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Minnetonka Football Tradition - 1970's
(From Minnetonka Football - The First Half Century by Miles Jon Cohen)
Minnetonka fought back to build a 4-4-1 record in football year 1970. Forty-two Seniors and Juniors worked together to build a solid football effort.
Complete effort from each and every player contributed to the bounce-back season. Players returning this fall were in fine condition, meaning they worked hard all summer. The team numbers were also up from the prior year allowing us some more quality and depth.
"We had 42 dedicated players commented Doc West". Other highlights of this year were our first ever televised game in our history and an 8-7 win over "new" Hopkins Lindbergh.
This season marked the end of Coach Walt West's nine year tenure as head football coach. Sadly, this was the longest coaching spell in Minnetonka's brief history as five other head coaches preceded "Doc" over the preceding eleven football seasons.
Walter accomplished a lot just by stabilizing the program and bringing it a passion it needed at that time. Not enough can ever be said about the contributions this man made to our high school as he went on to become athletic director, continued to coach football and basketball, teach and mentor to the day he retired.
The Skippers fought to a 5-4 winning record in 1971. Coach West gave much of the credit not only to all his players but to his son Pat, a wide receiver, and his excellent assistant coaches Bill Diedrich and Lou Morseth.
For the seventh time in two decades, the Skippers ushered in a new coaching era when athletic director Walt West hired a brash young physical education teacher, George Soukup, as our new head football coach. George had an excellent playing career at Owatonna High and then Mankato State University (now MN State University at Mankato) where he is named to their Hall of Fame. He came to our district after one year at Mapleton where he coached three sports. He was ably assisted by veterans Bill Diedrich and Joe Lane, longtime head boys' track coach.
In the rebuilding year, the heavily banged up Skippers struggled to a 1-7 won/loss record with their only win against Cooper, 29-27 in a comeback season finale.
Another rebuilding and reorganizing year led to a 1-8 won/loss record. Due to the small number of 38 Seniors and Juniors, Coach Soukup in his second season, decided to move up 12 sophomores to the varsity.
The only win was a 26-25 squeaker over Hopkins Eisenhower which broke a five-game losing streak.
Finally, let's give some credit to the cheerleaders this season who stuck with the team through thick and thin!
After a grueling season of competition, the Skippers tied for 4th place in the Lake Conference and pulled through a won/loss record of 2-7. Coach Soukup was assisted by Coaches Bill Diedrich, Don Smith, Bill Gresko, Wayne Parks and Larry Woods.
With the larger coaching staff and squad this season, Tonka was able to divide practices into platoons making for better position specialization throughout the year.
This year marked an historical year for Tonka football in more ways than one. Many superb athletes graced the yearbook picture and many went onto outstanding college and professional careers. This team laid the ground work for next season.
In summing up the season, Coach Soukup said, "I really didn't want to see the season end, the kids played some real exciting football. We accomplished a great deal - they never let down, they just kept putting one foot in front of the other battling all the way."
This football team, comprised of 105 players in grades 10-12, was one of our largest and best in the annals of school history. Except for the 1958 edition, it was clearly our best over the previous 24 years. Only the future 1990, 1997 and 2003 editions could compare certainly in terms of players voted all conference (eight).
The 7-2 won/loss record could easily have been 9-0 but for two tough losses to Richfield (ranked #1 in the state) and to Jefferson (ranked #6).
This team had no MVP simply because there were so many of them in terms of all-conference and D-1 or D-2 college careers.
This past season the squad (which was ranked first in the state in the pre-season polls) could not quite match last year's record season but they gave their all and fought very hard to a respectable 5-4 won/loss record. This was probably the largest squad from a physical sense we've ever fielded at Tonka as the smallest O-Lineman was 225 pounds. Spirits remained high even as injuries piled up.
The team consisted of 45 dedicated and enthusiastic players. They were led by a fine coaching staff.
The yearbook and coach interview document that this Tonka football edition was "special". Even though their 5-4 won/loss record was not spectacular, this team was one of the tightest and most motivated units we've had according to Coach Soukup. He went onto say "Out of the 14 years I've worked as an assistant and head coach at MHS, this as one of the finest groups I've ever worked with. I guess it's because the guys were so equally talented. There was not any competition between the players this year like in the past years". Tonka had the capability to platoon again or play in equal shifts and this got people more playing time.
The team had an up and down year; the high was the victory over Edina East and the low was the loss to St. Louis Park.
The goal was to have a good season, and with excellent players and the help of Coaches Soukup, Joe Lane (the legendary MN State Track & Field Hall of Fame member and 34 year MHS veteran track coach and Ex-Marine and Decathlon man), Bill Josephson and long-time assistant Wayne Parks, met their goal. The final record of 4 wins and 5 losses was accomplished by a lot of hard work.
Tonka's homecoming win over Richfield was huge as it was the first time we had ever beaten them! This team gave new life to the annual "Powderpuff football game" a long-standing Tonka tradition of girls playing a game of touch coached by the boys. The team was very superstitious and often engaged in ceremonial sacrifices with flies, ants and spiders.
This team worked hard from the time grueling practices in August infringed on summer fun. The captains did their best to generate teamwork but somehow, through bad breaks, injuries and occasional lack of execution, the team fell short of its own expectations until their only win in the season finale against cross-lake rival Wayzata 6-0.
The team played best when underdogs but came up a little short on the scoreboard when drawing the supposedly weaker team. It was a strange season for the undersized squad.
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