoom interview and getting a background check as an employee of the school district.

“This really was about trying to do the right thing as a dad. With my job in TV, I’ve sort of never been able to coach my kids’ soccer teams or teach their church school or any of that stuff.”

He jokes about debate practice in the fall and speech practice in the winter conflicting with his afternoon nap, but he’s all-in.

“He’s very energetic and involved, which is really great for the team,” said senior debate and speech participant Mira Cook during a speech tournament at Wayzata High School on Saturday. “He is very involved in everything that goes into it; not only the coaching aspect, but the kids themselves, which is really nice. He’s very invested.”

DeRusha took part in high school speech while growing up in suburban Chicago. He was a three-time state finalist in a category called Radio Speaking, in which students are given a stack of news stories that they shape into a timed radio segment. His high school had its own radio station, which became his home away from home and helped him get started on a broadcasting career. After graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee, he worked at TV stations in Davenport, Iowa, Rockford, Illinois, and Milwaukee before joining WCCO in 2003.

One sticking point in his new coaching position was that he knew nothing about debate. That didn’t dissuade him from taking that job, which became more about administrative duties than coaching.

“To be completely honest, he was there to manage us,” said Seth DeRusha. “He didn't really do anything debate-related. He got us signed up, he got us judges, and he made sure we were going to be there, which is what he could do.”

Jason said, “The respect I have for the people who have done this for years and years, they’ve been really generous. I didn’t know anything about debate. The kids had to teach me everything. Next year I’ll be ready to go. It took a full season to get my arms around it.

“I just thought, ‘I speak for a living, I might have some things to offer these kids.’ But debate is barely about public speaking. It’s about research and preparation. Debate topics included Bitcoin, NATO and the Baltic states, whether the unlimited right to strike is just or not. These kids are tackling important issues. The beauty of debate is it forces kids, based on a coin flip, to argue one side or the other of these issues. If you required everyone in our country to argue both sides of an argument, we’d be in a better place.”

DeRusha knew how vital these activities were to his own children, as well as many of their friends.

“Debate and speech are so important for kids who maybe aren’t as athletic or don’t have other interests. This becomes the hub of their friend group, and all of Seth’s friends are from debate,” he said. “I didn’t want those kids to not have this experience. You’d never have a soccer or tennis or football team go a season without a coach, and it was a realistic possibility that these teams wouldn’t have a coach. I was not going to let that happen.”

Speech tournaments are a Saturday mainstay, starting early in the morning and filling up much of the day. For Saturday’s event at Wayzata, the Maple Grove team was on a school bus before the sun had fully risen and they weren’t home until dusk was settling in.

The Crimson speech team gathered in the Wayzata cafeteria between rounds. DeRusha checked on kids as they came in from performing, several of them competing in speech for the first time. His initial question to each of them was, “How’d it go?”

The kids gave their assessments, dug into the lunches and snacks they brought along, and hashed over the early rounds of the competition as they awaited word on who advanced to the final rounds.

“He gives us feedback on speeches, which is really good to hear, especially from someone who has kind of used speech in their life,” Mira said.

To the general public, Jason is the most recognizable debate and speech coach in Minnesota. Even at Maple Grove High School, his role has raised questions along the lines of, “Is that the guy on TV?”

“Occasionally, we actually do hear that,” Mira said. “It's mostly from people within our own school, who are kind of like ‘Oh my God, you guys have a celebrity as your coach.’ ”

Seth DeRusha said he sometimes refers to his dad as Coach “to make fun of him.”

“All my friends are obsessed with him in a jokey way,” Seth said. “They take pictures of him when he’s walking into the school. It's like a joke. At the last tournament, one of the people who was working at the tournament recognized my last name and asked me about it. So it's funny like that.”

As much as DeRusha has done to make sure the students are able to participate in the activities they love, it’s a two-way street. In early December, for example, he posted this message and a team photo on his Twitter account, @DeRushaJ:

“So proud of these absolute legends: the Maple Grove Senior High debate team just won the Northern Lights National Qualifiers tournament and all of these young people earned the right to compete at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Louisville this summer. But they also showed me how loving and caring they are as humans, as they faced some tough decisions in the final phase of the tournament. It has been my absolute honor to coach them along the way - as usual I’ve learned more from them than they learned from me. Our future is in good hands with all of these scholars.”

“These moments with these kids have been an incredible gift,” he said. “The kids are amazing.”

--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: Top 10 Honorable Mention/ Spartans For Life

 

Here is the fifth and final Honorable Mention entry as we highlight my favorite John’s Journal stories from the 2021-22 school year. Next week I’ll begin posting the Top 10 stories, beginning with No. 10.

Today’s story actually began in 2018 when I wrote about a first-year cooperative football team including players from St. Clair and Mankato Loyola. The players who were freshman in 2018 were seniors in 2021, so I revisited the team one day at practice.

Here’s the story (including a link to the 2018 story) that was originally posted last Oct. 17 …

Four years ago, I wrote about a unique high school football team. On a sunny October Saturday afternoon at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, I watched the St. Clair/Mankato Loyola Spartans finish their first season as a combined, cooperative team.

