Seth Greenwald, a linebacker on a southern Minnesota highschool crew known as Mankato West that gained a state championship 25 years in the past, glanced at his buzzing telephone earlier this week. The caller ID flashed with a location: Paris.
Greenwald answered. A reporter launched himself over the telephone, then requested if he may interview Greenwald about one in all his former coaches, a person named Tim Walz. Greenwald laughed. You’re in Paris to cowl the Olympics, and also you need to speak to me?
He would discover out that this wasn’t an outlier. Final Tuesday, Walz was chosen as a working mate to Vice President Kamala Harris for her 2024 presidential marketing campaign. Since then, many members of the 1999 Class 4A title-winning Mankato West Scarlets are attending to relive outdated glory days. They’ve obtained calls from TMZ, The Each day Beast, CNN and Newsweek. One other former participant, now an insurance coverage salesman, chuckled when his usually mundane electronic mail inbox, out of the blue flooded with messages a couple of potential vice presidential candidate all of them knew. Lots of them started texting and calling one another.
“It seems like we’re the ‘72 Dolphins or one thing,” stated Eric Stenzel, the crew’s star linebacker, referencing the one undefeated crew in NFL historical past.
“I’m pouring my morning espresso, and I take a look at my electronic mail, and I’m, like, ‘Am I getting pranked?’” stated Miles Haefner, a security on that crew.
“We’re speaking about an assistant soccer coach who taught historical past,” stated Mitch Salsbery, one other former linebacker.
Earlier than he was elected governor of Minnesota, earlier than he represented the state’s first district in Congress and lengthy earlier than he grew to become a candidate for vice chairman, Walz was a coach and social research trainer within the Midwest, first in Nebraska after which in Minnesota. The night time he launched himself on the nationwide stage in Philadelphia, a lot of his fellow coaches and former gamers at Mankato West thought again to sticky fall evenings as they listened to their outdated defensive coach, who used to mild them up within the movie room and problem them on the follow area 25 years in the past.
“I feel if they’d given him a helmet,” stated Salsbery, “he most likely would have performed in follow.”
“I nonetheless hear the cadence,” stated John Considine, an offensive lineman on these West groups on the flip of the century.
Walz obtained his begin in educating and training at Alliance Excessive College in Alliance, Neb., a city of 8,000 individuals, which was about twice the scale of West Level, Neb., the place he was born. In 1996, he and his spouse, Gwen, moved to Mankato, Minn., a city of about 31,000 and a 90-minute drive south from the Twin Cities.
Rick Sutton, head coach, Mankato West: Tim and his spouse, Gwen, have been educating and dwelling in Nebraska. Gwen is initially from southwestern Minnesota, they usually needed to get nearer again residence.
Jeff Tomlin, head coach, Alliance Excessive College: I taught for 36 years and I’ve been round few coaches pretty much as good as him.
Pat Zochol, linebacker, Alliance: He’d look proper at you on the follow area and say, ‘They’re coming for you as a result of they assume you’re small and weak. You’ve gotta be prepared!’ … I was small and weak. However I made all-conference.
Sutton: So he obtained right here (Mankato), and once I interview coaches, I actually are typically very intuitive and make fast selections. There was little doubt he was undoubtedly anyone that I needed to have on our employees.
Lance Resner, linebacker, Mankato West: Tim got here in with a distinct swagger. We have been fairly canines—t for a very long time.
Sutton: The primary three years I used to be there, we have been 1-26.
Tom Boone, assistant coach, Mankato West: Our weight room was subterranean. It was a dungeon. It was probably the most, like, one thing you’d see within the 1800s for lifting.
Resner: For some time, the crew didn’t even raise weights.
Paul Keenan, quarterback, Mankato West: Sure, that was a part of the issue. One 12 months, The Mankato Free Press was going to take an image of a few us within the weight room. They have been, like, ‘Certainly one of you guys raise, and the opposite, spot.’ Me and my buddy flipped cash to see which one in all us has to raise as a result of we’re not going to go on there and put 25s on the bar. I’m placing on extra weight than I can deal with for the image.
Boone: We have been so dangerous earlier than his period.
Keenan: We didn’t rating a landing till our seventh sport one season. Our defensive sort out led us in factors. He had a security. That 12 months, towards Mankato East, our crosstown rival, we lastly scored a landing with 4,000 individuals within the stands. Our scholar physique is so excited that 10 of them run on the sector to congratulate us. We obtained an unsportsmanlike conduct, which pushed us again thus far we needed to go for the 2-point conversion, and we find yourself shedding in extra time.
