Alcohol + testosterone = tragedy for 2 Minnesota student athletes
Tragic few seconds change lives of Kolstad, Nelson
Chad Courrier
The Mankato Free Press
Just a week ago, Isaac Kolstad was a recent college graduate, ready to embark on his career after being a standout linebacker on the highly successful Minnesota State football team.
Philip Nelson was trying to revive his college football career at Rutgers, willing to take next season off after transferring from the University of Minnesota, where a once-promising start had gotten off the tracks.
Now, Kolstad is fighting for his life, and Nelson for his freedom, the result of a few seconds of confrontation that appears to be a tragic mix of alcohol, testosterone and bad timing.
Kolstad and Nelson were both good kids, shining examples to youngsters at Mankato East and Mankato West, and were becoming adults who would reap the benefits of talent and hard work.
Kolstad was a three-sport standout for the Cougars who left town for the dream of playing Division I football at North Dakota State.
Though things didn’t work out at Fargo, Kolstad returned to have three stellar seasons at Minnesota State, playing linebacker and being a key piece of one of the best defenses in Division II. He was married and had a daughter, and with a college degree in hand, his future seemed bright.
(Continued here.)
Chad Courrier
The Mankato Free Press
Just a week ago, Isaac Kolstad was a recent college graduate, ready to embark on his career after being a standout linebacker on the highly successful Minnesota State football team.
Philip Nelson was trying to revive his college football career at Rutgers, willing to take next season off after transferring from the University of Minnesota, where a once-promising start had gotten off the tracks.
Now, Kolstad is fighting for his life, and Nelson for his freedom, the result of a few seconds of confrontation that appears to be a tragic mix of alcohol, testosterone and bad timing.
Kolstad and Nelson were both good kids, shining examples to youngsters at Mankato East and Mankato West, and were becoming adults who would reap the benefits of talent and hard work.
Kolstad was a three-sport standout for the Cougars who left town for the dream of playing Division I football at North Dakota State.
Though things didn’t work out at Fargo, Kolstad returned to have three stellar seasons at Minnesota State, playing linebacker and being a key piece of one of the best defenses in Division II. He was married and had a daughter, and with a college degree in hand, his future seemed bright.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
Thanks for posting this online so that no trees were destroyed to profile an incident that would not have gotten the same intention if two football players were not involved.
In the "Tragic few seconds change the lives of Kolstad, Nelson", The Free Press offered nothing new in this "commentary" ... it could have been written for so many other tragedies that occur in communities everyday.
Until the Free Press can actually provide quotes from participants and witnesses, they should refrain from influencing the potential jury pool.
I don't remember The Free Press pushing stories when 3 juveniles and an adult (he was 21) who had been drinking alcoholic beverages, when one of the juveniles, who had been sexually assaulted the previous week, told the others that he wanted to go to the apartment of the perpetrator of that assault to get revenge for the sexual assault.
The four of them attacked the target, kicking and beating him.
From the court filings in which juveniles are identified by initials:
M.H. kicked the victim in the head several times, J.G. struck him with a 2 x 4, and they hit him with a lamp. Appellant also kicked and hit him. After the assault, they left the victim unconscious and went to an area behind a church. M.H. told the others he was not satisfied that he had gotten sufficient revenge and they returned to the apartment where they assaulted the victim again, kicking him in the face, torso, and genitals as he lay on the floor.
The victim nearly died from the beating. He is now in a nursing home where he is relearning how to walk and talk, and is being toilet trained. He does not recognize his family members and remembers nothing about the assault.
The connection between these two stories ... alcohol and young people.
One story gets a "commentary" but both are tragedies.
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