Adam Thielen, The Vikings Player Northern Minn. Calls Their Own
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you talk to Adam Thielen's high school football coach about his first NFL player, you can't talk about just football.
"He also at one time was our all-time leading scorer in basketball," Detroit Lakes coach Flint Motschenbacher said. "That got beat a couple years ago."
And he was on Detroit Lakes' state championship golf team in 2008, too.
"Just a tremendous athlete," Motschenbacher said.
Thielen's name is all over walls and trophy cases at Detroit Lakes High School.
"He's a big reason Detroit Lakes had success in those years," Motschenbacher said. "He was our go-to guy, and whenever we'd get in trouble, we'd just throw the ball up to Adam and he'd seem to come down with it."
Before Thielen was starring for the Lakers, he was cheering for… the Packers?
"Yeah," said his mom, Jayne Thielen, paging through a family photo album.
That's right. Adam went through a bit of a Packers phase.
"He probably will kill us for (showing) this," she said with a laugh.
But Adam's parents say he realized the error of his ways. The Packer phase lasted just a year.
"I think it was after that that he changed back to a Viking fan," she said.
And of course, it wouldn't be the last time he'd look like he belonged in a Vikings jersey.
Now, their kitchen table filled with his childhood trophies, Pete and Jayne Thielen beam with pride at what their son has accomplished.
"He always said he was going be a pro football player," she said. "That's what he always told me, 'I'm going to be an NFL player.' And you know how, as a parent, you go, yeah, OK. So yeah, I think it was Adam's dream."
After making his debut last Sunday in St. Louis, Thielen is the first person born in the northern half of Minnesota to play in the NFL -- in a non-strike season -- in 30 years, according to Pro Football Reference. The last was Dave Casper, born in Bemidji, in 1984, but he played in high school in Illinois and Wisconsin. The last northern Minnesota high schooler was Pine River punter Rohn Stark in 1997, but he was born in Minneapolis.
So now, Detroit Lakes is living Thielen's dream right along with him.
"I've never seen so many people excited the way they are now," said his father, Pete.
So excited, that Pete and Jayne's grocery shopping takes a little longer than it used to. They can't go anywhere in Detroit Lakes without people stopping them to offer congratulations.
"They just come up to us, wherever," Pete Thielen said. "We've known a lot of people a long time, we've been here our whole lives, but everyone we know comes up to us and congratulates us and wants Adam to know that they're so excited for him. It's fun to see that part of it, that people are really excited."
To watch their son play for the Vikings.
"Just the idea, a local kid playing for the Minnesota Vikings," Jayne Thielen said with amazement. "Watching the game, 'he's in, he's in.' So it's kind of hard to believe that that's our son now, that's in there."
The Detroit Lakes kid, playing for Minnesota's team.
"The community is just so proud of him," Motschenbacher said.