Milk Maid

To win a state football championship, players have to play smart. Since the football team won on Saturday, we know they are smart football players. They have the hardware to prove it.

What’s even more impressive about this group of young men, is that they are also a smart, well rounded group of young men. They have the awards to prove that, too.

When I was walking into beautiful US Bank Stadium for the first time on Saturday, I was so excited.

My senses were a little bit on overload as there were so many things to see and take in.

One of the first things I noticed on the giant screen in the stadium was a slide listing all the top academic teams in Class A.

I was even more excited to see what I already knew confirmed. Minneota has smart kids as they were listed as a “Gold” team.

Quarterback Alex Pohlen was listed individually as a recipient too!

The game was a lot of fun! We had several aunts, uncles and cousins that came to watch it with us. My little brother Grady may have been slightly (or completely) embarrassed by his large cheering section.

He looked in our direction once and we all stood up and waved and that was the last time he looked our way.

I was wondering about how the all-academic teams are chosen so I asked Activities Director and Assistant Coach Matt Myrvik.

He sent me great information on how the awards are chosen. The purpose of awards is to promote and recognize academic achievement by Minnesota high school football teams in each classification.

To receive a Gold award, a team must have a GPA of 3.26 or above for the past school year for their whole home official roster with no freshmen listed.

Each player’s name and GPA must be recorded and sent to the class representative. A 4.00 system is used. Individual GPA’s are added together and divided by the number of team members to determine the team GPA.

For the individual awards, a player must carry a 3.0 (4.0 scale) grade point average in an academic core curriculum in his sophomore, junior and first quarter of the senior year. The player must have outstanding football and leadership ability plus academic excellence.

On Thanksgiving, Grady helped a neighbor with his evening milking chores.

He wished Grady and the team good luck and said, “Don’t forget how you’ve been taught to act and where you come from.”

This is an extraordinary group of young men that are not only football players, but they are leaders in different sports, clubs, activities and groups inside and outside of the school.

Many of them lead by example and are role models to younger students.

They exemplify “Viking Valor” and I couldn’t be more proud to call #33 my little brother.

Congratulations to the Mighty Minneota Vikings, the 2017 Class A State Football Champions and Gold All-State Academic team!