MSHSL honors new Hall of Fame class

Holly Manthei, Trevor Laws, Scott Larson among 12 inductees

The newest Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame induction class includes a three-sport state champion from Burnsville High School, a dominant wrestler and football player from Apple Valley High School, and a longtime teacher, coach and administrator from District 196.

Holly Manthei, Trevor Laws and Scott Larson took their places in the MSHSL Hall of Fame during a ceremony Sunday at the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront hotel. They were part of a 12-person induction class for 2024. The MSHSL has honored 253 individuals since establishing its Hall of Fame in 1991.

Manthei and Laws were inducted in the Athlete category and Larson was inducted in the Administrator category.

Also going in this year in the Athlete category are Cretin-Derham Hall football standout and Heisman Trophy Award winner Chris Weinke and Lindsay Whalen, who starred in basketball at Hutchinson High School and the University of Minnesota and was a WNBA champion with the Minnesota Lynx.

Brad Johnson of Rochester and Rita Rislund of Detroit Lakes joined Larson as inductees in the Administrator category. Former Blaine and Minnetonka football coach Dave Nelson and former Stillwater soccer coach Phil Johnson were inducted in the Coach category. Jon Springer of Zumbrota was honored in the Official category, Jill Lofald of Duluth was recognized in Fine Arts and former Brainerd Dispatch sports editor Mike Bialka was inducted in the Contributor category.

Holly Manthei: Champion and pioneer at Burnsville

Holly Manthei was a state high school champion in three different sports, a collegiate All-American and a member of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. Sunday’s Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame induction ceremony gave her a chance to be something else – a wide-eyed fan.

“I think one of the things I’m looking forward to most is having a chance to fangirl out and meet Lindsay Whalen,” Manthei said last week about the Minnesota basketball icon who joined Manthei as part of the 2024 MSHSL induction class.

She played on Burnsville High School’s state girls soccer championship teams in 1992 and 1993. The title game both years was a south metro showdown as Burnsville played Apple Valley both years, winning each game in overtime.

As a center midfielder, she was the focal point of the soccer team. She had a different but no less important role on a Burnsville state championship basketball team as a defensive stopper. She also won a state track and field championship in the 300-meter hurdles as a junior.

At the University of Notre Dame she was a four-time All-American, helped the Irish win the 1995 national championship and set Division I assist records for a single season (44) and career (129) that still stand. She went on to play for the U.S. team in the 1995 Women’s World Cup.

Manthei was one of the first 20 people inducted into the Burnsville High School Hall of Fame in 2006. As the years pass, she said these awards have become more meaningful. Manthei and her husband have two children, one a 4-year-old daughter who maybe, just maybe, could retrace her mother’s footsteps.

“It’s nice to have these awards so my kids can see what I used to do, and maybe it’ll inspire them in whatever they decide to do,” Manthei said.

One thing they won’t get to see is their mother’s bronze medal from the 1995 Women’s World Cup – because she doesn’t have it. In a story that has made the rounds on social media, she threw it away. The U.S. won the inaugural WWC in 1991 and the players considered anything other than another gold medal to be unacceptable.

Decades later, Manthei says she wishes she hadn’t done that. Suffice it to say she’ll be hanging on to the other memorabilia from her athletic career.

Asked if she would have preferred to have her athletic peak in the 2020s or the 1990s, Manthei said that was a tough call. But she’s proud of coming along when she did.

“I played (Olympic Development Program) soccer and AAU basketball, but I was a three-sport athlete in high school and I absolutely would do that again,” she said. “I played soccer in the (Burnsville Athletic Club) – and with the same girls from age 7 all the way up.”

Burnsville High School has won 48 championships in MSHSL-sponsored team activities since opening in 1956, still in the top 10 all time. A number of those came in the 1980s and 1990s when the district had an abundance of students who were good athletes, and coaches who knew how to mold them into champions.

“There must have been something in the water in Burnsville,” Manthei said. “Soccer, hockey, swimming, basketball, football – it seemed like Burnsville always had a chance to win championships.”

