Gophers receiver Drew Hmielewski drops football to focus on baseball

Drew Hmielewski, a multisport athlete from Marshall, Minn., who was a redshirt freshman for the Gophers football team last fall, has left that program to concentrate on baseball, a university spokesman confirmed Thursday.

The 6-1, 204-pound wide receiver played in nine games last season, returning five punts for 25 yards. He did not have a reception. He missed the 2016 season because of an injury.

Hmielewski, an outfielder, was a redshirt during the Gophers' 2017 baseball season.

The football program also announced the addition of three transfers and six incoming freshmen who enrolled for the spring semester.

The transfers are quarterback Vic Viramontes of Riverside (Calif.) City College, defensive back Bishop McDonald, who played two seasons at Minnesota Duluth, and True Thompson, a wide receiver from Iowa Western Community College and the son of Darrell Thompson, the Gophers' all-time leading rusher.

Viramontes threw for 1,868 yards and 22 touchdowns in leading Riverside CC to a 10-2 record last season as a freshman. McDonald, a former North St. Paul High School standout, made 78 tackles, defended 16 passes and intercepted three passes in 23 games at UMD. Thompson, a former Armstrong standout, played in 10 games last season, catching four passes for 65 yards at Iowa Western.

The six freshmen who joined the team for spring semester are quarterback Zack Annexstad and offensive linemen Curtis Dunlap Jr. and Daniel Faalele of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.; linebacker Thomas Rush of Marysville, Ohio; defensive lineman Alex Reigelsperger of Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio; and offensive lineman Nathan Boe of Lakeville North.

Jim Kaat, who pitched 468 games for the Twins during a 25-year major league career, was named a special assistant by the organization.

Kaat, 79, pitched from 1959-83, including 15 seasons with the Senators/Twins franchise from 1959-73.

He was 189-152 with a 3.28 ERA, 133 complete games and 1,824 strikeouts for the Twins and is their all-time leader in victories and innings pitched.

"Kaat will engage in various Twins community and business initiatives both in Minnesota as well as Southwest Florida," the team said in a release.

Kaat, who currently works for the MLB Network, won seven Emmy awards as a baseball broadcaster.

• Tricia (Dunn) Luoma, a three-time Olympian who won a gold medal with Team USA in the 1998 Nagano Games, and Winny (Brodt) Brown, a defenseman on the Gophers' 2000 AWCHA national championship team and the first Ms. Hockey Award winner while playing for Roseville, will be the head coaches for National Women's Hockey League All-Star Game on Feb. 11 at the Tria Rink in downtown St. Paul.