Retired KARE 11 anchor Randy Shaver keeps focus on Minnesota high school football

CATHY WURZER: Tomorrow those Friday night lights will be shining on football fields in high schools across Minnesota. Most teams have made it through their first few games. Homecoming season is upon us. Retired KARE 11 news anchor Randy Shaver has been following along since preseason this summer. He's using his second act since retiring from 41 years at KARE 11 in June to focus on a passion of his, high school football.

He talks about what's new in the Minnesota high school sports scene every week on his new project called Shaver's Prep Football Podcast. Randy talks to players and coaches and fellow fans every week about the highs and lows of the sport. He's here to lay out what he's learned about this season so far. It's nice to hear your voice, Randy. How are you?

RANDY SHAVER: I'm good. How are you?

CATHY WURZER: Great. Judging from your social media posts, retirement from the day-to-day news biz suits you. I'm so happy.

RANDY SHAVER: Yeah. You know, life is-- the stress is gone, Cathy. Life is all about having fun now, and that's what I'm doing.

CATHY WURZER: I'm glad to hear that, my friend. And I know you have fun covering high school football. I mean, you had great fun during the Prep Sports Extra, which was and is wildly popular. What's the secret sauce behind that show and now your podcast? What is it about the magic of high school football that makes you happy?

RANDY SHAVER: Well, certainly I think Friday nights in general, it's all about community. It's all about the kids and the players and the fans and the parents and the grandparents. And there's just something special about Friday night that we all, in one way or another, can relate to. We can't all relate to playing for the Gophers or playing for the Vikings or any of that, but we all can relate to high school sports in one way or another. And I think that's the appeal, is that we've all been there before in one way or another.

I just love it because I think there's just something special about playing for the fun of the game. You're not getting paid. You're not worrying about your NIL. You're out there playing because you have a band of brothers. You have coaches that care about you, and you care about them, and the community is behind you.

And there's nothing better than a Friday night game where the entire town shows up and circles the field to watch you play football. I just think there is nothing else in life for a football player that's more special. And if you talk to NFL players, Cathy, who have won Super Bowls-- and I have-- they will tell you probably the most special time in their life as far as football goes is high school football.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, I love that. And I believe-- I've talked to you in the past-- you were a former high school football player, too. I mean, it really was a formative part of your life.

RANDY SHAVER: I was. I played for a Hall of Fame football coach by the name of Jack Fisk at Cedar Rapids' Jefferson High School. In my senior year we went to the state semifinals and lost to Davenport Central but had a great year. I actually was a first team all-state defensive back my senior year at Jefferson.

And those lessons learned during that time of playing football-- and I talk about that a lot on my podcast, and I have on the Prep show, about what football does for young men. Just learning how to be a leader, learning how to be a good teammate, learning how to sacrifice, because football is really about that. One player doesn't necessarily make a team great. It takes 11 players working together in order for you to have success.

And I found that early on in my high school career, just how important that was, and all of those lessons have carried over into my life. And I can honestly say getting through two bouts of cancer, one of the things that got me through it was having the athlete's mindset, the grind to grind it out mindset. And you get that when you play football, because football is a grind. And it's delayed gratification, because you're lifting weights in the wintertime to get you ready for the fall of the next year. It's crazy how it works, but it all comes around. And so I've learned a lot from high school football for sure.

CATHY WURZER: So I'm glad you're doing the podcast, and--

RANDY SHAVER: So am I.

CATHY WURZER: --I know your fans are excited about it, too. So far this season, which is still new-- the season is still pretty new. What has stood out to you so far?

RANDY SHAVER: Well, as far as high school football is concerned, just how good it is. Just how much talent is in the state of Minnesota. I can remember when I first started at KARE in the mid-'80s, it was rare that Minnesota produced a Division I football player. It just didn't happen very often. And now you look around, on average, probably seven, eight, nine, 10 Division I athletes of one level or another are coming out of this state every year. And that's a testament to the coaching in the state of Minnesota.

And just the kids are bigger, faster, stronger, more dedicated. And I just think the talent level is tremendous, which makes for great competition on Friday nights. I just said this the other day on a tweet, that every level of football in Minnesota is extremely competitive. There isn't necessarily one dominant team in each class anymore. And that is why Minnesota football is so much fun to watch, because on a given Friday night, you never know what's going to happen. And we've seen a few upsets already this year, and I'm sure we'll see some more before it's all done.

CATHY WURZER: So tell me about the guests you've been excited about starting off the podcast this year. Who's stood out so far for you?

RANDY SHAVER: Well, one of the things I try to do on this podcast is to make it more broad, because if I just interviewed high school players and coaches, a player in International Falls probably doesn't care what the player from Wayzata has to say, right? But I try to make it more broad.

So I brought in John Randle, the Hall of Fame Viking. I talked to Ben Leber from the Vikings, Chad Greenway, Anders Lee, the great hockey player for the New York Islanders, who was an outstanding high school football player for Edina back in the day. In a week or so, one of my interviews is with Lou Ayeni, who was a state football champion at Woodbury in 1998. He's now the running back coach for the Denver Broncos.

The reason why I've done this is to make it more broad and have those guys talk about their high school football experience, and why high school football was such a vehicle to get them to where they ended up in their football journey, whether it was to make it to the NFL or to end up coaching the way they have. Those conversations have been extremely fun for me, because these are guys that I've known for a long time.

But not talking about the X's and O's of playing professional football or college football. It's about, what were the lessons you learned when you played high school? Who was the coach that made the biggest impact? What's the one thing you remember the most that has stuck with you all this time?

And I hope that those comments and that conversation resonates with high school football players and coaches in the state who can soak in some of that knowledge. And maybe they're having a tough time in the season, and they needed a push, and Chad Greenway says something that lights a fire, that gets them to think about something. That's what I've enjoyed the most so far about the conversations I've had.

CATHY WURZER: Mm. Gosh, sounds interesting. I'm wondering about this coming Friday. Who or what are you going to look for this Friday? Just curious.

RANDY SHAVER: Well, I'm going to be in Shakopee on Friday for the Eden Prairie-Shakopee game, and the reason why is that Shakopee is 3 and 0 and EP's 2 and 1, having lost to Edina early in the year. But I love both these coaches, Ray Benton at Shakopee and Mike Grant at EP, and Ray has only beaten Mike once. And Ray will tell you it's just the darndest thing. He just cannot figure out how to beat Mike Grant on a consistent basis.

CATHY WURZER: Bud Grant's son.

RANDY SHAVER: So there's those-- Bud Grant's son, yeah. So there's those games within the game, those conversations, the cat-and-mouse of coaching, which I find fascinating. And I spent quite a bit of time last Sunday talking to both Mike and Ray for this pregame show that I'm doing on Game Time Media, a streaming service, and just hearing the different philosophies and conversations.

So that's a game I'm watching. There's a lot of really good matchups around the state. I know in the out state, Albany is playing Pierz this week, both teams ranked in the top five in their class and both unbeaten. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of some of the great matchups that are out there.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I enjoy the podcast. I'm glad you're doing it, too. You're perfect for it, and I'm glad you took the time to talk with me here today. Thanks, Randy.

RANDY SHAVER: I appreciate it, Cathy. Good to talk to you.

CATHY WURZER: Likewise. That was Randy Shaver, the amazing Randy Shaver. You can catch his new project, Shaver's Prep Football Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.