The Spartans lost to the W-E-M Buccaneers in that section semifinal playoff game, but that’s not what I remember. The lasting memory is what the Spartans did following the game, after shaking hands with and congratulating the Buccaneers. They listened to their coach, St. Clair principal Dustin Bosshart, who told them, “The coaches who coached you will be there for you for the rest of your lives. You will remember the lifetime memories you created. You did it the right way.

“You are a great group and you will accomplish incredible things in your life. Spartan family for life, that’s what you guys are.”

As I wrote then, something special happened...

The players’ families and friends stood 20 or so yards away, waiting for the team’s private moment to end. And then another incredible thing happened: It didn’t end.

The players remained together, some hugging, some finding one or more of the coaches to say thank you and share an embrace. Coaches patted boys on the helmet, returned the thank you and told them they loved them. The boys then gathered together once more – not wanting the moment to end -- each of them kneeling, for a few private words. Helmets removed and heads bowed, they prayed.

And then, only then, did the boys begin reuniting with their families. A strapping teenager hugged his grandpa and wept on his shoulder. Moms, dads, friends offered congratulations and condolences on the end of a great season.

(You can read that story from Oct. 27, 2018 by clicking here and scrolling to the third headline, “Spartans For Life: Lessons Learned On The Football Field … https://old.mshsl.org/mshsl/johnsjournal.asp?index=514 )

The ninth-graders on that team are now seniors, and the football coop remains in place. Then as now, in the winter and spring many athletes are either St. Clair Cyclones (from a public school) or Loyola Crusaders (from a private school). But during the football season, every player is a Spartan.

If not for the cooperative agreement, each school would have a very tough time fielding a football team. This year, about 75 percent of the football players come from St. Clair (9-12 enrollment of 219) and the rest from Loyola (105). The Spartans will take a 5-2 record into the regular-season finale on Wednesday, hosting Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop in St. Clair. The team splits its practices and home games between the fields at the two schools. The city of St. Clair is southeast of Mankato, 13 miles from Loyola.

Back in 2018, no one knew exactly how the players would come together. They needed a little prodding at the first summer camp workout.

“I’m looking around, and there’s a Loyola group in one spot, St. Clair upperclassmen over here, St. Clair younger kids in another spot,” Bosshart said. “I told the kids, ‘If this is going to work, this can’t happen. We have to be one group.’ Afterwards, I looked at the kids in the parking lot. They were exchanging numbers, creating group chats, and we were one 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.”

Prior to the football cooperative agreement, the two schools were already combined in wrestling, golf and soccer. Athletes in those sports are very familiar with driving between the schools for practices and games, and they enjoy their friends. But it wasn’t always like that.

“I was kind of nervous. I didn't really know all these people and it was a big change, especially coming from a small school,” said Colby Amundson. “But now, looking back, I was so happy that it happened. I would not be the person I am today, either, with the people I’ve met, the connections, the memories I've made with this team.”

Tyler Ahl said, “It's been really cool to meet new people and it's been a good opportunity to be able to see all these new faces and compete with them.”

The Spartans have a record of 23-11 in the four years since the coop started.

“They are a very competitive group,” Bosshart said. “It’s almost like watching brothers compete.”

That’s a word – brothers – that the players use when describing their teammates, no matter which school they attend.

“We didn't really want to coop at the beginning. But then we were brought together, and I’ve made lifelong friends,” said Connor Andree. “We were big rivals, like we almost couldn't stand each other. It's crazy how you can judge someone, then once you get to know them, they're just great people and you're having fun with it.”

It’s true that the two schools are rivals in other sports. At volleyball matches and basketball games, student from each school cheer loudly for their teams but then mingle with their friends from the other school afterwards. Sam Carlson, the head coach of the Loyola boys basketball team, is an assistant coach on the football team.

“We're really good in basketball and they're really good,” said St. Clair senior Riley Fitzloff. “So it's a good matchup. And during those games, the gyms are just packed. We get fired up. Going into (the football coop), we weren’t really expecting things to go as well as they did. Now one of my best friends is from Loyola.  I liked how everything worked out in the end.”

There are even some special bonuses, including this: the football team plays two Homecoming games, one at each school.

“The kids have fun. They understand that football isn’t life and life isn’t football,” said Bosshart.

“It's been a fun process just getting to know some new guys, make some new friendships, on and off the field,” said senior Devin Embacher. “I think we really push each other, and it's just been fun getting to know everyone.

“We didn't really want to coop at the beginning. But then we were brought together, and I’ve made lifelong friends.”

--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: Top 10 Honorable Mention/ Official Marshall Behrens

As we get closer to unveiling my personal Top 10 favorite John’s Journal stories from the 2021-22 school year, today’s Honorable Mention story is a profile of an official. Mashall Behrens is a multi-sport official and a fine example of the dedicated people who work as MSHSL officials and judges. The story also points out that more officials and judges are needed.

