Jul. 10—SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — Kaaleem Reiland would have never envisioned this.
Not in his earliest days, when the Kingsland senior star football player was living in homeless shelters and drug houses with his two siblings, older sister Chantle and younger brother KD, as well as his birth parents, often one of them at a time.
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Back then, he was just trying to survive to get through the day.
But now look. On Wednesday, the 5-foot-8, 195-pound Reiland made a verbal commitment to attend school and play football at Division II University of Minnesota Duluth.
It comes six years after Chantle, KD and Kaaleem were adopted by Holly and Dan Reiland, farmers who reside in Spring Valley. And it came after six years of also being raised by a Spring Valley community that has come to embrace Kaaleem and his siblings, and vice versa.
Now, Kaaleem is ready to take the next step. And as he reflects on it, he can hardly believe it.
“I never imagined this,” Reiland said. “I wasn’t the most focused on sports when I was young. I never imagined being in the place I am now and having this opportunity.”
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To say that Reiland has worked it — especially the football part — would be an understatement.
“Kaaleem has only missed a handful of days of weight lifting since I first had him in eighth grade,” Kingsland football coach Matt Kolling said. “And we do it three days a week, year-round. He also goes up to TPC (in Stewartville) to train and other places.”
Those workouts (which now have him bench pressing a breathtaking 315 pounds), speed training, plenty of natural talent and overflowing passion for football all led him to where he is now, having accepted a football scholarship to play at perennial power Duluth.
Since his freshman year, Reiland has been the starting quarterback at Kingsland. At just 5-8, he looked more like a running back, which is exactly what he’s slotted for at Duluth.
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Reiland will go from being one of the top runners/throwers that Kingsland has ever had, to simply a runner with the Bulldogs. He seems perfectly equipped for it, blessed with what Kingsland coach Matt Kolling calls “loose hips,” 4.47 speed in the 40-yard dash and ample upper- and lower-body strength.
And don’t forget that passion. Reiland lives for football Friday nights, which will soon turn into football Saturday afternoons, playing in the heavyweight Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
“The best way to say it is that football is everything to me,” said Reiland, who in three years has rushed for 2,549 yards and 35 touchdowns, and passed for 2,775 yards and 32 touchdowns. “It has been my escape, a place where I could just go out and perform. You’ve got to love it. It’s one place you can hit people for free and not get fined. The feeling of stepping onto the field on a Friday or Saturday night, and you’ve got the crowd there and you’ve worked all summer for it and you hear the referee blow his whistle and the lights are on. It’s just that feeling that you get.”
Kolling believes that Reiland, who has led his Kingsland teams to a 25-9 record the last three years, will be a prime fit at Duluth and the Division II level.
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He says he has all the stuff to make it work.
“Kaaleem cares a lot about playing at the college level,” Kolling said. “To do it at this level, you need the passion, and he definitely has that. He loves the sport and everything that goes with it. He’s also got loose hips and moves really well. I’m excited to see him playing a position he should be playing. He always says, ‘Coach, I want to play running back.’ “
Reiland is going to have to wait one more year for that. There is still one more high school season to get through. Reiland has been way too good directing the show at quarterback to make any change now.
He’ll get his chance soon enough, in Duluth.
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Reiland can’t wait.
“They didn’t lose too many games last year (7-4 overall),” said Reiland, who was also recruited by fellow NSIC school Concordia University, St. Paul, but was won over by Duluth after taking a pack of trips there for football visits and camps. “Duluth is a special place, and they take pride in building something special. I feel ready to pad up right now and go to work.”
