MANKATO, Minn. — Millions across the United States have learned about Tim Walz over the past week, after current Vice President Kamala Harris announced the Minnesota Governor as her running mate for the White House. Long before Walz hoped to walk the halls of the White House, he walked a different hallway – at Mankato West High School.
"He's Coach Walz, he's not Governor Walz," Dan Clement said.
Much has been said about his time as a teacher and coach at Mankato West, after Harris applauded the actions of Walz during their announcement rally in Philadelphia last week. For Clement, those stories aren't just stories, they're reality – he lived them.
"He was an amazing coach, he's, you know, he's the type of coach that every athlete probably dreams of," Clement, a 1999 graduate, said.
Walz was a coach on the 1999 team that won a state championship. For Clement, it wasn't just as a coach that helped him, but as a person too.
"I probably wasn't a model student growing up and through high school," he said. "But I made it through, you know, and I credit a lot of that to Coach Walz."
A few months ago, Clement wanted to say thank you for Walz guidance all those years ago. He reached out through to the Governor's office, not really expecting to hear back.
"His scheduler there messaged back and said, 'Tim would love to meet with you,'" Clement said.
That kindness is what Clement said Walz has always been like – and other classmates agree.
"He always made sense as the vice presidential pick," Jacob Reitan, class of 2000, said.
During that same rally in Philadelphia, Harris discussed Walz time as a sponsor of the Gay Straight Alliance at the high school. Reitan was a member.
"When I decided to come out the next year, I had told my friend, and my sister, and the third person I told was Gwen Walz," he said.
Reitan said it was a hard time to make that choice, and there needed to be an ally.
"There was a need for the right person to be the advisor to the Gay Straight Alliance," he said. "It's not like it is today, and Walz just seemed to be the right pick, and given the support that he and Gwen showed all the way back to when I came out, he was the right pick for me too."
Of course, there are plenty who don't agree with Walz politically – including some of these former students.
"If it was just me and Mr. Walz in a room, I'd be like, 'I've got a beef about these three things," Doug Vose, a 2004 graduate, said.
Even as someone politically opposed to Walz, Vose said there's still respect.
"When you forget a password, and you have a backup, like, who's your favorite teacher?" he said. "Everybody's is Tim Walz."
"In spite of whatever flaws that he might have in his politics and what people don't necessarily align with, he wins a lot," Vose added.
Much will come up in the political dogfight over the next few months, but that's not what these three are focusing on. To really know someone, they say you have to go back to the beginning.
"I'll forever be grateful to the Walz for the support that they showed me during that difficult time in my life," Reitan said.