Here's the story, originally posted on Oct. 13 …

In the summer of 1995, Marshall Behrens had just graduated from St. Charles High School. He had played high school and summer baseball, as well as other sports, all through school but there was an obstacle that summer: an age cutoff meant he couldn’t play ball with his buddies in St. Charles.

But the young man wanted to spend the summer with his friends on the baseball field. He approached coach Scott McCready, who is the baseball coach and activities director at St. Charles, about becoming a de facto volunteer assistant coach. He said, “I want to be around the guys.”

McCready’s oldest child was born that summer, causing the coach to be absent from a playoff game. But the young assistant coach took over with no hesitation.

“They whomped the other team and 26 years later, he still reminds me of it,” McCready said. “On her birthday, we text each about that. He ran that team then just like he runs a football or basketball game now. He was the arbiter then, even as a coach. It makes perfect sense where he’s ended up.”

Where has Behrens ended up? He’s 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.”

Marshall and his wife Ellie often officiate volleyball matches together. She is in her fourth season of calling that sport.

“I conned her into thinking we could go out one night a week for date night,” Marshall said. “She enjoys seeing the female athletes and she can relate to them much better than I can.”

Brad Johnson, who was the activities director at Rushford-Peterson for 20 years and now is the MSHSL region secretary for small schools in the Rochester area, called Behrens “probably the most recognizable official in southeast Minnesota among small, medium and larger schools. He’ll work anywhere. No game is too big for him and no game is too small for him. I’m so impressed with him. He treats every game the same, it doesn’t matter if it’s a pair of 1-6 teams in Week 8 for football, they’re going to get the same effort he would give in a state championship game.

“He loves the games. He works hard at it. He’s in there for the kids. He’s got great relationship with the coaches and administrators and they know they’re going to get the best with Marshall.”

An MSHSL official for more than two decades, Behrens also works as an assigner for the Rochester Area Officials Association, making sure officials are assigned to baseball and softball games as well as sub-varsity basketball games. Fellow RAOA members Jared Butson and Jeff Newton assign officials for other sports.

“That has become a labor of love, just with our numbers and trying to recruit,” Behrens said. “It just means so much to the kids to play those games. We just have to keep grinding.”

“Grinding” is an appropriate term to describe the current state of officiating, specifically the numbers of officials. It has been a growing issue in recent years and the problem has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with some officials not returning to their sports and not enough others joining the officiating ranks.

“I rack my brain about that,” Behrens said. “I cannot pin down the moving target. Compensation is always brought up. We have a big focus on getting young people involved in officiating. … We need people who are stable in the community and get them going.”

As someone who frequently officiates junior varsity and other sub-varsity games, he has learned that many of the people who used to help call those contests – many of whom went on to become registered MSHSL officials -- cannot be found now.

“There always used to be locals doing ninth-grade and JV games,” he said. “On Mondays I usually do a lower-level football game, usually working with three local guys who I tried to train up. Now schools can’t find those local people to do those ninth-grade and JV games. I worked with a 25-year-old (recently) who was all in. There’s just not enough of them who say, ‘It would be cool to go out and officiate.’ ”

Around the state, many football games are being played on Thursdays and Saturdays because there aren't enough officials available for everyone to play on Friday nights. The outlook may be grim for the winter, as well; with the number of games played in sports like basketball and hockey, it's not hard to believe that games could be cancelled due to a lack of officials.

Some football games this fall have been played with four-person officiating crews instead of the normal five (NCAA and NFL game use seven officials). It’s a problem that’s not going away. Some people give officiating a try but walk away because of abuse by spectators, family concerns or other reasons. But the glaring fact is this: More officials and judges are needed in all MSHSL sports as well as activities such as speech, debate, band, choir, etc.

Behrens has worked in human resources at Mayo Clinic in Rochester for 21 years. His experience as a sports official was important in being hired at Mayo.

“There are a lot of similarities between officiating and human resources work,” he said. “They actually recruited me for this position because they knew I officiated. They said, ‘You know how to handle people, how to handle difficult situations. We can teach you the nuts and bolts.’ ”

His first officiating experience came when he was a student at Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He called intramural sports, enjoying the role as well as the pay, and also officiated youth basketball games.  

Behrens has lost track of how many state tournaments and state championship games he has officiated in baseball, softball, basketball and football. He is unable to work the state volleyball tournament because of his college football schedule.

“It’s obviously way more than a hobby for me,” he said. “There aren’t many hobbies where you’re making extra money. Obviously, that’s far from the reason any of us do it. But it’s an important piece for people thinking about this; it can actually pay for some fun things in your life.”

Behrens isn’t afraid to take on new challenges, as evidenced by something that happened in his hometown of St. Charles a few years back.

McCready and Butson (who teaches in St. Charles) had tried their hand at officiating powderpuff volleyball and football games during Homecoming week. It did not go well, as McCready explained …

“Our principal said, ‘Next year let’s get Marshall and Tristan Severson (of Plainview) in here. So we had like 12 years of Prep Bowl experience working powderpuff volleyball and football. We didn’t even pay them, we fed them burgers off the grill. It all goes back to the friendships.”

--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