In Walz's hometown, locals at DNC watch party cheer on their former football coach

MANKATO, Minn. – Krista Goettl, Mankato West High School class of 2002, remembered watching Mr. Walz run classroom to classroom to check in on kids on Sept. 11, 2001, as images of the Twin Towers burning played on televisions in the hallway. It made her feel a little bit safer.

Kourtney McConville, also from the class of 2002, remembered Mr. Walz acting as a supportive assistant coach to her female varsity basketball coach. It gave her the confidence to know she'd have other good men behind her as she grew into a strong woman.

Lindsey Northenscold, from the class of 2007, remembered Mr. Walz sitting on a desk in class and feeling like he wanted to show he wasn't above them, even as high schoolers. His approach showed her how much an educator that cares can make a difference, and now she's a school social worker in the same school district.

It’s not every day that your former teacher becomes a candidate for vice president of the United States. For former students of now Gov. Tim Walz – always still Mr. Walz to them – his sudden ascendancy into the national spotlight has been surreal. It got even more so on Wednesday night as they gathered for a watch party to mark the occasion as Walz accepted the nomination 150 miles away in Chicago.

In Mankato, a small city in southern Minnesota nestled along a river, some locals are buzzing to see one of their own suddenly vaulted into the national spotlight.

“We’re pretty excited,” said Jane Petersen, 72, who is retired and works two days a week at the local library. “Tons of people are thrilled about it.”

Mike Laven has been president of the Mankato City Council since 2000. It’s a nonpartisan position, so he usually wouldn’t go to a political event like the watch party on Wednesday night at the school where Walz taught social studies and coached football before becoming the area’s congressman.

But “this is one of those times where I don’t care what it looks like,” he said. “It’s a hometown thing – like hey, that’s one of our guys.”

He said Walz has always been straightforward, friendly, and an attentive listener to community problems, even as he rose from a high school teacher to a member of Congress and then governor.

“Bumping into him and Gwen at the store or an event in town was like bumping into anyone in town,” Laven said. “That’s just how they are as people.”

In the high school auditorium where they had assembled for pep rallies decades ago, former students screamed in surprise when they saw their class mates — the former football state champions — on stage at the DNC alongside Walz.

“What the hell is happening?!” mouthed Ann Vote to another former classmate in joyous disbelief.

“I’ve got goosebumps,” said Katie Ryan, who graduated in 2001 with Vote, after Walz’s speech.

Walz leaned into his former football coach identity during his speech, urging supporters to push through in the final stretch ahead. Asked what she made of the focus on their football team’s championship year, McConville said it really “was such a huge thing when it happened.”

“We always kind of expected to lose. It brought in this feeling of being so proud of what you come from,” she said. Tonight, “it’s a very similar feeling.”

Jean Peterson, 93, raised a family in Lake Washington and helped start the local Children’s Museum.

“He was a good teacher and an excellent coach,” she said, adding that he will bring a “common man” appeal to the campaign.

“I’m not totally surprised” he was picked, she said. “He’d make a good vice president, we just don’t want to lose him. He’s done well by Minnesota.”

Nora Henry, 58, said she’s never met Walz but that her daughter went to high school with his daughter Hope. She thinks his viral video with Hope at the Minnesota State Fair is emblematic of the approachable demeanor he’ll bring to the campaign.

“It’s one of the things that’s so wonderful about him," she said. "He looks like this country bumpkin but he’s also so very sharp and quick witted."

A friend texted Henry asking: “Is this guy for real?”

“My sense is that some of it might be polished, but basically what you see is the real deal,” she said.

But not everyone is thrilled to find a hometown connection at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Dawn DeLaCruz, 66, said she voted for former President Barack Obama in 2008 but has voted for Republicans since. When protests unfurled into riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered by police, she said the city seemed out of control.

“For me the whole thing in the Cities eclipsed other things he might have been doing” as governor, DeLaCruz said of the Harris-Walz Democratic ticket for the White House. “I’m afraid of a country with no laws and no rules if they get in."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: In Walz's hometown, locals cheer on former football coach