MOORHEAD, MN – Tysen Gerads and Sam Hondl go way back.
“Even from, like, from a young age, like we would kind of go to the gym with each other in the mornings, like five days a week, we’d be shooting three times a week, lifting the others. So yeah, it was super fun playing with Sam,” said Gerads.
Easy to have fun when you’re winning state championships like these two did in 2023.
With Gerads already committed to MSUM, that championship game put Hondl on the radar of the Dragons coaching staff.
“So actually, right after we won the state championship, when I was a senior, I was texting Bergy and Spence (Tim Bergstraser and Spenser Bland), obviously. And they’re like, ‘how’s that Hondl kid?’ I’m like, you guys need to offer him, like, he’s a stud. He works hard,” said Gerads
And the coaches weren’t the only ones recruiting Hondl.
“Yeah, he’d always try to, you know, tell me, ‘oh, just commit already. Just come here.’ I didn’t really think much of it, but eventually it just happened,” said Hondl.
Now they’re back together as teammates, which makes weekend plans a little easier for their friends back home.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. We end up having a lot of a lot of our hometown friends coming to games. We see them here, and it’s cool they can watch two of their friends, two of their hometown friends, play on the same team,” said Hondl.
“And on top of that, our our high school coach, (Corey) Schlagel, who coached both of us. We still keep in contact with him all the time. He doesn’t coach anymore this year, so he’s been watching all of our games and texting us his thoughts, and so it’s kind of been kind of fun to keep up with him as well,” said Gerads
And they both credit their success to the early mornings spent together.
“I would say ‘I’ll be at your house at 5:45. There was another high school teammate who now plays at Jamestown and I would pick him up too. So we kind of got into a nice routine, and I think that really helped us. I think the lifting part helped too. Me and Sam both can get up pretty well, and I credit that to our high school strength coach and just all the time we put in the weight room there,” said Gerads.
“It really does help when you got a good group of people you know around you, pushing you, pick you up for workouts,” said Hondl.
The Dragons take on Minot State on Thursday night in Minot.
Riley is a Moorhead, MN native and comes to WDAY after graduating from the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University. He most recently worked for the Minnesota Twins with the Treasure Island Baseball Network.