Resner: Tim got here in with a distinct tempo.
Nate Hood, defensive lineman, Mankato West: He was at all times form of taking care of gamers. It’s form of how I obtained my first varsity sort out. I keep in mind Tim comes up and he’s like, ‘Alright Hood, what’s the rating?’ And I’m like, ‘We’re down 0 to 34.’ And he’s like, ‘Alright, you will get in now.’ He form of had a enjoyable means about it. Two performs later, I obtained my first sort out.
Chuck Wiest, receiver, Mankato West: He was so filled with constructive vitality. He was our hype man.
Adam Friedman, security, Mankato West: Once I was a junior, I used to be a punt returner. I muffed a punt, they usually may inform I had the yips. Coach Walz got here as much as me and stated, ‘We’re not going to repair this right now. We’re going to place anyone else in for you, however we’re going to determine this out, don’t fear.’ I used to be pissed on the time and remembered it. A 12 months later, I returned a punt 80 yards. We ended up scoring and gained, and I obtained interviewed after the sport. Coach Walz got here as much as me and stated, ‘What’d you say to them?’ I stated, ‘I thanked my blockers.’ He stated, ‘Aw, man, good work. It is best to take credit score, too, although. That was superb!’
Keenan: It was, ‘Let’s go! You’re higher than that! That is how we’re going to do it! We’ve obtained to grasp our previous, however that’s not our future!’
Resner: That s—t is contagious. He would go, ‘Are you devoted? Do you need to be a soccer participant or anyone who performs soccer? We’re in it! Collectively!’ That was kinda the largest factor that he dropped at the desk. The tradition of enthusiasm.
The Mankato West Scarlets roster. Courtesy of Dan Clement
Walz’s defining attribute as a coach had much less to do with X’s and O’s and extra to do with motivation and depth. Walz gave the pregame speeches. Walz jumped into drills. 
Wiest: He was undoubtedly probably the most animated coach we had.
Resner: Animated as heck. He’s excessive vitality.
Mitch Salsbery, linebacker/tight finish, Mankato West: We had this dusty outdated, dingy soccer locker room, and we might watch movie of the opposite crew, and we had a whiteboard, however then some individuals would watch it on, like, cement block partitions. The lights are out. You’re after college. It’s like 5 o’clock. Half the fellows need to sleep, and Walz would get up there and simply scream and yell and level at this crappy outdated movie on an outdated cinder block wall, making an attempt to show a 15-year-old child easy methods to play soccer. And it was the identical day by day, simply screaming and yelling on the movie, educating and educating and educating till he obtained blue within the face.
Resner: Spit would fly out of his mouth as he’s speaking. He’s flexing each time he’s displaying to you and demonstrating.
Miles Haefner, security, Mankato West: I keep in mind we have been hitting at one level in follow, and there’s a play the place they threw it to the tight finish, and I ran up and smashed him, and the tight finish ended up dropping the ball. And we had this factor known as ‘the large stick.’ They’d give it day by day at follow to the one who had the largest hit. You get to take it again to your locker. And I ended up getting the large stick for the day, and Coach Walz was, like, dapping me up and all excited. I obtained the large stick.
John Considine, offensive line, Mankato West: Mr. Walz had a background with the Nationwide Guard, and so he had a means of motivating us.
Aaron Miller, offensive line coach, Mankato West: He cherished these Tom Osborne Nebraska groups, too. We went to a sport collectively as soon as.
Boone: He introduced again the black shirt thought. The protection wore black shirts on sport day.
Haefner: I keep in mind carrying the black shirt to high school, like, ‘That is candy! I’m on the beginning protection!’
Resner: I keep in mind him doing this tennis ball drill with us. It was all about fast twitch, getting off. Attacking! He’d have two tennis balls, one in every hand. The linebackers would line up on the five-yard line. And he’d drop the balls, and the primary one to get the tennis ball wins. You’d attempt to get it off the primary bounce, perhaps two bounces. That form of factor. It was nearly exploding off the road as quickly as you noticed a motion. He was all about offering that giddy-up.
A few of Mankato West’s defensive formants. Courtesy of Dan Clement
Walz was a trainer within the classroom and a trainer on the sector. He has stated that he loved the week of follow and preparation nearly as a lot because the video games themselves.
