Red River soccer core bond developed on kids’ basketball court – Grand Forks Herald

GRAND FORKS — The bricks for Grand Forks Red River Soccer Club’s run to a state championship didn’t start this year, or last. The first course hasn’t even started yet.

It wasn’t even in football.

Darin Walters saw this for himself nearly 10 years ago when he helped coach a third-year Grand Forks Bullets basketball team that included much of the core of that Roughriders team: Pierce Parks, Cam Klefstad, J. B. Walters, Thomas Craft, and Carter Flom.

They were 106-23 from third through seventh grade.

“They worked their tails off,” Darin Walters said. “They hate to lose.”

Red River will be gunning for the school’s first state football championship when it takes on the West Fargo Horace in the Division AA state title game at the Fargodome on Friday at approximately 3 p.m.

The riders will be led by a group that got together many years ago on the basketball court.

Earlier this week, Walters was looking back at old photos of young basketball players when one photo stood out.

It was a 3v3 tournament at Midway-Minto where the team split into two to play 3v3. One group beat the other for the championship and then both groups took a picture together.

“You can see the anger and frustration on the faces of the losers,” Walters said. “The drive to succeed started at a young age.”

Members of this team are looking to cap off an amazing high school football season in which the Raiders are ranked No. 1 in the state and are undefeated at 11-0, the first team in school history to win 11 games.

“We have a chance to do something that’s never been done before and to do it with my best friends … I’m very grateful for that,” Parks said.

Parks, a three-year starting quarterback, has thrown for 1,935 yards on 143-for-220 passing this year with 17 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Craft, who received a college football offer from UND earlier this month, has emerged as one of the top defensive backs in the state. He rushed for 1,172 yards on 170 carries. He averages 8.8 yards per attempt and over 175 yards per game.

Klefstad is the team’s leading receiver and one of the defense’s top pass rushers. He had 36 catches for 643 yards and six touchdowns.

Walters, who missed several games early in the season with an injury, paved the way for Craft at right tackle. Walters is committed to South Dakota State.

Flom took on a new role in the receiving corps. He has a team-high 41 catches for 426 yards.

The upperclassmen-laden riders were an instant sensation when they arrived at the high school. As freshmen, opponents would question the school if it sent a junior varsity team.

As a sophomore group, Red River made a rare trip to the state semifinals. The Raiders lost to Jamestown because Parks was injured in the first quarter.

After being eliminated in overtime by Jamestown in the quarterfinals last season, the Raiders have been building for this moment.

“Maybe we have 20-20 hindsight, but we saw a crescendo,” said Red River coach Virn Muir, who has been with the Roughriders for 24 years, 21 of them as head coach. “We thought we had a chance to get where we are now. To actually go through that and survive unscathed … it was a fun ride.”

Although Red River’s program is new to the Dakota Bowl’s big stage, Parks was a starter on the Raiders’ runner-up basketball team two years ago.

“It’s just about getting comfortable,” Parks said of the big moments. “It’s a big game and a great atmosphere. After all, we are playing for a state title. We just need to settle down and play the way we’ve been playing for the last 11 weeks.”