Northern Star: Barnum Football

Barnum is making it's first state tournament appearance since 2012.

BARNUM, Minn.- The 2025 football season will be one to remember for the Barnum Bombers.

After earning the top seed in the section 7A playoffs, the Bombers squared off against Mountain Iron-Buhl in the title game with a trip to the state tournament on the line.

The Bombers rose up to the occasion defeating M-I-B 34 to 8 to earn their first trip to the big dance since 2012.

“When a team with talent combines with a team that works really hard and has a good attitude day in and day out, when those things all connect you have an opportunity for a lot of success,” said Barnum head coach Bob Minkkinen.

But this magical playoff run for the Bombers has been building for multiple seasons.

“In the last five,six years we have had a phenomenal groups of seniors come through the program and help us get to moving in the right direction. Because we have had a couple successful regular seasons the last few years and we talked about everybody is going to give this team their best shot,” said Minkkinen.

But before getting to the top of the Mountain, the Bombers have had to use tough playoff losses as learning moments.

“My Freshman and Sophomore year I played with my brother and we made it to the section championship but we lost both times. So I always wanted to make it back, and make it to state and my junior year we missed out we lost in the second round,” said Barnum running back Julian Beckstrand.

Now, it’s win or go home for Barnum. To make some noise in the tournament they understand that:

“Pressures a privilege, so just kind of take pride in the pressure that we put on ourselves,” said Minkkinen.

“A lot of people thought that Barnum was going to go down a little bit and we kind of took that as so what. Lets make it our own culture we know we can get wins and we know we can play good. So, when not just give it everything that we got,” said Beckstrand.

Barnum will face Breckenridge in the quarterfinals on Friday. Kickoff is at 7 PM at Morris High School.