Before becoming a politician, Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz was a defensive coordinator at Mankato West High School in Minnesota.
“When I took the job, they said, ‘Well, we’re kind of struggling, we’re 0–27.’ But I had some other coaches I worked with who were great guys, and we said, ‘This is nonsense. Let’s just turn this thing around,’” said Walz said in a February episode of Pod Save America. “Three years later, state champion. Now they’re the state powerhouse.”
That 1999 state championship was the first in football in school history.
Last year, Mankato West finished 8-2. The Scarlets finished No. 3 in the High School Football America Minnesota Top 10, powered by NFL Play Football, after losing by a point in the second round of the playoffs to eventual AAAAA state champ Chanhassen. During the regular season, MW beat Chanhassen 21-14.
