As a teacher and coach at Mankato West High School, Tim Walz delivered high grades in the hallways, was named “most inspiring teacher,” inspired students to become educators themselves and helped create a turnaround story for the football team.
Now the governor of Minnesota and the vice presidential pick on the Democratic presidential ticket, Walz is still fondly remembered by his former students and players.
“He was probably one of the most popular teachers in the school when he was there,” said Katie Heintz, 41, who was Walz’s teacher during his junior year at the high school and is now director of the area’s library. .
His lectures on subjects such as history and government stick with him to this day, he said.
He really taught both sides of everything,” she said. “He wasn’t a pushover, you know, right or left or anything.”
He was also an influential assistant coach who mentored students off the field and helped lead the football team to a state championship.
Both Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, worked at Mankato West, and Tracy Frederick Corcoran, 41, took classes with both.
“Between Tim and Gwen, there were two people who were always there for the students in high school,” he said. “Both Tim and Gwen had a magic that helped you see possibilities and potential in yourself that you might not have known were there.”
Walz, a Nebraska native, moved to Mankato after nearly 20 years in the military. About 80 miles south of Minneapolis is a city of about 45,000 people that residents describe as an ideal place to raise a family.
Corcoran and Heintz, former students of Walz’s, moved back to Mankato years after graduation to raise their families. They have seen their old teacher a few times since then; they said he still attends some high school football games as a governor.
Despite his political rise, Heintz said, his personality is exactly the same.
“He stands by what he believes in,” she said. “We hadn’t spoken in 15 years, but he remembered that I was a student. We continued from where we left off, there was no awkwardness.”
Corcoran now works in educational consulting and is making her foray into politics by running for the local school board. It’s something Walz says inspires him.
“Tim is definitely one of the teachers that has had a lasting impact on me,” she said. “Tim really gave me a window to see how you can have a bigger impact on a larger scale, and public office is one of the ways you can do that.”
Mankato is pretty mixed when it comes to politics, Corcoran said, split nearly down the middle between Democrats and Republicans. But with its deep community ties, Heintz said, Walz is generally well-liked. He thinks he has the potential to attract eligible voters to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I think people who know him will vote for him because of who he is,” he said. “My dad is a staunch Republican, served in the military, and loves Walz.”
Corcoran and Heintz said it’s strange and exciting to watch high school teachers become their representatives and governors and now join the race to become vice president. Both are voting for him and Harris in November.
“You could feel the excitement of everyone who was affected by it,” Corcoran said. “He hunts and fishes like a lot of Minnesotans, and I think that’s the really humble, human side of him that makes people rally around him.”
“Totally boring” as a coach who helped lead a patient but underachieving team to state championships
It was his junior year and Dan Clement was looking to leave Mankato West. A self-described “troubled youth,” he hung out with a group of kids who would rather skip school, drink alcohol, and take drugs than sit in class. But a conversation with Walz, his defensive backs coach, in the summer of 1998 changed his mindset heading into his senior year of high school.
“He really drew me in,” Clement, 43, said. “He really cared about me so much that I said, ‘OK, I’m going to keep going to school and I’m going to work hard for you.’ I played football for him. “I didn’t really play football for much.”
Clement’s recollections of Walz are not uncommon from former coaches and players who say he was an integral part of turning the once-failing football program into the best team in Minnesota.
“They haven’t won a game in two or three years,” Clement said. “Mankato West was terrible. A really bad football team for many years. And then ’96, ’97 and ’98, literally, over those years, he went from just awful to state champions.
Walz moved from Nebraska to Minnesota with his wife, Gwen, in 1996 to be closer to family. Both joined the school as teachers, and Walz was brought up as a possible assistant to then-head coach Rick Sutton.
Sutton, 42, said they shot him immediately.
“Tim is a guy who makes people feel comfortable. He has really good people skills,” Sutton said. “Certainly one of the most important things in coaching and teaching is the ability to build relationships with students and other people, and that’s definitely Tim’s strength. Without a doubt, this was the guy I wanted on my staff when I first met him for an informal interview.
Walz first coached the linebackers, then moved to defensive coordinator. In 1999, they had a team with great potential, but started the season 2-4. Sutton and Walz made sure to stress to the players that the year isn’t over yet.
They then rallied for eight straight wins and eventually took the state championship with a dramatic 35-28 win over Cambridge-Isanti. Walz’s defense limited one of the state’s stars to just over 100 yards rushing, which was a huge feat considering he was coming off a semifinal game where he had over 250 yards on the ground.
Championship quarterback Seth Greenwald said Walsh’s energy on the sidelines helped turn his fortunes around that season.
“He brought a lot of energy,” Greenwald said. “He wasn’t a big screamer; he was not a big shouter to us. He always practiced with us. He is always very involved as a coach. I never took days off, I never prepared. Just enjoyed the game. His passion was palpable. When he rolls up his sleeves and decides to go ahead and attack something, he’s fully prepared.”
Clement added: “He didn’t scream when you failed. He shouted when you did well. He has two fists above his head and jumps 3 feet in the air. This is how I imagine coach Valz.”
“Head of Education”
Waltz attributes his decision to switch from educator to lawmaker to an incident in 2004.
President George W. Bush was in Mankato to speak, and Walz brought a group of children to listen, hoping to give them a unique educational experience. But according to Walz, the students were denied entry because they had previously volunteered for the Democratic Party.
“My students, regardless of political party, deserved to witness the historic moment of a sitting president coming to our city,” Waltz said. He tweeted in August 2020, added: “It was at this moment that I decided to run for office. “Although I have a passion for politics, I have never been overly involved in political campaigns, and many thought that a high school teacher and football coach would not stand a chance.”
Educators and advocates welcomed Walz, a fierce advocate for children’s work, who they viewed as a welcome addition to the national scene.
“Gov. Walz is known as the ‘Education Governor’ because he has been a steadfast champion for public school students and educators, and an ally for working families and unions,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement Tuesday.
Among the events he has done: Last year’s Walz signed the bill It allowed all K-12 students in Minnesota to receive free school breakfasts and lunches, regardless of their family’s income. His legislation followed a federal waiver during the Covid era that temporarily made it universal free school meals available to all students nationwide during the height of the pandemic; Other than Minnesota, only a few states have made free school meals permanent.
A group of children He pumped his fist and hugged Walz when he signed the bill at their Minneapolis elementary school.
Republican critics Meanwhile, he has argued that the more than $400 million in taxes spent on free meals in his state could serve a better end.
Walz has been staunch in his defense of the legislation.
“What’s in the school cafeteria and what’s not is not a necessary thing,” he said at a press conference. last summer. “Let’s just feed our kids.”
He adopted the same simple approach other aspects of educationsinging about billions of dollars in spending increases.
The National Education Association, a union representing about 3 million teachers and other school workers, said educators were “motivated and united” to choose the Harris-Walz ticket.
“We know we can count on sustained and real partnerships to expand student access to free school meals, invest in student mental health, ensure no educator is burdened with student debt, and do everything possible to sustain our communities and schools. it’s safe,” Pringle said.