As his party leans into Tim Walz’s roots, what was he like as a football coach?

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was thrust into the national spotlight this week as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ choice as running mate, it had a secondary effect on countless people in his orbit.

Count among them Rick Sutton, a longtime Minnesota football coach who has been fielding a lot of media requests about the 1999 Mankato West football team — an underdog squad that won a state championship with Walz serving as an assistant coach.

“My daughter offered to be my press secretary,” Sutton quipped on Wednesday, “and I’m almost to the point where I might need one.”

Sutton also understands the interest, though, and he seems more than happy to both relive the glory of that season 25 years ago and talk about Walz, a longtime educator and coach like Sutton. In a conversation that aired on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast, we talked mostly about football and what sort of coach Walz was back in the day.

Sutton recalled that Walz and his wife, Gwen, arrived at the school in 1997 to fill vacancies as teachers (social studies and English).

“Our principal at the time, John Barnett, gave me a call and said, “I think you need to talk to this guy. I think we got a real good candidate for a football coach,’” Sutton said. “They moved to town in very early June and, I guess I wouldn’t really call it an interview. It was more of an informal conversation, Anyone who’s met Tim knows that within a few minutes,, he’s your best friend in the world. And it was very obvious right from the start that he was going to be a great fit for our staff.”

There were four varsity coaches on the staff at the time, Sutton said. All the coaches worked with players on both sides of the ball, but Walz’s primary area of focus was defense. Mankato West ran a 4-4 scheme under Walz — four linemen and four linebackers to go with three defensive backs — while playing in the run-heavy Big 9 Conference.

After several losing seasons, Mankato West started to turn a corner in 1997. By 1998, the Scarlets had improved enough that they advanced to the section playoff finals before losing. There was a lot of optimism heading into 1999, but the team started 2-4. From there, they rallied for eight straight wins, including three in the state tournament, to win the Class 4A title.

“I don’t think we would have won that state championship if we hadn’t lost at the beginning of the season,” Walz said in talking about that season as a lesson in resilience during his 2021 State of the State address. He specifically mentioned in the speech a goal line stand in the state quarterfinals that keyed a victory over powerhouse Totino Grace.

“I don’t think anybody, except for us, gave us a chance to win that game,” Sutton said Wednesday. “And the adversity that we had gone through during the course of the season, that arc of learning from those earlier games — iron sharpens iron.”

Sutton and Walz have reminisced about their time together and that season at various times over the past couple decades. Sutton said it’s gratifying to see the Harris-Walz ticket embracing his roots, as Harris has repeatedly referred to Walz as “coach” in early stops on the campaign trail.

“In coaching, X’s and O’s are obviously are important, but it’s more about the relationships that you can build and the trust that you foster with your team,” Sutton said. “That’s obviously always been one of Tim’s biggest strengths. That dedication, that enthusiasm, that ability to get to know students on an individual basis is all a big part of that success.”