BLOOMING PRAIRIE — When Blooming Prairie senior Gabe Hagen steps on the football field, he is either a quarterback’s best friend or their worst enemy. It all depends on if he’s playing for your team or not.

When he’s lining up as a wide receiver, Gabe uses his big frame and top-flight speed to run past and through defensive backs. When he’s lining up as a defensive end, Gabe uses his power and quickness to disrupt opponents’ game plans.

BP senior lineman Dylan Nirk is a good friend of Gabe’s and he has seen up close what Gabe, who recently committed to play football at Division II Minnesota State University, can do on a daily basis.

“He’s 250 pounds and he can run like a 4.6 second 40-yard dash,” Nirk said. “He’s quick and big and he can do a lot of things for us. He’s pretty good for us.”

Gabe has surpassed 1,600 yards receiving and he’s hauled in 26 TDs in the last two seasons combined. Last year he racked up 11 sacks and added an interception for a touchdown in BP’s postseason run that saw the Awesome Blossoms advance to the Minnesota Class A State Football Tournament semifinals, where BOLD beat them 37-7.

Gabe is the first BP football player to commit to a Division II school since quarterback John Rumpza committed to Winona State University in 2015 and he is happy to have his college decision out of the way. Now he can get back to focusing on chasing quarterbacks and running fly routes for a BP team that has most of its roster back from last year.

“I just love football. I love working with my teammates. I’ve gone to camps and I’ve stuck with it throughout the years,” Gabe said. “We definitely think we’re state champions this year. We’re going to take it one game at a time, but we definitely think we can win state this year.”

Gabe, who also plays basketball and runs track and field for BP, didn’t have to look very far to find a role model in sports. His older sister Taylor Hagen holds BP career records in points and rebounds for basketball, she has the school record in the shot put and she has school records for career kills and blocks for the BP volleyball team.

Taylor went on to a basketball career at Division I University of Northern Iowa, where she had four productive seasons for the Panthers.

“Taylor definitely showed me how much work you have to put in,” Gabe said. “It’s like a job and you don’t get a lot off time. She’s taught me a lot.”

BP head coach Chad Gimbel said that Gabe not only gives the Awesome Blossoms a big weapon on both sides of the ball, he also makes things easier for all of his teammates.

“What Gabe does for us is he opens everything up,” Gimbel said. “He makes it extremely hard for teams to single-team him and that makes it so other guys will have big years as well. He also helps to open up the run game.”

Gabe said he picked MSU because he likes the school’s nursing program and he also likes the team and coaches. He is expected to play tight end for the Mavericks, who went 13-1 last season before being knocked off by eventual runner-up Ferris State 45-25 in the third round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Gabe knows his college future, but he still isn’t sure who will be throwing him the ball this fall. While senior Kaden Thomas, who played quarterback during BP’s state run last year, is back on the team this year, Gimbel said he is waiting until after a scrimmage in Maple River on Aug. 24 to decide on who the team’s starting quarterback will be.

“It’s an open competition,” Gimbel said of the quarterback battle.

BP will open its season at Rushford-Peterson at 7 p.m. on Aug. 30. The Blossoms will then  host Wabasha-Kellogg at 7 p.m. on Sept. 6.