(dramatic music) (upbeat music) Set your goals high.

Don't let people tell you no.

Just 'cause you get shut down the first time, keep coming back.

Don't let people tell you you can't do some things.

You wanna do it, focus on it, and see what you gotta do to get better, work hard at every day.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) "Next Up Minnesota" is made possible by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

My name's Terry Bahlmann.

I'm the head football coach at Marshall High School.

I'm also teaching phys ed here at the high school.

And I've been head football coach for 41 years, 21 years in Marshall.

My name is Mitchell Maxwell.

I've been coaching and teaching for 20 years now.

Right now I'm coaching linebackers and running backs, and play call for junior varsity too.

Oh, I always wanted to be involved in sports since I was young, and I did a lot of things as a teenager helping youth sports.

And my high school football coach was a big mentor of mine.

Really has respected the things he did and looked up to him the way he handled things.

I came from a high school that was half white and half black.

In the '80s, that was pretty rare in Iowa.

He was able to get along with everybody and treat people the same, and I always admired him for that.

I've always had a passion for sports since I was a little kid.

I remember being in the backyard kind of by myself throwing footballs at trees that were receivers and tried to hit certain spots.

And for me, athletics becomes personal because I come from a family that we struggled in a lot of different ways.

And the people that supported me the most were always coaches.

It was a no-brainer for me to decide to become a part of that process.

But that was the passion piece for me as far as coaching goes and why I would want to be involved in it.

My motivation really was to be in a sport, I guess, 'cause I was kind of a big kid growing up.

So I never really played any sports.

One of the coaches here told me about football.

Tried it and I joined freshman year.

And I guess just, I knew I was good at it, so that motivated me to keep going.

Biggest factor in my life was my dad.

We were always outside playing around with the football.

And he kinda just kept me in it, kept me in the sports, kinda get me involved in activities.

I started working out, doing things like that with him, and then kinda just went along with the high school program from there.

Kind of transitioned in that way.

Initially, it was my dad.

He always had the football game on the TV.

Most of my birthday presents were footballs, and just playing catch with my dad in the yard.

Having that background kind of made me wanna pursue it.

My name's Jack Meier.

I'm from Marshall, Minnesota.

I'm a linebacker and tight end, and I've been playing football for four years.

My name's Gavin Shaefer.

I'm from Marshall, Minnesota.

Here, I play fullback and defensive end, and I've played all four years at Marshall.

My name's Jacob Allex.

I'm from Marshall.

Played left tackle.

I've played football for Marshall for four years.

Personally, success goes along with team success for me.

So if your team's doing well, I find individual success that way.

Being overall happy with yourself.

If you look at yourself and think, "I did the best I could."

Also, getting along with your teammates, then that's successful in my eyes.

Take the game play by play and win that play.

Beat the guy ahead of you.

Success this year for us was play the best we could no matter who our opponent was, and it led us far.

Success is defined when players come back to us, either as young men or older, and tell us about the success that they have in what they're doing.

Got kids that come back that are playing college football and wanna talk to us about their experiences.

Those are the things, to me, that define success, if we can have that be the end game.

Those are kind of your big successes.

Doing our best every day coming out.

We control our attitude and effort every day.

And seeing kids be successful and seeing kids grow.

Everybody looks at the wins and losses, but we want our kids to put their best forward and then hopefully grow as a person and then someday contribute to society, become a good father and good role model for others.

This past season, I think it shows that we had a goal this year.

And I think we hit that goal.

I feel like we were all kinda brothers on this team.

And with everybody by your side, I think it showed that in life, if you have people around you that you can trust and work with every day, have a lot of success.

The year prior, we came short of going to state.

We were one game short.

Seeing that and how close we were to going just gave us the extra drive to stick together and really work towards that goal.

And we ended up getting it.

I think for this group it was more about how we left the last season, how we felt like we had the opportunity to do something, and we felt just short of our goals.

This season and the off-season was more about, how do we get to that point again?

What does it take to do that, knowing that you were so close?

