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BLOOMING PRAIRIE – They all took different paths, but six Blooming Prairie seniors cemented their college futures by signing their national letters-of-intent to compete in college athletics in the BP Auditorium Wednesday.

From teammates to foes

Three Awesome Blossom football players selected Division II schools and they will now be opponents in the Northern Sun Conference as Brady Kittelson picked the University of Sioux Falls, Owen Krueger selected Minnesota State University-Moorehead and Lukas Hager selected Minnesota State-Mankato.

Krueger, an offensive lineman, and Hager, who is projected to play tight end, both hail from New Richland and they have grown up together. Krueger played all four years of high school with the Awesome Blossoms, while Hager missed his junior year due to transfer rules, which meant his recruiting started late.

“I thought Mankato was big league, and I didn’t think I had any chance to go there. But they started showing interest this last year and before I knew it, I had an offer,” Hager said. “It was late, because I didn’t really have film until my senior year.”

Krueger made his commitment to the Dragons this past fall, but he still felt a rush when officially making his signing. 

“My whole goal was to play college football from the start,” Krueger said. “I went to a lot of camps and got up early on a lot of mornings to lift weights.”

Kittelson, a quarterback who is projected to play wide receiver for the Cougars, spent this past fall being protected by Krueger and throwing to Hager, but now he’ll be competing against them within the same conference.

“I think it will be sweet playing against those guys after being teammates with them for a couple of years,” Kittelson said.

An important e-mail

Blooming Prairie volleyball player Ella Smith already had her college future decided when she had been accepted and received an academic scholarship to Division II Minot State University.

But she thought she’d give playing volleyball a try so she sent an e-mail to MSU’s head coach Alex Courtney. After not receiving a reply, Smith spoke to BP school counselor Mary Worke, who convinced her to send another e-mail in case the first one was missed.

That second e-mail resulted in Smith getting her chance to play college volleyball as Courtney e-mailed her back two days later and said she was excited to have Smith join the team.

“I always had a dream to play college volleyball, and I wasn’t sure if it was in the cards for me,”
Smith said. “Either way I was going to play volleyball, whether it was with the team or intramurals. I talked to their coach on the phone, and she’s probably the nicest human I ever talked to.”

Bonded by sports

While they’re headed to college in different sports, Bo Zwiener, who is going to Division II St. John’s University for wrestling, and Alex Lea, who is headed to DivisionIII UW-Stout for football, have been staples as three-sport athletes, much like their classmates who signed on Wednesday.

Zwiener bounced back from a football injury to secure the record for total wins as a Westfield Razorback and he has his eyes set on making a run at state. However, he also treasures his time away from the games with his classmates.

“We’re all real good friends and we all hang out a lot. This is huge for Blooming Prairie as a whole,” Zwiener said. “Being in sports is probably the highlight of high school for me. It’s just a fun way to bond with everyone.”

Lea was a four-year starter at middle linebacker for the Blossoms and he’s excited about taking his game to the next level. He’s also glad that he’s been able to compete with so many great athletes in high school.

“We’ve all grown closer because we all played different sports together and pushed each other,” Lea said. “It was nice getting better all as one.”

The MSUM Mavericks football team went 11-4 overall last season and they lost to No. 1 Valdosta State 35-21 in the NCAA semifinals.  The UW-Stout Blue Devils went 6-5 overall, the MSUM Dragons were 6-5 overall and the USF Cougars went 8-3 overall.

Minot State’s volleyball team went 2-25 overall last season.