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GRAND MEADOW —Grand Meadow grad Zach Myhre was a wrecking ball on offense and defense when he played for the Superlarks, but he recently had to reinforce his will to play the game that he loves.

The physical bruiser played a role in three of Grand Meadow’s four state championships from 2013-2016 and racked up 2,162 yards and 28 TDs while finishing with 122 tackles in his senior season in 2017.However, he is yet to play a single down of college football in his first two years at Winona State University.

Myhre played through a lot of shoulder pain with GM and that eventually led him to a surgery that put his arm in a sling for six weeks. Myhre was red-shirted for his first two seasons at WSU and this fall he will be a junior with four years of football eligibility remaining.

Myhre can’t wait until Aug. 9, when the Warriors are set to open up camp.

“I am so excited. I’m so ready to get out on the field and do it instead of just talking about it in a meeting. I’m just chomping at the bit right now to get out there,” Myhre said. “When I was in my sling, I was sitting up one night and I said ‘I can’t believe I’m putting myself through this, but you know what, God gives his biggest biggest challenges to his toughest warriors. That’s the first thing I thought.”

Myhre is one of several GM athletes who have enjoyed a heap of success in recent years. His former teammate Chris Bain is on the Southwest Minnesota State University football team and former GM standout Landon Jacobson also played at Winona State.

The GM girls basketball program has produced plenty of talent as Jordyn Glynn played at the University of Saint Thomas last season, Skylar Cotton was at Bethany College, Riley Queensland has committed to Gustavus Adolphus and Rio Landers recently wrapped up her senior season at Northwestern University.

GM grad Brenn Olson also wrestled for a stint with the Minnesota Gophers.

Myhre said that the atmosphere in GM has been very effective in preparing athletes to compete at the college level.

“I think our coaches do a very good job of preparing us for the future if you are looking to move on to the next level. Between the head coaches and assistant coaches, they all know what it takes to get to that level and they really just prepare you very well for it,” Myhre said. “They get you right for your games now, but they’re also preparing you, mentally and physically for that next level. We also have an awesome community and they all get behind you. It doesn’t matter if you have a kid on the team or a nephew or niece on the team. This whole town, if they see the hard work that you’re putting in, they can get behind you.”

This 2019 season saw the GM football team return to the state tournament after a three-year absence and the GMLOKS wrestling team also advanced to state as a team. The GMLOKS girls track and field team won the 4 x 200-meter relay at the Minnesota Class A Track and Field Meet in each of the past two seasons, but it will not get a chance to compete this spring.

Getting athletes to the big stages of high school sports and beyond is paramount to building up a program in small towns like GM, according to head football coach and athletic director Gary Sloan.

“Once you’re able to have success, the kids see that their hard work paid off,” Sloan said. “They see all of the time in the weight room paid off and the younger kids see that too. In small schools, a lot of times younger athletes have older siblings or cousins that did well and they want to be part of that. You want to get to those big stages, because when those young kids attend those games and see how exciting that is, it can motivate them when they’re in elementary school or middle school.”

The GM girls basketball and volleyball teams have never played in a state tournament over the past four years, but they’ve had a lot of success. The basketball team has gone 85-27 overall and the volleyball team has gone 87-46 overall in that stretch. Glynn and Queensland both played a big role in that surge and now they will be playing against each other this coming basketball season.

“It’s kind of funny that Riley and I will be playing against each other,” Glynn said. “She’s put in so much time and I think it’s going to be really fun to watch her grow and see what she can do at Gustavus.”

Glynn said her transition to Saint Thomas was pretty easy as GM prepared her to compete at the next level. She did notice that the competition in college is a lot more intense than it was in high school.

“I think playing at Grand Meadow really prepared me for that next step. Of course, there are always challenges, but it’s been a pretty smooth transition,” Glynn said. “At Saint Thomas, we go at it every single day. We’re continuing to push each other a lot more than we did in high school. In high school you don’t really want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but in college you want to push everyone to be their best.”

Sloan credits the athletes for GM’s recent success and he’s always encouraged the Superlarks’ best players to go on and try to play at the next level.

“Almost all of the football players I coached had more fun in high school than in college, but as a coach I love to watch my former players at the next level,” Sloan said. “It makes you proud to see those kids go out and try it, even if they aren’t successful. I always tell them to give it one or two seasons so they don’t spend the rest of their lives questioning themselves.”