The girls soccer team exemplified Burnsville’s athletic depth. During Manthei’s time there, the team used a platoon system rarely if ever seen in soccer. Burnsville would substitute en masse, switching out all 10 field players at the same time. The team changed goalkeepers at halftime.

“I hated it at the time because it meant I could never play the whole game,” Manthei said. “Now I understand it. We had 22 great players, and they all deserved an opportunity.”

Manthei played professional soccer for one year while launching her career. “I played just so I could say I did it,” she said. “I learned that if you’re not in game shape, you’re not going to get it back if you’re also working a 9-to-5 job.”

She worked in professional sports marketing for 10 years with the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks before switching to the craft brewing industry, where Manthei has worked for the last 12 years. Currently she’s vice president of marketing for Fulton Beer in Minneapolis.

Manthei is always watching the sports scene – particularly the women’s sports scene – and is pleased with the progress that has been made. When she was in high school her father contacted a Twin Cities area newspaper requesting more coverage of girls soccer, and was told the paper didn’t see an audience for it. He then wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper with the same request.

Fast-forward to 2024, when the Iowa-Connecticut women’s NCAA basketball semifinal drew more TV viewers than either of the men’s semifinal games.

“I’m anxious to see if the momentum continues. I really hope it does,” said Manthei, a women’s sports pioneer in Minnesota.

AV’s Trevor Laws kept the competitive fire burning

There would have been no college football or NFL career without Apple Valley High School. Trevor Laws is certain of that.

It’s where he learned what it takes to become a champion – and where he learned to use occasional disappointments to fuel his competitive fire. Laws spent a lot of time looking back on those lessons after learning he would be part of the Minnesota State High School League’s 2024 Hall of Fame induction class. The 12 new members were honored in a ceremony Sunday in St. Paul.

“A lot of it came from my wrestling coaches, Bill Demaray and Jim Jackson, who saw what I was capable of before I did,” Laws said last week. “And I have to say the Jon May match had a lot to do with it.”

In 2003, Laws’ senior year at Apple Valley, he was defending Class 3A heavyweight wrestling champion and ranked first at that weight in the nation. He had little difficulty qualifying for the state tournament again, where he was seeded to face May, a Hutchinson wrestler ranked second nationally, in the semifinals.

Laws defeated May in the previous year’s state championship match. The rematch was one of the most highly anticipated state tournament matches of all time. May won 5-2 and went on to win the state championship. Laws won the third-place match, finishing a 139-5 high school career. He also was on three state championship teams at Apple Valley.

The loss to May stuck with Laws for a long time, but he is convinced it also was instrumental to what came later. “There were other athletes out there who had the same goals I did,” Laws said. “I was working hard, but I saw that I would have to work even harder to achieve what I wanted.”

His career took root in Apple Valley, where in addition to his wrestling success, Laws was a two-time All-State defensive lineman in football. Scott Larson, Apple Valley’s athletic director at the time (and also a member of the MSHSL 2024 Hall of Fame class) remembers not just the athletic success, but how Laws bonded with other students.

“Trevor was a star but didn’t act like it,” Larson said. “Whether it was football or wrestling, he made everybody feel like they were part of the team. He had a tremendous impact on his teammates.”

Laws went on to play football at the University of Notre Dame. Another of this year’s MSHSL inductees, Holly Manthei of Burnsville, also was a Notre Dame athlete. They didn’t attend the university at the same time and had never met before Sunday’s induction ceremony but told similar stories about the impact Notre Dame had on them.

“Notre Dame builds champions. I really believe that,” Laws said. “Athletes there expect to succeed, and I think I carried on that attitude after I graduated.”

Laws played 49 games during his college football career, starting 37. His career totals included 224 tackles, 10 sacks, 22.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and six blocked kicks. He was a second-team Academic All-American and graduated with degrees in marketing and sociology.

His college career put him on the NFL’s radar, and the Philadelphia Eagles selected him in the second round of the 2008 draft. He played 56 games over four seasons, recording 57 tackles, five sacks, one interception and one fumble recovery.

