Video: Robbie Grimsley
Hutchinson youth football requires players to rotate positions, so Robbie Grimsley took his turn crouching in a three-point stance on the offensive line.
First off the ball on every snap, Grimsley found himself repeatedly whistled for a false start by referees who assumed no player could be so quick.
“We found the tape and watched it,” Grimsley said. “The ball moves every time.”
Speed and quickness remained hallmarks of Grimsley’s game as he became Hutchinson’s best player in a decade. He broke long runs and scored touchdowns in bulk. And he made plays elsewhere, from delivering crunching tackles from his safety spot to putting the special in the Tigers’ special teams with electrifying punt and kick returns.
He took more than defenders for a ride. Grimsley started as a freshman and spurred Hutchinson’s four-season run featuring a 46-2 record, 37-game winning streak and two Class 4A state championships. As a senior this season, Grimsley rushed for 1,668 yards on 155 carries — a 10.7 yard average — and scored 33 touchdowns despite limited second-half action in routs.
A complete and explosive football player, Grimsley is the Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year.
“He’s by far the best all-around football player in this state,” DeLaSalle coach Sean McMenomy said. “No one is in the same ballpark.”
The Islanders ended Hutchinson’s run with a 35-14 victory in the state semifinals last weekend. Grimsley, McMenomy said, occupied “95 percent of the game plan. You take him out as much as you can from the equation and you’ve got a chance.”
Grimsley still scored both Tigers touchdowns, forced a fumble and blocked an extra point.
“He had a solid game,” Hutchinson coach Andy Rostberg said. “He took it hard but he was classy as always.”
Playing football in Hutchinson, located 60 miles west of Minneapolis, made him a football model for youngsters. Grimsley’s No. 5 jersey was the choice attire for kids playing football in back yards or behind the stadium. He sat with teammates after games, signing team posters for a line of fans that ran out of the gymnasium.
“This town is football through and through,” said Grimsley, whose locker was adorned last week with a sign reading “One Town. One Team. One Dream.’’
“It’s special to have all these kids look up to you,” he said.
Born in Stockton, Calif., Grimsley came to Hutchinson after a brief stint in Glencoe. As a wide-eyed Hutchinson youth football player, Grimsley went to the Metrodome with his father, Robert, to watch Nathan Swift and the Tigers play in the 2003 Prep Bowl. Swift earned the same player of the year honor and went on to play at Nebraska.
Rostberg coached both players and found little separating their skill sets.
“Nathan was taller and was a more of a long-strider as a runner but the results are almost identical,” Rostberg said. “Both of them are lightning in a bottle. They commanded the same attention from opponents.”
Hutchinson, a member of the metro-affiliated Wright County Conference, emerged as more than just a Class 4A power. Some football observers thought of the Tigers as equal to many Class 6A programs. And why not? Totino-Grace, with a 4A enrollment, advanced to the 6A Prep Bowl. DeLaSalle defeated Edina and Becker took Minnetonka to the brink in a one-point loss.
As a player, Grimsley, 6 feet and 187 pounds, has proved himself among the best regardless of class. He verbally committed to play at North Dakota State. He ran against 2A competition in the state track and field meet and earned all-state honors twice in the 100-meter dash. And he is one of 10 Mr. Football finalists.
“He’s one of those guys that if you wrote a list of how many ways they affect a game, it’d be a pretty long list,” Rostberg said.
David La Vaque • 612-673-7574