Father, son span run of Prep Bowl games in the Metrodome

Paul Beuning foresaw months ago what is going to happen Saturday, and the memories came flooding back.

Beuning was a junior running back at Belgrade in 1982, the year his team played for the Class C championship in the first Prep Bowl. Beuning rushed for 79 yards in the game, but Belgrade fell to Truman 16-14. For Beuning, however, the result wasn't as important as the adventure that went along with it.

"Just getting off the bus and walking down the Metrodome tunnel, everybody was awe-struck," Beuning said. "Just to have a roof that size over our heads was incredible."

Beuning is now a physical education teacher at New London-Spicer. His son, Ben, is a senior linebacker and fullback for the Wildcats, who will play St. Croix Lutheran for the Class 3A championship Saturday in what will be the next-to-last Prep Bowl game ever played in the Metrodome.

Thirty-two seasons of history, of heartache and jubilation, tied together at the beginning and the end by blood.

"When I heard it was going to be the last year of the Metrodome, I put two and two together and figured that this might happen," Paul Beuning said. "I knew they had a great cast of players and I thought they might have a shot of getting there. I think it's pretty cool."

Often the object of scorn — a big top for funny-bouncing baseballs, a frequent punch line for its quirks and high-profile roof collapses — the Metrodome long has been considered the Holy Grail for prep football players. Throughout summer workouts, the talk in weight rooms and on practice fields across the state invariably focuses on getting to "the Dome."

"Since I was a kid, I've been hearing about high school teams getting to the dome," Ben Beuning said. "It's kind of a surreal experience when you finally get to do it."

Ben paused when thinking about the times growing up when his father would talk about playing in the Prep Bowl.

"He never talked too much about the game," Ben said. "He talked mostly about what it was like to be there with his teammates. Football brings everybody together like family."

Win or lose, thousands of teenage athletes look back at their moment under the Teflon roof, flaws and all, as the highlight of their Minnesota high school career.

"It wasn't perfect," said Paul Beuning, recalling the stadium's first year with no air conditioning. "It was hot, and we had played the semifinal game in subfreezing temperatures. We had those old-style jerseys with the full-length arms. Everybody was saying 'Oh my God, I can't believe the heat.' But it didn't matter. It was about getting there."

Despite attention the Beunings have received for their father-son Prep Bowl connection, Paul has sought to make the run-up to game time more about his son and his teammates.

"I don't want to take away from what they've done," he said. "I've already been there. The only thing I've tried to tell Ben is to focus on the game. That's the reason they're there."

They've already had some dome experience. Unlike the early years, when only the championship games were played in the Metrodome, teams in this week's Prep Bowl had an opportunity to shed their stadium jitters during semifinal victories more than a week ago. Ben Beuning admitted that the Wildcats took a while to get used to their surroundings in their 36-16 semifinal victory over Rochester Lourdes.

"For our first few drives, I think were still in awe of playing in the dome," he said. "I hope the butterflies are gone now."

Ben acknowledged that the idea of following in his father's footsteps is "really cool." He hopes to do his dad one better and win a championship. If not, however, he knows they will always have a shared, special memory that happened more than three decades apart.

"We have some good bonding times," Ben said. "We go to baseball games, Vikings games together. We went deer hunting together but didn't get anything. It's one more thing we can bond over."