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Former members of the Mankato West High School football team took center stage at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday night in support of their former coach, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as he formally accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president.
However, social media stirred over the reference to Walz as football coach that turned a losing team into state champions.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reacts during the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
“In Minnesota, we trust a coach who turned a team that was 0-27 into state champions,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in her speech on the third night of the DNC.
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Ben Ingman, one of Walz’s former students who said the governor also coached him in seventh grade basketball and track at Mankato, echoed that sentiment.
“Coach Walz got us excited about what we might achieve together. He believed in us, and he helped us believe in each other. And his leadership stuck. That track team went on to win a state title, just like the football team.”
Several players then took the stage in a pep rally-style fashion, eliciting cheers from the crowd as the school’s fight song played in the background.
Former members of the Mankato West High School football team take the stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
However, some on social media could not help but point out that Walz only served as an assistant coach while at Mankato.
“Amy Klobuchar introduces Timothy Walz as a coach who ‘turned’ a team ‘into state champions,’” one person said in a post on X. “He was NEVER a head coach. He didn’t ‘turn’ anyone into state champions.”
“He was the Assistant Coach not the Coach,” Richard Grenell, former U.S. ambassador to Germany, said on X.
“Still really, really confused about why they keep pushing the ‘Coach Walz’ thing from a million years ago when Tim Walz was a volunteer assistant coach…why not focus on his Governorship…?…no…they just want to focus on Coach Walz…it’s strange,” another person wrote.
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Walz was a faculty member at Mankato from 1996-2006. During that time, he served as the Scarlets linebackers coach and defensive coordinator until 2002. Under head coach Rick Sutton, the school won its first state championship in 1999.
The interior defensive line of Mankato West throws Northfield’s Tim Mullen for a first-half loss at the Metrodome on Nov. 19, 1999. (Marlin Levison/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
He was inducted into the high school’s Hall of Fame in 2019.
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