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Legends take years to become iconic. Icons take years to become legendary. Jim Walsh did it in 6.
Walsh, Defensive Coordinator for the St. Paul Pioneers was honored on Saturday during halftime of the St. Paul Pioneers game versus the Racine Raiders. His number 90 jersey has been officially retired.Jim, an original Pioneer, has been a player, D-Line coach and now Defensive Coordinator serving in his 8th season with the P-Unit. In 2005, Jim took a year off, only to return in 2006 and help win the team’s 3rd league championship. This was a bittersweet day for Walsh as it mark the one year anniversary of the passing of his mother, a long time Pioneer volunteer.
Owner and fellow original Pioneer George Hall said: ” As long as I’m the owner and if anyone owns this team after me, we will make sure that no one will ever wear #90 again” The rain-soaked game gave us a break for this special moment as players stayed on the sideline to witness this event. After which some players came up to shake his hand before heading off to the locker room. Jim Walsh was an outstanding Defensive End for the then Minneapolis Lumberjacks and St. Paul Pioneers.
When founder Adam Gold (Jim’s brother in law) decided to start a new team, it was Jim who gave the team its name. Now Jim is a Pioneer on so many levels.
WE LOVE YOU JIM!!!!
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Sundays in September usually mean sitting in front of the TV watching Football. In 2008, Sundays in St. Paul usually mean the Pioneers are playing. Like all ball clubs, someone made the decision to start it up. As for the Pioneers, it all started with Adam Gold.
The history page on this site gives you the story on how Mr. Gold started something real special. During halftime of the Pioneers’ final regular season game of 2008, Shannon Gold, Adam’s wife, and their 2 sons joined current Pioneers owner George Hall at the 50 yard line and surprised Adam (who made the trip from Mason City, Iowa) with a special presentation.Earlier in the season, the Pioneers retired their very first number, that of Adam’s brother in law and current Pioneer Defensive Coordinator Jim Walsh. It was fitting that Adam’s number was retired and honored as one of the first 2 players in the Pioneers Hall of Fame. While waiting for the halftime whistle to blow, Shannon Gold informed Mr. Hall that she was the person who came up with the color scheme that has yet to be changed throughout the various Pioneer owners.
After the 2001 season with another team, Adam and a select few got together and came up with a plan that still is paying dividends in competitive play to this day.
#8 will always be a part of Minnesota football history.
Thank you for starting this family.
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They joined the team together, young players who played together at Augsburg College. One was the fleet receiver from Chicago, the one who could beat almost any defense down the field. The other was the unblockable defensive lineman from Milwaukee, the guy who almost toyed with guards and tackles.
They were among the first Pioneers team founder Adam Gold approached to help build his new St. Paul squad back in 2002. They would be building blocks for a winner, he knew.But little did he, or anyone else, know that Damien Rochon-Washington and Guillaume Paek would lay the foundation for a national powerhouse and a local dynasty that would be defined as one of the best semi-pro teams of the decade. Together, they lent their talents to the St. Paul Pioneers for 11 seasons, leading their teammates in words and in deeds.
Washington, over time, would transform from the deep threat to the guy who could be counted on to get the key first down… to take the best hits a defense could deliver and bounce right back up. He became a vocal force, prodding coaches and teammates to bring their best. Expecting no less from himself.
Paek, who became a teacher and a leader of young men, dominated inside early. Became an unstoppable force at linebacker for a while and transitioned to the end of the line late in his career, the man his coaches could count on to do whatever was needed to stop the other team in its tracks.
They were known, all along, as close friends and as brothers. Over time, they taught their teammates the value of friendship, the priceless nature of family. They are the last of the original Pioneers to play, they played nearly every down of every Pioneers season – the many that ended in championships and the few that did not.
We honor these men, these builders, these football players and brothers, with the greatest honor we can give. We retire their numbers – 1 and 92 – never to be worn by another St. Paul Pioneer, in recognition of all they have done, the sacrifices they have made, the loyalty they have shown.
For their brotherhood.Thank you Guillaume Paek and Damien Rochon Washington…. We will always miss you on the field, but we will always hold you in our hearts for leading the way.
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Since the team was founded in 2002, the St. Paul Pioneers football club has had six head coaches. Several enjoyed success. A few even won championships.
Only one won a National Championship. In fact, he won three. Mark Heiser.
Those crowns, along with eight league titles, a national runner-up finish and a regional crown, make Heiser the winningest coach in Pioneers history.
It’s a record without peer. It’s a record worthy of recognition.And now, it’s a record worthy of the St. Paul Pioneers Hall of Fame.For his on-field accomplishments, as well as his continued work and dedication behind the scenes, the St. Paul Pioneers are inducting the team’s longest-serving and most successful head coach into its hall of Fame at halftime of the season’s first home game May 14.
Heiser, currently president of the Pioneers Board of Directors, came to the Pioneers in 2006. For two seasons, he served as defensive coordinator under brother and former head coach Nate Heiser. Then, in 2008, Mark Heiser took the helm. That season would see the Pioneers ascend to a Midwest regional title and the Elite Eight of the North American Football League.
The next season would be even better. St. Paul would finish the season 15-1,winning games from Des Moines, Iowa, to central South Dakota, from Bellingham, Wash., to a final-second title game victory in Miami, Fla. Heiser’s squad captured the 2009 North American Football League National Championship, defeating the favored Nashville Bulldogs.
In 2010, the Pioneers moved to the Northern Elite Football League. Yet Heiser and the Pioneers, with rosters that changed substantially every year, kept winning championships. Along the way, St. Paul took two more national titles, winning bowl games in Daytona, Fla., after the 2012 and 2014 seasons. The 2012 squad did not lose a game all year.
Through it all, Heiser was a high school head football coach – first at St. Paul Academy, then at Minneapolis Patrick Henry. He and his wife Cori are parents to three young sons.
Damien Rochon Washington, an all-star wide receiver for many of those championship teams, is now the Pioneers head coach. But Heiser continues his work with the rest of the team’s board to keep Minnesota’s longest-running and most successful amateur football team among the nation’s elite.
For all of that, the St. Paul Pioneers are proud to welcome Mark Heiser to the team’s Hall of Fame.