And so I think that was a motivating factor for us.

That's what motivates people in ways that you don't get to see on the field of play.

But it was that group this year that was dedicated to that purpose.

We knew we had a good group going into it.

So some of the challenges we've had was losing a game, losing that game in the regular season.

Then, really, the mentality from there was just continue to win games and go as far as we did.

Know 2024 was a fun year for us.

We started out with a lot of goals like getting back to be a section champion.

And we've been close the last two years.

So that was in our head the whole way.

And it was focus, trying to keep them focused on one game at a time.

Our kids had their goals, and it was just fun that they got to reach those and obtain those and, of course, go to the Bank there and get to play a playoff game.

This group in particular I think is highlighted by the fact that there's a group of guys that love to play the game, who had to come together to play really cohesive football, disciplined football.

So from the time that we begin practice to the time that we play a game, there was a lot of individuals that have to come together to create a team.

Our dynamics is we're small-town football.

We have all kinds of different people.

All different grades, different colors, and different backgrounds from everybody.

And part of being a football coach, you mix them in.

I think everybody can find a role, and this team did a great job of finding a role.

So it's important to be part of the team and help contribute.

The dynamic, like if one of our guys makes a play, we're all gonna get hyped for him.

Having fun, too, when you're playing football is big.

Because it's serious, but it's really fun as well.

Play as a team and do everything, even outside of football we always hang out as a team.

And I think Coach Bahlmann has really like instilled that in everybody.

I think we pushed everybody to work hard and play together, really.

(fans cheering) (players cheering) (indistinct) Effective teamwork is respect your teammates.

Everybody's got different beliefs and everybody comes from different backgrounds.

And you don't always have to agree with them, but respect them, and listen, and be open-minded, and support your teammates.

You have to have guys willing to put in the work.

Good team morale from everyone.

For us, it's definitely in the weight room.

Just seeing your guys in there knowing that they wanna put in the same amount of work as you.

Working out together, running together, just bonding in that.

Just being able to take criticism, you gotta be a leader, you gotta be able to push people, but also have their back at the same times.

We don't allow egos.

Everybody understands what their role is on this team.

Guys are taking responsibility for that.

Everybody's on the same page and the same level, understanding that role.

Everybody is kind of cheering for everybody else to get better.

Our local community's great at supporting all activities in Marshall.

And obviously, football's a big part of it.

One of my favorite highlights of the year is when we went and played Byron at East Ridge.

Three hours and 15 minute drive for us and 45 minutes for them.

Our crowd was larger in population there and more vocal than the Byron crowd.

That makes me really happy about the community and support we get.

Well, first of all, our community's great.

We get sometimes 4 or 5,000 people at a football game, which is insane for a small town here in Marshall.

For sure, like the youth, a lot of the younger kids come to our games, and they give you high fives when you walk in and out.

I can walk around Marshall and a lot of people I don't know know who I am.

It just shows kids that they can be part of something big here at Marshall when they grow up, because there's not always that opportunity in a small town.

I think it inspires our community, knowing that we went far.

And then we had people that came in every week, supported us in our games.

That really meant a lot to us and them, that we each found that.

There are things that get done in the community at large to different service projects.

So they know that they can reach out.

That job will get done to help set up chairs, tables, those types of things.

There's that kind of respect from the community, knowing that our players are gonna be responding in a positive way if they're asked to help out with something or do something.

Throughout the year, not just during the season, they'll be helping out with a lot of local events, and parking cars, and doing different things just to help out.

The things make kids think about giving back to the community.

The community does a great job of giving to us, so we wanna always try and give back as much as possible.

I think just the success of the community, of our team, gets people together.

I think that just builds and goes.

And I talked to some of the old timers downtown, they just get excited about the success of football and how we're gonna do each season.

Yeah, I know just some experiences around town.

We'd always go out to eat after games, and there'd be elder folks that would come up to us and say, "Good job," and they've been watching us.

Affected our whole community as a whole.

