Tim Walz was not the top coach of the Mankato West Excessive Faculty group; he primarily served because the group’s defensive coordinator, which suggests he was one member of the group’s teaching workers. We didn’t discover any situations of him exaggerating his position as a coach. - Mankato West paid him a stipend for this position, opposite to claims he was an unpaid volunteer.
- It’s unproven whether or not his DUI arrest in 1995 particularly prevented him from working as the top coach. Nonetheless, provided that the varsity employed him in 1996 as a geography trainer, it’s unlikely that that is the case. The present principal of Mankato West confirmed that the varsity “already had a head coach who had been teaching the group previous to Tim coming to West, so there was not a head teaching place accessible.”
From their first rally collectively on Aug. 6, 2024, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, positioned the latter’s stint as a highschool soccer coach entrance and middle. “To his former highschool soccer gamers, he was coach,” Harris told the crowd. “And in 91 days, the nation will know Coach Walz by one other identify: vp of america.”
Former members of the Mankato West Excessive Faculty soccer group joined Walz onstage on the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference. (Getty Photographs)
This characterization immediately caught maintain, however so did skepticism.
Usually talking,
Whereas at least one news outlet has referred to Walz as “the soccer coach,”
Harris: I like what you’ve got achieved together with your life. You have been teaching a highschool soccer group that was winless, and also you got here in and they also have been clearly the underdogs. What occurred?
Walz: Yeah, it is a group. And I had nice coaches with me and we have been associates. And we buckled down and, look, it was a reasonably large faculty, however no one needed to play as a result of they hadn’t received and this group of coaches mentioned, “Initially, we gotta construct the group. We gotta exit and discover folks.”
We reached out to Mankato West Excessive Faculty, the place Walz taught geography, and Principal Sherri Blasing confirmed he was the defensive coordinator for the West soccer group and — opposite to a number of online claims — the varsity paid a stipend for this place.
Basically, whereas Walz was not the head coach of Mankato West’s soccer group, because the group’s defensive coordinator, he was nonetheless a member of the teaching workers.
In an August 2024 interview with The Minnesota Star Tribune, the top coach of the group on the time, Rick Sutton, mentioned that when Walz was employed, tright here have been 4 varsity coaches on the workers. In response to the article, Sutton mentioned it was gratifying to see the Democratic ticket embracing Walz’s roots, with Harris typically calling the Minnesota goveror “coach” alongside the marketing campaign path.”
In response to a story The Washington Publish printed in August 2024, “Walz began as a linebackers coach earlier than he was elevated to defensive coordinator, and he additionally coached operating backs.”
Within the 1997 Mankato West Excessive Faculty yearbook, Walz is pictured with the varsity soccer group and listed below “coaches” within the caption.
(Classmates.com)
In one other a part of the yearbook, a caption refers to Walz as a “varsity soccer coach.”
(Classmates.com)
Lastly, a number of X customers claimed that Mankato West Excessive Faculty prevented Walz from working as the top coach given his 1995 DUI arrest. Given that the highschool employed Walz as a trainer following the arrest, it’s unlikely that that is the case. Blasing mentioned through electronic mail that she was not capable of communicate to that immediately as she was not on the faculty at the moment, however she confirmed the varsity “already had a head coach who had been teaching the group previous to Tim coming to West, so there was not a head teaching place accessible.”
One X post claimed Walz resigned from teaching the freshman soccer group at Alliance Excessive Faculty in Nebraska in 1995 as a result of his arrest. In response to court transcripts, he “resigned all of his extracurricular duties at the highschool, which included some teaching duties.” He and his spouse moved to Minnesota the next 12 months.
