Valley City, N.D. – In 2005, Mike Hollett was part of conference co-champion football team at Valley City State that went 7-3 during the season and 6-1 in conference play. That team was inducted into the Viking Hall of Fame in 2023.

Fast forward 21 years, Hollett returns to Valley City with his wife, Brendy, who also attended VCSU, and two of his sons, David and Jonny. This was not just a family vacation for the Holletts, it was a chance for Mike to show his sons where he played football and have a chance for them to learn from the very men he learned from, Dennis McCulloch and Gregg Horner and the Viking staff.

Not only did Mike bring his two sons, but he also brought several other young men. Members of the high school football team he coaches in his hometown of North Pole, Alaska. Hollett just wrapped up his sixth year as the head coach of the Patriots.

The Patriots came 2,743 miles to learn about football and life at the college that Mike played at for four years and spent one year as a student assistant. "Coach Mac made the trip up to come talk to me about playing football down here about 20 years ago, so I figured I owed him one," Hollett said when asked why he brought his team to Valley City for the 11-man Team Camp. Hollett adds, "I had a great time down here when I played from 2004 to 2008, and I had a season when I was a coach here."

Why Valley City, why bring a team 2700 miles, nearly 12 hours of travel time counting planes, layovers, and car time from Minneapolis to practice and play football? "Some of these kids want to play college football and when you go to these other camps, (on college campuses), they are not really getting any looks. They (the school the camp is at) already kinda know who they are recruiting. So, I was looking around, looking for a state that actually recruits our kids, and Valley has recruited Alaskan kids for three decades, four decades plus. So, it made sense to come down here."

One thing that Hollett wanted to let the parents of his players know, when they come to Valley City, they will be in good hands. "When my football players were asking about coming down here, I told the parents these coaches (Coach McCulloch and Coach Horner) are going to take care of them. They will make sure they are well coached; they are part of a good group down here. So, bringing kids down here is an opportunity to get coached by good humans. You know, they helped me be a better man so it's good for them (the players) to be around them a little bit and learn some life lessons, not just football."

Hollett said his memory is not that good, but when he walked onto the field at Lokken Stadium, the memories came flooding back. "Seeing people I haven't seen in 20 years. It's been really good," Hollett said. "This (the camp) will help us get better. Hopefully competitive enough, physical enough to help our team and the other teams get better."

Hollett youngest son, Jonny is a freshman. Bringing him along was something out of the ordinary for Hollett. "I usually don't take freshman on these trips, but we were coming down, might as well bring the who family." Hollett adds, "my wife is down here, she graduated from VCSU a few years after I did. We had our first kid in the married student housing; you know the whole thing. So, it turned into a family trip as well."

When asked what his first thought about the new facility was when he saw it, Hollett said, "I was trying to figure out how to bring it back to Alaska, that was my first thought. I would love to have one of those in North Pole, it's pretty special." He continued, "I was actually looking at it and thinking all my practice time is where that field is currently at. I was thinking, all those footprints, all those cleat marks are bulldozed over for the new era. That's time, all you have left are the memories of what was. You know time marches forward, you know, I'm grateful for those memories. That's s sweet spot and a great thing for Valley to have and a great recruiting tool." Hollett says he is not only impressed by how campus has changed, but Valley City as a whole. "I'm really impressed by how the community has built up just in general. Turf field out there (as he points to Lokken Stadium), the Wellness Center that they have there. Driving around this community, it's good to see there has been an investment into it."

Hollett says he and his wife have told their children about Valley City and the years they spent here. Now, he says, they can put faces to the names and the stories. "Now when we tell stories they have a place they can put into their mind and kind of see it, visualize where mom and dad were before they came along." He adds about the camp, "Up in Alaska we don't have college football. This gives them a good opportunity to see what it looks like. My son who is a senior, will have some choices to make. If I stay in a dorm at any small school, this is what it is like. This is what the facilities are like, so it is really cool that Valley has invested into it and putting on a good show I guess for these kids, making it a place that kids want to be." Valley City State has two players from North Pole who were on the roster in 2025 and played for Hollett, Caiden Olson an offensive lineman and Devin Cooper-Jackson a wide receiver. And another player coming down next year in Michael Putnam, a wide receiver. Hollett adds a side note to Putnam's story, "his sister went here and played Volleyball and graduated from here. So, that is a cool little story too."

The 11-Man Camp wraps up Thursday, June 11^th with a couple of scrimmages. Valley City State hosted a 9-man Team camp last week. If you want to learn more about camps, put on by Valley City State, just visit our camps page for more information.