Mountain Lake rallies for Tim Kirk, head football coach battling cancer

MOUNTAIN LAKE, MINN. – High school football players wearing wristbands with the initials TK sprinted against gusts of wind sweeping across the prairie.

Coach Tim Kirk, hands on hips, watched from the sidelines, dictating practice for his Mountain Lake Wolverines, just as he has for the past 21 years.

On August 8, just days before the football teams could begin practice, Kirk was diagnosed with Stage 4 gallbladder cancer following a biopsy that followed testing over the summer. This year will be his final season as head coach.

The shocking news spread quickly throughout Mountain Lake, a close-knit rural town of about 1,900 residents nearly 50 miles southwest of Mankato. Kirk, a 56-year-old teacher at Mountain Lake, taught generations of students in the city for 25 years and led his nine-player football team to the 2019 state championship.

“The diagnosis was pretty devastating for a lot of people,” said Travis Smith, who was holding a fundraiser for Kirk at a local bar and grill.

Two days after the diagnosis, Kirk was at his son's wedding in Wisconsin. Carter Kirk, 29, remembered his father's speech and congratulated him. His father told him to be better than ever. But then his father, who wasn't exactly known for his emotions, stopped speaking and began to sob.

The next day, Kirk told everyone about his diagnosis and how the cancer had spread from his gallbladder to his liver and stomach. He was told the disease was incurable.

“It doesn’t really feel real,” Carter Kirk said. “You know, I hate just thinking about life without him.”