Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' choice for vice president, coached Mankato West football in the '90s

Walz was defensive coordinator on the team that won the Minnesota high school's first football state championship in 1999

Mankato West fans cheer on their football team in 2022. Kamala Harris' choice for vice president, Tim Walz, coached there in the '90s. / Jeff Lawler, SBLive Sports

Mankato West has become a Minnesota high school football superpower in this century, winning state championships in 2002, 2008, 2014 and 2021.

But the first state title in team history came in 1999, when Kamala Harris' choice for her running mate as vice president, Tim Walz, was the Scarlets' defensive coordinator.

Just three years after Mankato West had gone on an 0-27 run, Walz was part of the coaching staff that took the team to the top of the Minnesota high school football world in 1999.

The Scarlets started that year 2-4 but won eight straight to secure their first state championship.

Walz served as the team's defensive coordinator, running a 4-4 defense, while also serving in the National Guard.

Mankato West starts its 2024 season on Aug. 30, and one of the regular-season games of the year to circle on the Minnesota high school football schedule is Mankato West vs. Clanhassen on Sept. 27.

Walz, meanwhile, will be on the campaign trail trying to help Harris become the first woman elected as president of the United States.

Before coaching football at Mankato West, Walz coached football and girls basketball at Alliance High School in Nebraska.

He shifted to politics in 2006, beating longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht to win a seat in Congress, where he stayed until being elected Minnesota governor in 2018.

Harris named Walz, 60, as her vice presidential choice on Tuesday.

The last vice presidential candidate with a prominent football background came along in 1996, just a few years before Walz and Mankato West hoisted the football team's first trophy.

Jack Kemp, former star NFL quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, served as Bob Dole's running mate against President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore in 1996.

Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that Walz’s optimistic outlook, small-town roots and knowledge of the Midwest will help win swing states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.

“This isn’t the silver-spoon candidate,” she said. “He is someone who came from humble roots, and he actually gets America in a way that we haven’t seen.”

Shifting back to 1999 at Mankato West, Walz taught geography in addition to being the football team's defensive coordinator.

A student at the school wanted to start a gay-straight alliance. Walz had seen the bullying some students endured and agreed to be the group's faculty adviser.

"It really needed to be the football coach, who was the soldier and was straight and was married," Walz told the Star-Tribune in 2018.

Fast-forward 25 years and Walz is trying to become the third vice president from Minnesota in U.S. history, following Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the 2023 Polk County Steak Fry at Water Works Park on Saturday, September 30, 2023, in Des Moines. / Lily Smith/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK

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-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports