BELTRAMI, Minn. — Fertile-Beltrami High School boasts some serious athletic programs.
So much so, senior, Caiden Swenby found himself in the state finals for football and basketball and will be in Becker for the golf state tournament this week.
Swenby doesn't take all the credit for the stages he's played on.
"It's amazing," said Swenby, "All the hard work and the rest of my teammates have put in during the offseason and in the regular season, just all the time we spent together training and trying to excel at what we are doing, it's just amazing to finally have all that hard work pay off."
The Falcon also won the Minnesota State High School League AAA award for academics, arts, and athletics.
Next year, he will play basketball at the next level at D2 University of Minnesota Crookston, but Swenby isn't the only senior to make it to all three of the same state finals.
Fellow senior, Derek Sorenson was with him every step of the way, and played crucial roles in the success each respective team saw this year.
"We've seen each other grow, and came closer together, especially, in sports and to finally see us succeed on the biggest stages in the state is really fun," said Swenby.
"I remember a play in basketball where I threw it off the backboard and he came behind and slam dunked it," said Sorenson. "So that was awesome to see, and he's throwing me touchdown passes during games, so yeah we have a cool connection."
Another connection they have is the pride they take in their hometown.
"Our community is one of the best around," said Swenby. "We have more spectators at away games than the home team does. They come and support us everywhere we go."
"Our community is just awesome," said Sorenson. "The work they've put in to either make our complexes or gyms way better and just to see them at all of our games, and just cheering us on, and they're investing into us, it's cool to see."
So what motivates these athletes to be their best?
"I always wanted to be the person to set the bar for other people," said Swenby. "When I was younger, I always wanted to be like better than everyone else growing up in our school , so I just wanted to try and succeed as much as I can to give this next generation in our school especially someone to look up to."
This week, they are looking to soak up every last second of their last high school competition at the state golf tournament in Becker.
"This is our fourth time going to state in golf," said Sorenson. "It'll be our last kind of tournament that we will have together, so we will try to have fun and just be together and have fun together."
"It's my last high school event pretty much ever so you want to go out and you wanna win," said Swenby.
The Falcons did not end up winning the football state championship or the basketball state championship, so both seniors say they're extra motivated to bring home some hardware with the golf team.
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