We went to state.

That's a big thing, meaningful for the community.

Everyone came and watched and supported.

And that was a great feeling, just looking up to a full crowd.

Our whole community traveled well.

We'd always had full stands supporting us everywhere we went.

I can walk around Marshall and a lot of people I don't know know who I am.

It just shows kids that they can be part of something big here at Marshall when they grow up, because there's not always that opportunity in a small town.

Going to the state semifinals helped the community by just like uplifting them a little bit.

Having that backing from our community is so massive.

We've been fortunate enough to have a good following of people that come to our games.

And I think that we always say, "What's it say in the front of your jersey?"

It says Marshall.

And we do that for a reason.

Anytime you can take a team and a school community and put it on that stage, and so I think that when you get an opportunity to do that, there's pride from everybody in the community.

Going back to week three, when we lost, we knew, again, that we had a good team.

We lost to Jordan last year, and we beat them this year.

So we were kind of on a high, I guess.

And then we beat Willmar.

and we lost to Waseca.

I think that was kind of a obstacle cause it showed that were not unbeatable.

I dont think that we win the Byron game if we don't learn lessons from that game and what we had to learn from that experience was what it meant to be challenged from a physical perspective.

And that's something that we've had a lot of pride in our program on over the years.

You take the lessons from that and you try to build that week to week up until the end.

Working with the young people sometimes there's a lot of different things going on in their worlds and keeping everybody focused.

It is also a positive, the different things we can bring together and be part of a team and help share as a team and help each other when they need support.

(fans applauding) One of the biggest challenges when advancing to the playoff in state games was playing on a bigger stage with the stakes a little bit higher than the regular season.

Sometimes I'd miss a block or I would block but I'd get beat.

And I think the biggest challenge for me as the season went on is to be confident in myself and the guys around me.

I couldn't do everything myself so I had to trust.

Once I really started trusting in my teammates then that's when I just kinda played my game and I didn't do it for me but I did it for them.

Just keeping each week in front of you and then as a coaching staff having to work together to address those issues and then define whether or not we were doing that, accomplishing that task.

Biggest challenge there for us is to get by Hutchinson.

They've been the perennial power and they're in our section, we know they're gonna be in our section.

Getting a home game with 'em is always our goal and we just tell the kids, if we do well in the playoffs, it's reward.

You get to play one more game together as a team and they really enjoy that.

(fans cheering) Personal challenges as a coach is just, do you wanna climb the ladder or are you comfortable where you're at?

When starting out we were going three years at each school.

The climate I thought I wanted to be back in a city, large city school where I grew up playing football.

Got to a community like Marshall and really enjoyed the size of the community and that we know a lot of people, and the kids know each other in school yet, and we still have everything in town that we need to be successful.

But we still have the opportunity for a lot of nice things.

Some personal challenges I've experienced as a captain was giving the example and kinda doing as you're told to show other people like kind of what the expectation is and do the work so that they do the same.

Things that I've taken away from being a captain is hard work actually pays.

If you put in the hard work then you might not see it while you're doing it, but looking back at yourself while you are working, you'll see a lot of payout.

Part of our job is to help them in that path of how do you help and support each other.

I think one of the things that we do really well here is if someone makes a mistake, it's a mistake.

There's a time to be intense and there's a time not to be intense.

When is it a time to mentor?

Our team does a great job of supporting each other.

Captains in my opinion, like us five guys, we set the tone for the team, but the other guys that aren't captains are really what you know makes the team the team.

When they take what we say and they pass it on to other people, I think it makes a great team.

You have the guys on the sidelines, they're always cheering for you and then the guys on the field, you can look to your buddies and they'll pick everyone up.

No matter if someone missed a play or did something bad, everyone, every single one out there will pick 'em up.

They always made sure that we were on the same page.

If there was a disagreement, we always talk about it in the huddle, just making sure we're good for the next play.

We just sit down and talk about things as a group and it goes back to everybody's different a little bit.

