John's Journal: Behind The Scenes At Prep Bowl, Wonderful Things Happen

During every Prep Bowl weekend at U.S. Bank Stadium, the postgame media sessions are often something to behold. They are held in a room below the stands, the same room where Vikings coaches and players meet with the press after home games.

For the high school games – state semifinals and championships -- head coaches and a few players (chosen by the coaches) are escorted to the room after each contest. They sit on a raised platform, which is covered with a black tablecloth bearing the MSHSL logo. Behind them is a banner decorated with logos of the Vikings, U.S. Bank Stadium and Ticketmaster.

The media contingent is nowhere near the number of people who fill the room for NFL games. There are newspaper people, TV people and radio people, all striving to tell the story. And the stories, and lessons, can flow like water heading downhill. (Media folks sometimes record the interviews; the MSHSL does not do so.)

Two of these sessions stood out to me during the 2024 Prep Bowl. Both involved veteran coaches, experienced teams, and varying degrees of disappointment that led to the highest degree of satisfaction, including a well-known player who has suffered two devastating injuries.

Becker’s return to the state championship threshold culminated in a 24-8 win over Totino-Grace in the Class 4A title contest. Bulldogs coach Dwight Lundeen’s story is well-known: He was 21 years old when he was hired as head coach of the small school’s first football team in 1970, and now at 70-something he remains in the job he has loved for 55 autumns.

At Jackson County Central, Tom Schuller has been the Huskies coach for 26 years. They won the 2024 Class 2A title with a 42-24 win over Staples-Motley.

Lundeen and Schuller don’t have tons in common other than their love of working with young people. Schuller grew up in Titonka, Iowa, and went to Iowa Lakes Community College and Upper Iowa University. He played football, basketball, baseball and golf in high school, and baseball in college. He has also coached girls basketball, boys basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball.

Lundeen’s parents were missionaries and the family lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then called the Belgian Congo and later Zaire), France, Quebec and Vermont when Lundeen was a youth. He was fluent in three languages: English, French and Lingala, which was the largest tribal language in the Belgian Congo.

He attended five different high schools from seventh to 12th grade. For his junior and senior years of high school, he lived in Cokato. After graduating from St. Cloud State, he was hired to teach in Becker.

One thing Lundeen and Schuller share is that both have a son on their coaching staff; Mike Lundeen and Nolan Schuller.

Both teams have known recent disappointment. Becker lost to Kasson-Mantorville in the state semifinals in 2021, then fell in section championship games to Rocori in 2022 and 2023. JCC lost to Barnesville in the state semifinals the last two years. Becker has a record of 41-4 over the last four seasons, while the Huskies are 44-6.

This is the first undefeated season in Jackson County Central history. Their only previous state title came in 2001, along with state runner-up finishes in 1989, 1997, 1998 and 2015.

During the postgame media session, Schuller – always a great talker – was exuberant as well as grateful.

“We're elated,” he said. “This is the first undefeated team in JCC history, and we have a storied history. We talked about coming through with a legacy, and legacy is about legends.”

When a pep rally was held at school before the Prep Bowl, some of the players from the Huskies’ 2001 state championship team were on hand.

“It was really uplifting,” said Schuller.

After the final whistle on their Prep Bowl victory, the Huskies hugged, shed a few tears and posed for photos with the state championship trophy. Then the trophy was placed in the hands of a young man who had his right lower leg in a boot and was using a medical scooter to roll around.

During the semifinals a week earlier, Roman Voss’s right ankle was in a cast and he was ambulating via a wheelchair and crutches. As noted in John’s Journal previously, (https://shorturl.at/WAoI7), Voss suffered a horrific injury in a state quarterfinal win over Norwood Young America. A quarterback, he is the state’s top-rated junior football player, holding offers from several Big Ten schools, including Minnesota. A year ago, he suffered a concussion and shoulder injury in the state semifinals at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“We learned we could weather that adversity,” Schuller said. “We thought we were in really good shape to win the state title last year, not to downplay who did (Eden Valley-Watkins), and then to have (an injury to Voss) happen again. And we talked previously about it after the Norwood game; it was tough to enjoy that game because of what happened.

“And Roman sent a text to the coaches, saying, ‘Hey, it's going to be OK. Don't use this as an excuse. We still have a really good football team.’ That helped me personally, and I think the kids got up off the deck after you lose a player like him. We’ve got other great players, but Roman is the top-rated junior in the state and I want to see the seniors that are better than him, because there can't be but a handful of them.”

“These guys are a special group,” the coach said, sitting next to seniors Thomas Liepold, Clay Malchow, Ben Dahlin and Ian Titterington. “It was a road filled with adversity. The guys stepped in and just did a heck of a job. These guys never blinked. They never did the ‘woe is me’ thing. They just rallied around each other. The next guy stepped in and did a heck of a job.

“It was impressive. I mean, it's one of the most impressive things I've experienced. And I've been coaching a long time.”

Asked how they stuck together and achieved their goals, the players talked about togetherness, dedication and love.

“This is why we keep going, so that we can get to this point right here in our lives and win this baby,” Malchow said, tapping the table with an index finger. “We've tried this before and this was the final chance. And we strived to be here so long and so hard. We started working last year after we lost that game. A week later, we were in the lab, we were in the workout room, we were going hard.”

Titterington said, “We're all so tight as a team, like we get together and hang out all the time, all of us, no one's ever left out in team stuff. We're always at lifting together, film together, just having a great time. We all love each other so deeply, like we're almost like one person as a team, like there isn't 11 of us out there.”

The famous text from Roman Voss (which is included in last week’s story linked above) ended with this statement: “It’s going to be a crazy story after it’s done.”

He was correct.