It wasn’t all about football in the pros, though. Laws took advantage of business classes the NFL made available to players, setting up a smooth transition to what he’s doing now – running his own real estate company. Among the things he does is lease apartments to University of Minnesota students living near campus.

Laws and his wife, an attorney, have three children and live in Minneapolis. The family was part of a large group, about 20 strong, watching Laws be inducted into the MSHSL Hall of Fame.

He won’t walk away from sports. Laws said he could see himself coaching in the future – and, actually, he’s doing that now.

“I’m first-base coach of my daughter’s 8U softball team,” he said proudly.

Scott Larson recognized for dedication to student-athletes

The first thing asked of Scott Larson in a recent conversation was: Did you ever actually retire?

A fair question because although Larson worked his last official day in District 196 in 2009, he’s never stopped contributing to Minnesota high school athletics. After retiring as Apple Valley High School athletic director, he stepped into another administrative role as executive secretary of the Minnesota State High School League’s Region 3AA. Now, Larson is executive secretary of the South Suburban Conference, continuing nearly 50 years of service to student-athletes.

“I’m retired in the sense I don’t have a set schedule every day,” Larson said, “and I have the opportunity to do things I really enjoy.”

He’s never more than a phone call away – although the MSHSL had to try more than once to reach Larson to inform him he was chosen for its 2024 Hall of Fame class.

“My wife and I were in Florence, Italy,” Larson said. “I got several calls from the same unknown number. Finally, I got another call from that number and I told my wife, ‘I’d better take this.’ It was (MSHSL communications coordinator) Tim Leighton calling to tell me I’d been chosen for the Hall of Fame.”

It was particularly humbling for Larson because a number of people with Apple Valley connections already are in the MSHSL Hall of Fame, including speech and debate coaches Pam Cady Wykoff and Joni Anker, wrestling coach Bill Demaray, track and field coach Geri Dirth, soccer coach Chuck Scanlon, athlete Carol Ann Shudlick and volleyball coach Walt Weaver. Also in this year’s MSHSL class is Trevor Laws, who starred in wrestling and football at Apple Valley High School while Larson was athletic director.

His career in District 196 started in 1975 when Larson was hired to teach Spanish and coach football, track and field and girls basketball at Rosemount High School. He was offensive coordinator for the 1981 Rosemount football team, which defeated Moorhead 40-14 on a muddy track at Parade Stadium for the Class AA state championship.

Larson was assistant principal and head football coach at Henry Sibley from 1986 to 1990 before returning to District 196 to be Eagan High School’s first athletic director. “The opportunity to work at a new school was really attractive, not just for me but everybody else there at the time,” he said. “I think we left a good situation for those who were there after us.”

He became athletic director at Apple Valley in 1996. “First of all, it’s a great school,” he said. “My kids were going to school there, and it was just a few minutes from home.”

Apple Valley High School had been open about 20 years and already had a reputation for strong athletic teams. Larson presided over more success with the Eagles. In 13 years as athletic director, Apple Valley had 19 state championship teams and 76 individual state champions. The Eagles also won 33 championships in the Lake Conference, which was unquestionably the state’s strongest athletic conference at the time. Larson retired one year before the formation of the South Suburban Conference, which Apple Valley and eight other former Lake Conference member schools joined.

The championships were rewarding, but not necessarily the main reason Larson was there. He wanted to lend support to any student looking for enrichment through co-curricular activities, and he didn’t mind staying in the background. He visited with students in the hallways and the lunchroom, asking about what they were doing and if they needed anything.

“I felt it was my job to make sure every student had a great experience,” he said. “Not every student can be on a varsity team. We expanded our intramural program. We did basketball, baseball, softball – we even had Ultimate Frisbee.

“We had a lot of outstanding coaches on our state championship teams, and many of them were there before I arrived. They felt every member of the team, regardless of whether or not they were starters, deserved to be recognized and treated like they were important.

“I’m grateful to be recognized for any role I might have had in their success.”