Two area seniors will play in high school football all-star game

Published 9:51 pm Sunday, April 17, 2011

Grand Meadow senior Caleb Leichtnam escapes a tackle during a football game this past fall. Leichtnam is one of two area players who will play in the Minnesota High School All-Star game June 25. -- Herald file photo

Two area high school football players will have one more prep gridiron game in them as they are among the 88 players who have been selected to play in the 38th annual Minnesota High School All-Star game.

Grand Meadow’s Caleb Leichtnam and Blooming Prairie’s Cooper Nelson will both play for the South team at TCF Bank Stadium on the campus at the University of Minnesota June 25 at 7 p.m..

Blooming Prairie’s Cooper Nelson hauls in a pass this past football season. -- Herald file photo

Leichtnam, who has committed to Rochester Community and Technical College, will play in the game as a defensive back as he had 16 career interceptions at GM, which is the smallest school district being represented in the all-star game. On offense, he had 2,390 all-purpose yards and 33 touchdowns for the Larks, who went 8-2 overall.

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Nelson, who will play in the game as a tight end, missed about half of the past season, but he still had 30 catches, 439 yards and five scores for BP, which went 8-3 overall. On defense, Nelson had 33 tackles, 7 sacks, one interception and one TD.

The All-Star Football Game will showcase outstanding senior players from the 2010 high school football season.

Players and coaches representing 79 schools and 33 conferences will participate in this year’s game. The teams were selected by members of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association.

For the first time since 1979, the game will feature the North All-Stars versus the South All-Stars. In 17 previous North vs. South All-Star Games between 1945 and 1979, the series was tied at 8-8-1.

The Metro vs. Outstate series ended in 2010, with the Metro winning the overall series 16-15

Assisting head coach Dave Nelson of Minnetonka with the South All-Stars are Clay Anderson of Albert Lea, Jon Bakken of Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, Mal Scanlan of Cretin-Derham Hall (retired), Mike Scanlan of Cretin-Derham Hall and Bubba Sullivan of Northfield.