John's Journal: A Lengthy Drive To Play In A Showplace

This is Week 6 of the Minnesota high school football season and, as happens every week, half the teams will play on the road. For the squads from Stephen-Argyle and Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal, the travel time this week will be relatively brief.

The Stephen-Argyle Central Storm will climb aboard a bus and travel 54 miles to a game against Badger/Greenbush-Middle River. The NCE/UH Titans will play at home, with the visiting team from Fertile-Beltrami journeying only 20 miles to Twin Valley.

Those distances are far cries from what the Storm and Titans experienced in Week 5.

When those Nine-Player teams met last Saturday evening at the Vikings’ TCO Performance Center Stadium in Eagan, it was a long road game for both groups. And in this case, it’s probably best to spell road in all caps: ROAD.

Both schools (actually, three schools since NCE/UH is a cooperative team with kids from two districts) are located in northwestern Minnesota. Stephen is almost an hour northeast of Grand Forks, N.D., and Twin Valley (home of NCU) is about the same distance northeast of Fargo.

Were one team to travel to the other, the distance would a little less than 100 miles, meaning about an hour and 45 minutes on the road each way. Their trip for Saturday’s game meant some real long-distance dedication.

Stephen is 383 miles from TCO Performance Center and Twin Valley is 269 miles away. The combined travel numbers for both teams are pretty crazy: 1,304 miles over 19 hours.

But then again, how many opportunities do small-town teams from outstate Minnesota get to play in such a world-class facility?

Both teams stayed at the Omni Viking Lakes hotel, which is a short walk from TCO Performance Center. The Vikings helped with the teams’ expenses.

“I don't know all the specifics, but they've been very generous,” Stephen-Argyle coach Ethan Marquis said of the Vikings. “I believe they cover the hotel, they cover the travel. They've been very, very generous.”

The Storm arrived in the Twin Cities on Friday afternoon and went to TCO to watch a Friday night game between South St. Paul and Simley. After Saturday’s game, which kicked off at 6 p.m., the Storm headed home.

The Titans came to town on Friday, arriving about three hours before kickoff. They spent Friday night at the Omni and attended the Twins’ final game of the season Sunday afternoon before returning home.

Also putting in serious miles in order to make the game happen was the officiating crew, also from up north. Referee Steve Philion, back judge Kevin Philion and down judge Zach Benson all live in Red Lake Falls, line judge Nick Neibauer Sr. is from Fertile and umpire Roger Cota lives in Saint Hilaire. That group made a 640-mile round trip and “We had a great time working the game,” said Steve Philion. 

When high school football fans hear “Stephen-Argyle” they are likely to recall the dominant Storm teams that won a string of five consecutive state championships from 2003 through 2007 and their 76-game winning streak that still stands as the state record. In addition, the Storm won state titles in 1999 and 2009, Argyle won state championships in 1981 and 1986, and Stephen won it all in 1992.

The Storm’s last trip to the Twin Cities for a game was in 2017, when they lost to Spring Grove in the state semifinals at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The coach of those dominant Stephen-Argyle teams was Mark Kroulik. He retired from coaching in 2009 and stepped down as a school administrator in 2014. He and his wife Beth live in Stephen and follow the Storm closely. Their son Matt is an assistant coach at Stephen-Argyle, and their other son, Casey, is the head coach at Clearbrook-Gonvick, which is nearly a two-hour drive from Stephen.

“We kind of split when we go to games,” Mark Kroulik said. “One week we’ll go to Clearbrook and the next week we’ll stay here. We book it out ahead of time.”

Asked about the 76-game winning streak and the state championships, Kroulik has fond memories.

“We had a pretty incredible run of good kids, good athletes, good students,” he said. “It sounds hokey but we really did, and we had good numbers. The tradition and high expectations are important. When one team did it, the next team wanted to do it.”

Then and now, the Storm are unique in that football practice is held before school. The lights are turned on before sunrise, and skies remain dark for lengthy periods as autumn continues. After school, the players watch film and/or lift weights.

“Usually once a year, we have afternoon practice because of weather or some type of problem, and it's dreadful, and we all hate it,” said Marquis. “It's gotten to the point where we just say we're not going to do it because we miss the mornings. It's awesome. It's unique and fun, and I would argue most of all, it's productive.”

Stephen-Argyle came into Saturday’s game with a perfect 4-0 record while NCE/UH was 0-4. The outcome was probably predictable, with the Storm defeating the Titans 57-24.

Senior Blaine Smith led the Storm by scoring four touchdowns on runs of 21, 53, eight and four yards. Senior Darby Benitt scored on a five-yard run and also caught a 15-yard TD pass from junior Shay Setterholm. For NCE/UH, senior Ian Jacobson ran 60 yards for a touchdown and returned a kickoff 83 yards for a score.

“It's been a weird year for us,” said Titans coach Dustin Flaten. “We started with really low numbers, and then we had a bunch of kids join that haven't really played football before, so we're trying to get them up to speed.”

A lot of football remains to be played before any championships will be decided, but the Storm players and coaches know all about their program’s treasured history.

“Coach (Matt) Kroulik and Coach (Jesse) Sundby were on many of those successful teams, so we can share those things,” said Marquis, a graduate of Fosston High School. “Many community members are part of that, too. They're willing to come in and share and talk and keep the guys interested in all those very successful days.

“I would credit those teams from 20 years ago, Coach (Mark) Kroulic and all the successful players and coaches. Because in this state, when people think about Nine-Man football, some people are going to think, ‘Oh, I know that team from Stephen-Argyle.’ So we're very fortunate.”

--MSHSL senior content creator 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 [email protected] or [email protected]