- Tim Walz was not the pinnacle coach of the Mankato West Excessive College workforce; he primarily served because the workforce’s defensive coordinator, which implies he was one member of the workforce’s teaching employees. We didn’t discover any cases of him exaggerating his function as a coach.
- Mankato West paid him a stipend for this function, 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 pinnacle coach. Nonetheless, on condition that the varsity employed him in 1996 as a geography instructor, 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 workforce previous to Tim coming to West, so there was not a head teaching place obtainable.”
Each Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her working mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have repeatedly introduced up Walz’s roots as a highschool soccer coach — which went from being “winless,” as Harris identified in a conversation with Walz, to successful the state championship — throughout the 2024 presidential race.
Former members of the Mankato West Excessive College soccer workforce joined Walz onstage on the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference. (Getty Photos)
From the second Walz joined Harris on stage for the primary time, this characterization as “Coach Walz” immediately caught maintain, however so did skepticism about his function. Many conservative-leaning social media customers claimed Walz was misrepresenting his place by saying he had been the workforce’s head coach when in actuality he was an unpaid assistant coach. “Each a part of Tim Walz ‘story’ is constructed on a lie,” one post on X read.
Usually talking, these posts played down Walz’s involvement with the soccer workforce and accused him of mendacity about or exaggerating his function as a soccer coach.
Whereas at least one news outlet has referred to Walz as “the soccer coach,” Walz himself has repeatedly said that he was a part of a “workforce” of coaches. For instance, a conversation with Harris in August 2024 went as follows:
Harris: I like what you’ve got finished together with your life. You have been teaching a highschool soccer workforce that was winless, and also you got here in and they also have been clearly the underdogs. What occurred?
Walz: Yeah, it is a workforce. And I had nice coaches with me and we have been mates. And we buckled down and, look, it was a reasonably large faculty, however no person wished to play as a result of they hadn’t received and this group of coaches mentioned, “Initially, we gotta construct the workforce. We gotta exit and discover individuals.”
We reached out to Mankato West Excessive College, the place Walz taught geography, and Principal Sherri Blasing confirmed he was the defensive coordinator for the West soccer workforce and — opposite to a number of online claims — the varsity paid a stipend for this place.
Primarily, whereas Walz was not the head coach of Mankato West’s soccer workforce, because the workforce’s defensive coordinator, he was nonetheless a member of the teaching employees.
In an August 2024 interview with The Minnesota Star Tribune, the pinnacle coach of the workforce on the time, Rick Sutton, mentioned that when Walz was employed, tright here have been 4 varsity coaches on the employees. In keeping with the article, Sutton mentioned it was gratifying to see the Democratic ticket embracing Walz’s roots, with Harris usually calling the Minnesota goveror “coach” alongside the marketing campaign path.”
In keeping with a story The Washington Submit revealed in August 2024, “Walz began as a linebackers coach earlier than he was elevated to defensive coordinator, and he additionally coached working backs.”
Within the 1997 Mankato West Excessive College yearbook, Walz is pictured with the varsity soccer workforce 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 College prevented Walz from working as the pinnacle coach given his 1995 DUI arrest. Given that the highschool employed Walz as a instructor following the arrest, it’s unlikely that that is the case. Blasing mentioned through e mail that she was not capable of communicate to that instantly 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 workforce previous to Tim coming to West, so there was not a head teaching place obtainable.”
One X post claimed Walz resigned from teaching the freshman soccer workforce at Alliance Excessive College in Nebraska in 1995 as a result of his arrest. In keeping with court transcripts, he “resigned all of his extracurricular duties at the highschool, which included some teaching obligations.” He and his spouse moved to Minnesota the next 12 months.
