MINNEOTA, MINN. – The last piece of driving from the Twin Cities to Minneota, a village of 1,350 in Lyon County, was taking a right off State Highway 23 onto County Road 24.

Winter was arriving in southwest Minnesota on Wednesday, based more on the cold and howling wind than a smattering of snow. The starlings were mining for gravel next to the paved road, waiting until the last instant and then jumping into the wind in flocks of 20 or more.

Sad to report, I heard a few bird collisions with the vehicle over those mostly flat and straight 12 miles into Minneota.

This was from the East. You have to be entering from the South to see the large sign declaring: “Minneota Vikings State Champions.”

For now, the team championships listed are nine for football, four for volleyball, three for girls basketball, and one each for wrestling, girls cross-country and boys cross-country.

Earlier this month, there were hopes that two sign updates would be required, but then tall and powerful Mayer Lutheran defeated the Vikings in a sweep in the Class 1A volleyball title match.

The fall sports season is not over yet. The hope is that there will be an update needed in the second football column, although Minneota must defeat Springfield in the Class 1A title game for a third consecutive late November to make that happen.

This will be the Prep Bowl opener at 10 a.m. Friday.

There will be no school in Minneota, with parents and students being encouraged to follow the Vikings to U.S. Bank Stadium.

Students from kindergarten through 12th grade are gathered in one large building. The graduating class for 2024 is 43. In general, more than half of the students live on a farm. If you’re in the upper classes and the hallways are buzzing, the odds are strong that you will be waving to a younger sibling or a cousin very soon.

For instance: Destin Fier, a standout junior, has four cousins on the football team — two Fiers, a Johnson and a DeVlaeminck. He has brothers in the eighth and fifth grades (both old enough for when tackle football starts in Minneota), plus first-grader Dane.

You see much of Dane in the hallways? “Yeah … he’ll find me,” Destin said.

The Minneota schools have adopted this motto: “Honor. Respect. High Achievement.”

Minneota football players, from left, Parker Bradley, Ryan Meagher and Destin Fier. (Patrick Reusse)

The last of those requires “involvement,” which is the key to most everything in a small school such as Minneota. Two or three sports, music, honor rolls.

The coaches set a fine example by doing multi-sports. Chad Johnston is in his 24th season as the football head coach (six state titles). He also coached the girls basketball team for 20 years (three state titles).

Scott Thoma, former daily journalist for the West Central Tribune in Willmar, suddenly found himself becoming the editor for the weekly Minneota Mascot in 2012. It’s still going, a two-person staff, 950 faithful subscribers.

“Boys basketball was one sport not doing well here,” Thoma said, “Chad’s son Easton was coming up, he wanted to coach him and assistant Al Panka was there to take over the girls team.

“Chad’s first season as boys coach, they won four games. His second, last year, they won 20.”

The entire phenomenon of Minneota’s all-around success can be traced to the arrival of another dynamic football coach: Gerhard Meidt in the fall of 1981.

“We had been in Lyle, even smaller, with nine-man football,” his son Chris Meidt said. “Minneota wasn’t much bigger, but there weren’t many schools looking for the combination Dad wanted ... superintendent, football coach and choir director.

Chris was in the sixth grade. The Metrodome would be opening in 1982, the state football tournament would be moving indoors and become the Prep Bowl.

“There were posters going around high schools with the message, ‘Dare to Dream,’ with a photo of the Dome,” Meidt said. “As a young kid, I would say, ‘I’m going to play there.’ The older people in town would laugh, tell me it was impossible.”

It wasn’t, as the adults found out, and they then became exuberant supporters.

Meidt was his father’s quarterback for Prep Bowl titles in 1986 and 1987. The Vikings won again in 1988 for a three-peat. Thirty-six years later, with six more football titles, they will be attempting to repeat the three-peat.

Gerhard’s legacy isn’t restricted to athletics. He started the fall musical that still lives as a major school happening.

I talked with a handful of current athletes on Wednesday. I talked on the phone with Taylor Reiss, multi-sport star and state champ at Minneota, volleyball superstar at Southwest Minnesota State. I talked with Johnston and other coaches, and with do-everything activities director Patty Myrvik, and the message didn’t change:

Involvement — meaning staff, students, parents, residents — leads to high achievement.

And Thoma couldn’t get over this example:

“Easton Johnston seemed to me to be this quiet kid. Then, I’m on the sideline one night, a 70-year-old guy standing there. The game ends and Easton runs over, shakes my hand and says, ‘Thanks for being here.’

“I live in Willmar, but I saw he was going to be the lead in the fall musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ so I drove down to see it. He starts dancing around, singing — he’s phenomenal. … This quiet kid becomes a modern version of Conrad Birdie.

“I covered some great individual programs in my time in Willmar, domination in a sport in different towns, but Minneota has the whole program — committed students, phenomenal coaches and parents that never complain.

“Of course, a lot of those parents played for Gerhard, so they know what goes into winning.”

As for updating the sign south of town, should the Vikings win, never fear, Patty Myrvik will handle it. Her husband, Matt, before he became an offensive coordinator, wrestling coach and teacher for his hometown Vikings, had a summer job for a sign company.

“I get the paint, I get Matt up there on a ladder, make sure it’s all lined up, and we add the year,” Patty said.

Could happen before Thanksgiving, although not if the Springfield Tigers have their way.