Written By Ben Davis (Mounds View High School)
The name Kauls carries a lot of weight at Mounds View High School.
Former boys basketball coach Zig Kauls had one of the longest and most successful runs as a high school coach in Minnesota history. His son, Michael, was a beloved social studies teacher at Mounds View. Zig retired in 2012, and Michael left teaching in 2015, but the Kauls family is still a major part of Mounds View, in the form of junior Captain and grand-nephew of Zig, Brendan Kauls.
“When my grandpa and his brothers first came to America, they played basketball for Forest Lake. As the years went on, my grandpa ran track and played basketball at the U of M, and Zig really got into coaching,” Brendan said. “After my grandpa was done playing, he passed basketball down to my aunts and my dad.”
Brendan’s father took this family tradition to heart. He played college ball at Luther College in Iowa, and due to his second generation status, he was able to play for the Latvian national basketball team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
This basketball tradition and pedigree is now passed down to Brendan, who relies on hard work and self confidence to block out the pressure that comes with being a collegiate prospect, not to mention keeping up with the expectations set by his family and Mounds View basketball fans every time he steps on the court.
“Of course you’re going to have the people who say ‘Oh, you just got here because your name is on the court. Oh, you just got here because you’re great uncle was a great coach here,’” Brendan said. “I want to prove to them that I desire to be here, that I deserve to be here, that I worked hard for what I got.”
Brendan’s goals for this year are simple, clear and in line with those of his head coach Dave Leiser. The team has to be better than last year, when it was 12-16. Brendan believes that to achieve this target, he should lead the team in scoring, but team success still comes first. It’s his team-first attitude, combined with his maturity as a player, that got Brendan voted captain in his junior season.
Brendan’s time as captain marks the first time a junior was selected during Leiser’s tenure as coach, but he doesn’t lack any leadership.
Brendan’s role as a captain embodies the tone Mounds View basketball has always tried to set — “Team First.”
“Brendan received quite a bit of playing time last year, relatively speaking, so he’s been on the court before, more so than some of our senior captains,” Leiser said.
Brendan’s extra playing time, work ethic and physical talents have made him a viable captain as a junior, but he is still a junior, and many seniors may feel more entitled to their captainship than their junior counterparts. Mounds View’s captains don’t have this issue, though, as all the players treat each other as equals.
“The seniors are really nice. They treat me with respect as a captain, because they saw how much work I put in and how much I care about the team,” Brendan said. “It’s not like if I say something to the captains they won’t listen. They listen to me and I listen to them.”
Brendan’s role as a captain embodies the tone Mounds View basketball has always tried to set — “Team First.” For the team, this means working hard to become a more cohesive unit every day, while ignoring any hype surrounding them.
Leiser put it best: “This team really hasn’t had a big divide between juniors and seniors. They all get along and they all seem to like each other, so they’re just all teammates.”
