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.
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.”
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…
Source link : https://www.postbulletin.com/sports/prep/kaaleem-reiland-will-take-his-football-talents-to-minnesota-duluth
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Publish date : 2025-07-11 00:04:00
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