Adult Eagles-2002-Kyle Lindblom

When I became the speech coach at Maple River, recruiting was always a challenge, especially for the "jocks" who either didn't have time in their schedule or saw Speech as a nerdy activity. By 2002, I'd hooked several athletes, including Kyle Lindblom, who not only was a fanatic but wanted to be a broadcaster one day.

So he saw the logic in joining Speech.

This "unknown" competitor quickly rose to the ranks and ended up missing the MSHSL State tournament by one spot in Humorous Interpretation.

Kyle also showed his future leadership skills when he signed up for my Cinema Production class. In that ambitious class, students wrote, directed, and filmed a full-length movie production in the span of the 18 week course. The team of Alicia Barott and Kyle Lindblom took on the chore of directing, and with a car full of actors each day, they'd head off to film scenes without adult supervision. Heck, there are adult teachers that couldn't pull that off, so it was a sign he'd one day be able to guide, coach, (and command) others.

After he graduated, I followed his career, and I even invited him to speech to my students prior to our unit on radio broadcast just so they knew where my "performance" standards were at.

So anytime you drive through Mankato, chances are you'll hear one of his creative ads come across the radio.