Nobody knows what's happening in somebody else's household and something comes up and they need some support, I think we just talk about it and we show up and help out.

You can count on however many guys are on our team, all of us to pick you up and tell you next play.

It's sometimes those conversations that are the most meaningful.

Lets them know you're there for them, you care about them, how can I do that for you and how can I show that to you?

There'll be times you feel like you wanna give up, whether it be a conditioning, but you always know that you gotta put in the work for your teammates and just keep moving forward 'cause you gotta put yourself on the line for other people, not just yourself.

I think week two I was getting sick.

So like an hour before game time I had 103 fever.

I didn't feel good at all.

I had puked a couple times throughout the game.

It was tough but I knew I had to just keep pushing through for my guys.

When things are at their worst, that's when you have to work really hard to try to be at your best.

And I think that those moments define character.

So when things are at their worst, it's not always what you want to hear, but it's what you need to hear.

There's some challenges, there's some days you're down in the dumps and it goes back to pretty basic motto, we control our attitude and effort every day and we're gonna control what we're gonna be and how we're gonna react to things.

It's never gonna be easy.

If it's easy, everybody could do it.

So you started something, you started it for a reason that even if on the way there's a setback, can push through that setback, then you accomplish something in the end.

'Cause if it's just an easy path then it's like I did it.

But if you have to go through some stuff, then it's, look at what I did to get there.

It's good to have diversity on the team 'cause everyone comes from different places, and we all play together well knowing that we all have the same name on our jersey and no matter what, everyone's the same on the football field, and we're all family.

I really enjoy it.

It's fun in our community.

Some of the other schools don't deal with and ask about it.

Respect who everybody is and listen and learn.

And it is fun when you see kids get together and be not ever been around somebody else's culture.

It's great for our kids to experiencing that and there's no place like the locker room to everybody's an equal in there, and to have some fun, and learn about other cultures.

All the different personalities and backgrounds kind of just mesh into one when we put that helmet on.

People kind of put their backgrounds aside when you strap up.

We have people that come from all different places, backgrounds, whatever the situation is, we are all one.

So even though there might be diversity, it doesn't change who we are.

Everybody has a home at Marshall Football and everybody's a brother no matter who you are, where you came from, what you look like.

Well, as we look forward, just build off of what we've done.

We have a lot of momentum right now and I remember what got us here.

Gotta do the hard work and nose to the grindstone again and go.

We're gonna be at the top and we wanna be there.

We want people shooting at us there and try and knock us out, but we're gonna do our work and be prepared and do everything right now to get ready for next season.

I would like to see guys continuing the hard work that we would show and kinda continue with our example of working hard all the time and giving it your full effort.

I'd like to see next year's team improve on the team lifting.

I just know from personally, it helps so much with the trust aspect.

Who's gonna be willing to go out to the field and throw routes to get timing down?

Who's gonna be willing to do that stuff on their own time?

Start the season out strong even when it comes to a big game like state semi-finals, hopefully again, that you still have the confidence to be able to play the whole game knowing that you made it here for a reason and that you have a chance to win no matter what.

Working hard can be really energy sucking.

It can like take all the fun out of it, but just know that God will give you challenges that you can handle, and that he'll be with you every step of the way.

Always work your hardest 'cause time will run out.

You'll think you have more time, but you always wish you could do something a little bit differently.

So don't leave that on the table and just give it your all all the time.

Working to your potential is something that no matter what role you walk into in life, you're working hard to do your best work every day, I think you have a chance to do some great things.

If you have confidence in yourself and know that you could be something great, then that'll help you strive to work for it.

Even if you make a mistake or you have a bad play, if you have confidence then you're like, "Hey, well, I had a bad play but I know who I am so I know that that's not gonna keep happening."

Set your goals high.

Don't let people tell you no.

Just 'cause you get shut down the first time, keep coming back.

Don't let people tell you you can't do something.

If you wanna do it, focus on it and see what you gotta do to get better and work hard at every day.

"Next Up Minnesota" is made possible by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.