As Lundeen sat at the interview table with seniors Mitchell Soltau, Kaden Nicolas and Landen Kujawa, a question was posed to the players: “Someday, another coach is going to be coaching this team, hopefully not for a long time. What are you going to remember about Coach Lundeen?”

“He's the best role model I've ever had, not just when it comes to football,” Nicolas said. “Obviously, he's an amazing football coach with all these accolades, but he is the exact person that I want to be when I'm older, when it comes to being a good father, being a good grandpa, treating everybody in the community with respect no matter what. He's just an amazing person and a great leader.”

Lundeen, who had tears in his eyes as the Bulldogs posed for a team photo after their win, was again emotional as he listened to those words from one of the teenagers to whom he means so much.

“You guys make me cry,” he said with a smile.

Then the coach talked about what really matters, beginning with a question.

“Why do you do this for 55 years? It's a deal where, what's your purpose? What's your goal? And if the scoreboard is defining who you are, it's really difficult,” he said. “We had two really difficult losses the last two years (in section championship games), and these guys handled it well. It’s a game, it's a game, it's a game. But our purpose is so much greater, and that's to impact our community in a positive way, and in our school. These guys are tremendous role models on and off the field, and that's why we do this.”

Fertile-Beltrami Wins First Title

Someone from Fertile-Beltrami was pretty confident in the Falcons’ chances of becoming state champs, because after their 20-8 win over Hills-Beaver Creek in the Nine-Man Prep Bowl, a banner was unfurled. It read, “Fertile-Beltrami Falcons, 2024 State Champions.”

It was the first state football title for the Falcons and 30-year head coach Brian Nelson. They lost to LeRoy-Ostrander 58-8 in the 2002 Prep Bowl, and this year’s trip to the state playoffs was the eighth in school history.

The Fertile-Beltrami seniors finished their high school careers with four undefeated regular seasons, four trips to state and a title.

Nelson said the pregame message to the team was simple: “This is why we do all those reps in the summer, in the weight room. This is why we do all those repetitious drills day after day. It's all for this game, and it really showed their hard work today.”

Falcons senior Isaiah Wright electrified U.S. Bank Stadium in the semifinals, running for 361 yards and seven touchdowns. On Saturday he had 185 yards and one score. Wright, who committed to North Dakota last spring, has re-opened the recruiting process.

Stewartville Repeats In Class 3A

The Tigers of Stewartville, who won their first state championship last year, earned a repeat in 3A with a 43-22 win over Dassel-Cokato. Stewartville, playing at state for the eighth time, was state runner-up in 1977 and 1986.

The Tigers’ Dylan Scanlan ran the ball 140 times for 140 yards, including TDs of 58 and 20 yards. Parker Wangen ran for two scores, caught a touchdown pass and kicked a 25-yard field goal.

Stewartville finished the season 13-0. They were 14-0 last year, with their last defeat coming against Hutchinson in the 2022 state quarterfinals.

Elk River Runs To 5A Championship

In the final game of the 2024 Minnesota high school football season, Elk River outlasted Alexandria 33-24 for the Class 5A championship. It was the third state title for the Elks, with the others coming in 2016 and 2022. The Cardinals played in their first state championship game since 1994; they won a title in 1974.

Elk River’s vaunted rushing attack was on full display. They had 64 rushes for 388 yards, with Brecken Keorai running 13 times for 114 yards, Gavin Schmidt 26 for 123 and Carsyn Kleffman 13 for 112. The Elks threw the ball once.

--A Prep Bowl record was set when Alexandria’s Daniel Jackson kicked a 44-yard field goal in the second quarter. The previous record, set in 1996 by Brian Smiddle of Blaine, was 43 yards.

From One Sport To Another

Minneota football coach Chad Johnston has led the Vikings to six state championships, including a current streak of three in a row after Friday’s 70-20 win over Springfield in the Class A Prep Bowl. He also coached the girls basketball team to three state titles before making the switch to head coach of the boys basketball team a few years ago. He has three sons: the oldest are Easton (a junior) and Gage (a ninth-grader) and both play football and basketball.

Because the football season went until the final possible day of the season, the Minneota boys basketball team will have a couple of days off. Johnston said no practices will be held Monday or Tuesday. The first game is scheduled for Dec. 6 at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton.

Relishing Great Hoops Memories

The football fans from Fertile-Beltrami took great enjoyment Saturday in watching highlights from their boys basketball team’s state tournament appearance earlier this year. The Falcons finished as Class A runner-up, losing to Cherry in the championship game.

During a TV timeout, highlights from the Falcons state tourney basketball games were displayed on U.S. Bank Stadium’s giant screens. With each shot and each swish, fans cheered and yelled, “Boom!”

Thank A Ref

Longtime MSHSL multisport official David Madson of Redwood Falls put a cap on his 47-year football officiating career by serving as the referee for the Nine-Player state championship game.

Dave, who has been officiating football since 1977, also worked the 1988 Class C Prep Bowl. In other sports, he has been a baseball and softball umpire for 32 years (working state championship games in both), volleyball for 20 years and basketball for 35 years, including the 1992 Class A boys state championship game. The other members of his crew Saturday were Jeff Manthei, Josh Junker, Tim Prahl and Blair Folkens.

2024 Prep Bowl

Friday, Nov. 22

Class 1A/ Minneota 70, Springfield 20

Class 4A/ Becker 24, Totino-Grace 8

Class 2A/ Jackson County Central 42, Staples-Motley 24

Class 6A/ Maple Grove 28, Minnetonka 21

Saturday, Nov. 23

Nine-Player/ Fertile-Beltrami 20, Hills-Beaver Creek 8

Class 3A/ Stewartville 43, Dassel-Cokato 22

Class 5A/ Elk River 33, Alexandria 24

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Threads at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]