Esko’s Reinertsen Announces College Decision

May 14, 2012

Wes Vork-NSO

Esko’s multi-sport and multi-talented athlete Max Reinertsen announced his much awaited college decision. Reinertsen has selected Carnegie Mellon as his college of choice to continue his academic and athletic careers.

Carnegie Mellon University is a global research university located in Pittsburg Pennsylvania that consistently ranks amongst the world’s top academic universities. The university also sports 17 different Division III level athletic teams including football.

Reinertsen made his visit to the campus last winter, but held off making his decision until after he heard from West Point on his acceptance to the Military Academy. “It was a little bit of a disappointment (not getting selected), they said I could still get a call between now and July 3, but it most likely isn’t going to happen. It would have been a lot of fun to go to such a high academic place like that and play football at the division I level.”

Reinertsen was quick to add however, “Carnegie sure isn’t a bad second choice. I was trying to go more for the academics in my selection, I had options of other (higher level) schools for athletics and had some D-1 interest early on, but I really wanted to focus on the academic part.”

The four sport letter winner did not let participating in multiple sports interfere with his academic accomplishments however, where he currently sports a 3.94 grade point average. He plans on majoring in business administration and could pick up a double major as well. “I plan on Business Administration and I might double major in Computer Science because they have the top rated computer science program in the world; so that would be pretty cool,” stated Reinertsen.

Reinertsen athletic plans are to play football for the Tartans, who began their football program in 1906, and recently celebrated the team’s 500th win in November of 2011. The Tartans currently play in the University Athletic Association and will move to the Presidents Athletic Conference in 2014. According to Reinertsen, the program has averaged only three losses per year over the past 30 years.

A quarterback in high school, Reinertsen plans to switch to running back in college. “I’m primarily going to play running back because they just got the Oklahoma Gatorade player of the year, he just committed last week, so that’s exciting. He plays quarterback also and I did a lot of running in high school, so that will be fun to switch things up a bit.” Reinertsen explained.

Doing a lot of running in high school is kind of an understatement for Reinertsen. A three year starter at quarterback with a 4.60 40 time was a double threat quarterback who could pass or run equally well. In a 63-49 win over Deer River in October of 2012, Reinertsen ran for seven touchdowns and passed for another, totaling eight total touchdowns in a single game. The game tied or set several MSHSL records.

Reinertsen made multi tasking the norm during his high school career. In the winter he was a captain on the hockey team, where he was a defenseman and still found time to enthusiastically lead the student section in cheering on the basketball teams. In the spring he participates in both baseball and track & field. Recently the boys track team won the Section 7A true team title where Reinertsen broke his own school record in the triple jump with a leap of 45’-3”.

Reinertsen did not rule out maintaining the hectic lifestyle and taking on a second sport in college. “Hopefully if all goes well and I’m keeping up in school I will run track as well. My 45-3 in the triple jump would be a school record there as well, so track would be a lot of fun”

One of the things that Reinertsen emphasized the most was how the teachers, administrators, and coaches at Esko High School all worked together to allow him and others to participate in multiple events at the school; which he believed helped enormously in preparing him for college.

“It has been unreal at Esko, being able to do all the things I have. I don’t think there is another school where I would have been able to do multiple sports in the same season and keep up academically, as well as take on other things. (Esko High School Principal) Mr. Hexum has been unbelievably helpful in not just allowing us to be multiple sport athletes, but helping us keep up with different academic things and manage time to make it all work.”

Reinertsen went on to explain “I was allowed to be class president and with a lot of schools, lunch meetings are just that, you show up then and you do your one thing. Here they know everyone is so busy they try to work it out so you can do multiple things and get it all in. It has really set me up to be successful at the next level.”

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com