Keenan: He cherished energy soccer.
Dan Clement, linebacker, Mankato West: No one handed again then.
Seth Greenwald, linebacker, Mankato West: It was downhill soccer, man. If you happen to may line up with eight fullbacks within the backfield, you’ll. It’s coming at you. It was not probably the most rocket science soccer you’ve ever seen.
Boone: He was superb about educating the basics of protection and the place to be. Nevertheless it was additionally, like, ‘OK, you’re going to get there, however now you’ve obtained to get there with some enthusiasm!’
Salsbery: There have been occasions the place he would line up at linebacker and undergo performs with us as a result of he needed to present all people the way it was performed and folks weren’t getting it proper. He wasn’t sitting on the sidelines with a clipboard. He was in there.
Haefner: There was numerous discuss tackling, and easy methods to sort out.
Greenwald: I distinctly keep in mind junior 12 months, the primary day of contact. All people’s geeked up. We have been all hitting one another, simply getting after it. That first tackling drill was aggressive. I keep in mind him yelling, ‘If you happen to guys all hit like this, we’ll play you!’
Resner: I keep in mind making one play in follow. It was on a smaller child. And I crushed him within the backfield. It was a type sort out. I keep in mind Coach Walz stopping the play and going, ‘This can be a child who’s devoted to type tackling!” The child was, like, 5 toes tall. I may’ve simply hit him with my shoulder and blown ’em up. However I went low, drove via, lifted him, put him on his again. He stopped the entire thing and made an instance out of it. He goes, ‘That is good! That is what we do! That is how we do it! It doesn’t matter how massive you might be!”
Haefner: We might watch tape. As excessive schoolers.
Boone: Again in these days, you’d meet the opposite crew on Saturday and trade VHS tapes. We’d get the tape and make copies of it. We’d watch it, after which Sunday night time, we’d get again collectively. Many occasions, we didn’t wait till Sunday night time.
Miller: One factor that Tim actually dropped at the desk was, ‘OK, what changes do we have to make?’
Considine: We went from a 4-4 to a 4-3 with what he known as ‘squatted corners.’ This was proper earlier than the large Mankato East-Mankato West sport.
Greenwald: It was a personnel factor. Our opponent was going to attempt to exploit us on the perimeter with one specific dude. So, we mainly lined an outdoor linebacker up at nook and baited them to do this. It labored actually, rather well.
Boone: After that sport, it was, ‘We don’t lose anymore right here now. That was sufficient.’
Haefner: We performed Totino-Grace within the state quarterfinals sport. They’re powerful, and we’re shedding to them at halftime. They stored working the choice, and the quarterback stored retaining the ball and working the ball with out pitching it. I keep in mind at halftime, Walz goes, ‘If you happen to make this man pitch it, he’s going to place it on the deck, and we’re going to get the fumble.’ Positive sufficient, one of many first performs of the second half, we compelled him to pitch the ball, and he put it on the bottom, and we obtained the turnover. It was, like, superb.
Pages of the Scarlet Soccer playbook. Courtesy of Dan Clement
Walz stayed at Mankato West till 2006, when he left to run for Congress. He rose within the ranks, together with being elected governor in 2018. Harris touted Walz’s expertise as a coach after naming him her working mate, nevertheless it has taken a while for his former gamers to get used to seeing the person that might lose his voice from hollering pregame speeches now talking to hundreds at political rallies.
Hood: I simply would have by no means guessed. We clearly had political debates in school, however you by no means knew the place he stood on a problem. He’d at all times play satan’s advocate. Truthfully, till, like 2004, ‘05 and ‘06, I truly didn’t even know that he was actually political. I simply form of knew him as a coach.
Salsbery: You by no means see these issues coming, so it’s definitely stunning. However on the identical time, individuals who join with individuals are inclined to proceed to maneuver and seeing him transfer up and be acknowledged as anyone who individuals need to work with, that’s the half that’s not stunning.
Wiest: I take a look at him, and am like, ‘I may most likely simply go up and speak to him. We may simply discuss soccer, college, the ‘99 state championship.’
Boone: I used to be simply speaking to my brother after the speech Tuesday night time, and I used to be, like, ‘That’s Tim. That’s the man we obtained day by day, day by day, on that soccer area and within the locker room.’
(Prime picture of Tim Walz: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP, Getty; extra picture credit score to iStock)